I often stay in indigo hotels as a usually very good experience with nice rooms, good food and excellent service. It’s usually worth the higher price for a stay. However this stay fell far short.
On arrival I was informed that they would upgrade my room to a “suite” for me (great!). However this turned out to be a basement room. I asked if there were any windows or natural light and was assured there were.
On receiving the room number, I discovered it was in the sub-basement. 2 floors below ground. No chance of natural light there. Apparently there were no other rooms available, despite booking well in advance.
I also checked that the room was at least quiet. It was Sunday evening and I had an early start for work. I was assured it was very nice and quiet.
On finding the room (2 levels below ground), I found it was right next to the gym. A 24 hour gym. What I initially thought was the “doof-doof-doof” of loud music with a subwoofer turned out to be the heavy running footsteps on a treadmill. Just the otherside of the headboard of the bed.
Apparently people really do feel like going for a run on the treadmills at the gym at 1am, 2am, 2:35am, 3:30am, 4:00am, 4:23 am etc I gave up trying to sleep at 05:10am. Night 2 was no better.
Then we come to the room. Bland, utilitarian, cold lighting, it actually did feel like a bunker. I’m quite sure I would have survived an initial nuclear strike. Sadly, so would the gym. So I’d be alive, but sleep deprived.
Someone had also evidently forgotten to actually clean the room. Maybe they’d given it a quick glance of a vacuum and a cloth, but not long enough for it to actually have cleaned anything. There was even great big bits of tape stuck all over the back of the sofa (the only thing that apparently made it a “suite”).
On checking out (a relief after another night of constant “ doof-doof-doof-doof-doof-doof-doof-doof“), the inevitable question of “how was your stay?” Was asked, to which I gave a truthful but polite reply of “sadly, pretty bloody awful, I’m afraid”, and explained why. Which was met with “oh, I’m sorry about that. I’ll pass that on to my manager”.
Yep, that was it. Thanks, I’m so reassured that my feedback was taken on board. When asked “I hope you’ll stay with us again?”, the only truthful answer was “I love staying at Hotel Indigo, but after this experience, I don’t think this particular hotel would be my first choice in future.”
It’s the end of the week, having checked out early on Tuesday morning. No contact from the hotel, so I guess that answers that provides the reassurance of how much the customer experience has been taken on board.
Update: After asking for this feedback, IHG/Hotel Indigo's moderators declined to show this review on their website.
Platinum Elite Member.