Holiday Inn Express Liverpool John Lennon Airport

I have previously stayed in two other Express by Holiday Inn hotels and I am afraid to say that the Liverpool Airport one does not live up to the Stansted and the Luton ones.

I booked a double room with a sofa bed, for one night, for three people as we had a very early flight from Liverpool Airport the following day.

As with the other two Express by Holiday Inns, I was not happy that the reception staff did not ask to see ID upon check-in. Nor did they ask us for our car numberplate, which was parked all night in their car park. I work for a Spanish hotel chain, and we always ask for the passports of all our guests. I could have been anybody sigining in on my behalf (plus, the arrival list is clearly visible on the TOP of the reception desk... just anybody can see it). I am afraid that due to the current problem of ID fraud in the UK, the Holiday Inn really need to tighten up their check-in proceedure.

The hotel itself is OK. Clean and new. The lounge / bar area is stylish and modern, with a retro twist. There are two large plasma TV's, showing the news and sport. I am sorry to say that the drinks ARE VERY EXPENSIVE. Especially the wine!!!. What a rip off!.

Breakfast was included and was OK. Muffins, cereal (including healthy options such as muesli), toast, cheese, chocolate spread, croissants, etc. Tea / Coffee / Hot Chocolate. It was all fine. Exactly what I had expected.

The bedroom was a bit small. It was me who was sleeping on the sofa bed and please think twice if you are an adult and are thinking about sleeping on one... DON'T!. Do yourself a favour and book another room. The sofa bed is really big and long, but OH MY GOD, sooooo UNCOMFORTABLE!. I did not sleep all night and I was more than happy when my alarm clock informed me that it was time to get up and have a shower!. I guess that the sofa bed may be OK for kids and early teens...

This brings me to another thing that really annoyed me... Our room was not made up for 3 people, only for 2. The girl on the reception was kind enough and brought extra bedding and towels to the room, but I am afraid that it is a mistake that made me think that our stay in the hotel had not got off to a great beginning.

You will probably not be able to actually put the sofa bed up on your own, ask reception. It's worse than flat pack furniture.

You get Dove hand soap and Lux shower gel as standard. The bathroom was clean, but the water temperature could have been a bit hotter.

There was a leak in the ceiling virtually outside our room, next to the lifts. There was a bucket on the floor, collecting the dripping water. I have to say, that it had been raining all day.

Somebody had told us that it was a 10 min walk to the airport. It isn't. Try about 40 min and that's about right. A taxi to the centre of Liverpool will cost about 13 pounds.

If you have got your car in their car park, remember to ask reception for the password to get out of it!.

Another thing that always bugs me, are employees who are not wearing name badges. Maybe they were all new staff or something, but virtually none had their name badges on.

And finally, you can sign up for your Priority Club Card on Holiday Inn website. I'm told that it's worth it, however I'm not really sure what benefits you get!.

I'm sure that I'll be back to this Holiday Inn, as it's so handy for the airport.

We stayed here with Junior Chucklers for 1 night before going to the Liverpool v Bolton game. A taxi in from the airport was less then a fiver but don't expect much thanks as the taxi has to rejoin a rank of more than 30 cars before its next fare!!

Our room was ready on arrival at midday which was a great bonus. Nice modern room with all the expected amenities.

Grabbed the bus a couple of hundred yards away in to the city centre for the day....cheap, easy and convenient.

The Albert Dock 'Duck Tour' is recommended, as are the bars in the dock itself. We followed that by a superb meal in Jumbo City, Chinatown, which was only a short taxi ride away.

There was a good crowd in the hotel on the Saturday night....only criticism being they ran out of several drinks during the evening.

Breakfast was functional - not over elaborate - it filled a hole!!!

Checkout was easy and all the staff were friendly. They dropped me round to the airport to collect our hire car.

Would recommend for an overnight stay.

