Holiday Inn Hemel Hempstead M1, Jct. 8, an IHG Hotel

We had 2 interconnected rooms for our grandchildren which worked very well. They loved the hotel especially the swimming pool and we were impressed by the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff

Booked room with a baby and end up with sofa bed and uncomfortable sofa bed mattress. Room is average. I had to pay £14 for car park for 2 nights !!!! RIP off .

This is a nice, clean and well kept hotel with great access and location. The staff are friendly and helpful and it has lots of amenities. Our family room was huge and everything worked well. The only downside for me was that breakfast was a shambles and very disorganised. No cutlery on tables, coffee machines not working etc. We could have just turned up at the peak moment and others may have had no issues at all. As I say, brilliant hotel otherwise.

Really happy with our stay. Very family friendly. Good to have the pool and great location for us

Good location, easy check in, great food, good facilities. What I didn’t like was kids running down the hallways and corridors, as I was hoping for early night but it was not quiet. It all stopped ~22.30 so not that bad, but there was a lot of excitement going on. Also the car park fee is not included in your stay and you need to pay separately. But overall good experience and I’ll be happy to stay there again.

Excellent hotel all round. Friendly helpful staff, great amenities on offer at the hotel and excellent comfortable rooms. I use this hotel for work occasionally so when I knew I was bringing the family down to Hemel it was the first place I looked at. Doesn't disappoint. Will be staying here again

A very welcoming hotel polite friendly helpful staff very clean and tidy the room was perfect I could not find any faults the breakfast had a wide range to choose from and the staff were very helpful in the restaurant. The bar was fully stocked and reasonably priced the bar staff were polite and helpful. Truly recommend this accommodation to friends and family

Really rather disappointed. Check was quick however we were unable to pay cash on arrival so gave a card for prepayment of the room, £5 parking and room service. Entering the room it smelt heavily of cigarettes, musty smoke smell. It was late and we’re told all rooms were non smoking and all the same so stuck it out. The temperature of the room was insanely warm all night long, none of the windows would open and the air on was only set for heat only. It was like a furnace all night and with the musty smoky smell just not great at all. Room service we ordered as soon as we got into the room, it took around 45 mins this was around 9:30pm, burger and chips and a Caesar salad, side of fries & kids free Mac & cheese. The fries on both were stone cold, like they’d been in a fridge. And we were not presented with an invoice to sign of the value of the room service nor given a receipt, so had no idea what it had cost. I advised the waitress the fries were cold and overall quality not great and was told management would be informed, we heard nothing more and went to sleep. Kids eat free and only one of us adults had breakfast the following morning however we have now since checking out been charged for 2 adults. Breakfast was nice, nice setting and a variety for myself and my daughter. Upon check out we a gentleman addressed us asking how our stay was, I reiterated all of this and was told this is disappointing and he would look into those matters and there was nothing to pay

The massive pro of this property and reason for so many customer bookings is it’s close vicinity to Warner Bros. studio. This, coupled with the fact the hotel had a pool, were our primary reasons for booking. However, the hotel is not brilliant. Family rooms are small and the sofa beds feature insanely thin mattresses. My 5 and 9 year olds were very uncomfortable all night. The pool and gym facilities are a real bonus to the hotel but be mindful that you still need to book an hour slot to attend, so if you want to swim upon check in and before dinner, you need to visit the Health Suite upon arrival to reserve a time. I’d urge any guests to not use the restaurant for an evening meal. £17 for a chicken Caesar salad, which was the saddest offering of little gem, croutons and a measly portion of grilled halloumi, £17 for a nourish bowl which was as limited in its offering and nothing like a nourish bowl you might expect from other chain restaurants. Whilst the offer ‘kids eat free’ is a real bonus, be mindful that portion sizes are significantly smaller than what you might be used to at Pizza Express or alike. My kids are fairly young and lighter appetites but I know many of their friends would expect twice the serving size. Beware bar prices; the daylight robbery of being served a glass of UHT apple juice and being charged £5! The buffet breakfast is the usual offering. Staffing appeared light, those working we’re doing their best to cover all areas but service poor.

We were met with rather abrupt & 'snooty' reception staff (male) who went through our booking at break-neck speed. Room was on ground floor; previous occupants bottles/pint glasses left outside in corridor. Our child's bed was already made up but he said it was desperately uncomfortable! Went to dinner; double-checked it was already included (yes). Waited 30+mins to be served, 50mins by time food came. Staff running arund but not much actually getting done & with only around 20 covers to take care of: extremely disappointing. Food was lukewarm at best, food not cooked fully, child was unable to eat his. When made complaints, young lady was apologetic & advised us to go to reception. Same staff from earlier checked our room# & said: As you've booked through "hotels.com" (hushed voice) you'll have to complain to them & they'll pass it to us! I was flabbergasted at such a disrespectful & lax attitude! We had a terrible night's sleep as pillows were terrible & staff were very noisy early in the morning with bins outside. The leisure/pool staff were FANTASTIC - only redeeming feature of this hotel! The pool is EXTREMELY dated; mould & mildew in parts & in need of reinvestment. When we checked out at 10.30am, we were told everything was 'fine' & we didn't need to do anything. Stayed in this chain before & NEVER experienced such a disgusting lack of care whilst portraying an air of arrogance. Me & my family will be sure to NEVER dare to grace the Holiday Inn chain with our poverty!