Stayed at this hotel for a night as I needed to take an early flight from Liverpool Airport. On arrival at the airport, I decided to take a taxi directly to the hotel instead of using my mobile phone to call for a taxi. The taxi ride costed slightly about 5 pounds as the driver had to charge 1 pound more for entering the airport's waiting area (this is what Liverpool Airport charges taxi drivers for waiting there). It was the right decision as on arrival at the hotel, I was told by the receptionist that even if I had called, there would have been no shuttle bus available as there was no driver. She said that she could not drive. It seems that the reception staff double-up as waiters at the hotel's restaurant as well as driver for the shuttle bus. So, for those of you expecting the free shuttle service, please take note of this. I was also told that the shuttle bus would not be available the next morning (again for the same reason of not having someone who can drive on duty). So, I had the reception staff book me a taxi for 5.15 in the morning. Guess what? By 5.20 am, no taxi was in sight. Had the reception call the taxi company and they said the taxi would be there in 2 mins. but by 5.35 am, no taxi turned up. By then, I was getting nervous. Luckily, one of the staff working inside the office (not at the reception desk) at that time could drive and took me to the airport. On the whole, the hotel is nice and clean and the most of the staff are friendly and helpful (except the lady who checked me in and who told me that there would be no driver for the shuttle bus the next morning).

We needed to be at John Lennon Airport by 5.00am for an early flight.

The hotel is comfortable and clean and we had a relaxing evening and good night's sleep before our early start.

The bar/restaurant is open-plan and the menu was a bit limited, but the meal was very acceptable after a long journey.

Friendly and helpful staff. Shuttle bus to airport, and we were able to park our car for an extra two nights until our return for a modest charge.

We didn;t have breakfast as it was too early but had a cup of tea in our room to get us on our way.

I would recommend this hotel as good for overnight stays before or after flights at Liverpool airport.

We stayed at this hotel the night before an early morning flight. The hotel is clean and pleasant though, as you would expect for the price, fairly basic. We booked it with that in mind so had no problem with hotel itself.

We arrived at the airport at 8.15pm and rang for courtesy coach. We were told it would take 15 - 20 mins because they had to take account of the traffic. We chose to take a taxi which took approximately 3 mins and it was hard to imagine the journey taking up to 20 mins at that time of night.

Breakfast was available at 4.30am when we checked out though we did not time to have it as we had been told it is served from 6am when we checked in. When I enquired about why this was not explained at check in, in spite of me explaining we would be leaving by 4.30am, the staff appeared irritated and offered nothing more than "did you ask?". So there is a tip - ask for early morning breakfast.

Less than helpful staff let the hotel down.

The room was nice, basic but clean. The staff were a bit arrogant and thought they were better than you. We paid extra for bed and breakfast. . .so we paid an extra £10 for slices of bread, which you have to toast yourself, not exactly a full english which is what i expected for my money. Went down to the "resterant" were there was no one to be seen but drunk rowdy men at the bar and some woman eating her takeway there ?? i wasnt sure weather it was actually a resterant. Its a taxi journey from the airport, although the taxi driver tells you that you can walk that distance, just because it would mean they wouldn't get much money from the job, then after insisting that you cant clearly walk in the rain with big heavy suitcases, as soon as you get out he calls you a [--]. . .bit of a bad experience, think next time i will just pay the £20 extra to go to the posh marriott !

This hotel is 10 minutes bus journey from the Airport. It is more expensive to go via taxi. The 84 bus goes outside the hotel.

The hotel room was very clean with a widescreen TV with the terrestrial channels. The bathroom is clean and very neat the toilet is behind the bathroom door. There were cups and products in the bathroom which were full. There is a bar with Sky TV.

The breakfast was the disappointing part of my visit. There was a good variety of breakfasts ranging from Cereals, Toast, Fruit and Fruit Juices etc. The quality was poor.

The fruit juice is watered down diluted juice and the fruit isn't as fresh as it should be. If you are paying £90 for a night you expect to get a better breakfast. I don't feel this was value for money.

Overall the room was very nice and very quiet from the city. The staff were helpful and very friendly. I enjoyed my stay.

Stayed here in late December 2006. It is almost a brand new hotel so everything is gleaming and new.

Standard Holiday Inn Express rooms, with drink making facilities. Room was clean and well maintained & receptionists friendly. We found there to be no noise from the airport and took 2 mins drive to get to the airport.

I am however going to be checking my bank statements carefully, as we booked on net just a few days before we went, and the blurb said we would be charged then, yet we were then made to pay on our departure. I hope all is well as it is, as the previous review said, ideally located for the airport.