Holiday Inn Express London - Ealing, an IHG Hotel

Bit of a long one but it's worth it so you don't make the same mistake we did. Please note, we booked a 2 night stay for June in September. The Thursday night before we were due to arrive on the Monday, my mum called the actual Holiday Inn via the number provided on the website, to confirm our booking. The man on the other end of the line was ridiculously clueless. He couldn't find our booking despite us giving our reference number and asking multiple times if our name would help find it. No, he said. Seconds later, he asked for our name. He was trying to help us change our room etc. We only wanted to confirm our booking, not change it/cancel. After confirming it finally, we got to the hotel on Monday afternoon, to a confused man in the door. He asked "can I help?" We told him were here to check in. He didn't understand what we meant so we told him we've booked this hotel for 2 nights. To our absolute disbelief, he said "we've been closed since covid." What? After explaining to him that we've booked and confirmed the booking, he said he didn't know what he could do and overall, just clueless. During this interaction, I was looking in the background where the main reception would be to see that it looked as if a refurb was being done/people were gutting the place. At one point a school girl walks past and into the hotel, no one bats an eyelid. So we left the hotel more confused than you can imagine and found a place to sit to call up the booking company we'd used. It was called Agoda. After being on hold for a while, they told us they can offer us a full refund or alternatively find the exact booking specifications in another Holiday Inn. Great. They called us back about an hour later to apologise for the wait and that there was no other availability in a different Holiday Inn. In all fairness, we expected this as Harry Styles was in Wembley all week. That was the reason for our visit. Agoda told us we could have a full refund of our hotel. So now we were in the middle of London, 3 hours away from home, with nowhere to stay for the two nights. I would just like to say this was no fault of Agoda, and they were no trouble to us. But this Holiday Inn is on Google for anyone to book, and is closed, so do not make this mistake. We were so disappointed and angry that these people told us our booking was confirmed or that they were able to let people book in the first place.

Tucked away in front of Ealing studios , on Ealing Green is Expresso Express, yes I have spelled correctly. They do amazing coffee and wonderful snacks and at exceptional prices. The guys are really really friendly. Definitely we'll worth a visit. Also a really nice place to sit and enjoy your coffee.

Booked a year in advance for august 22 for use after concert at Wembley only to be told on April that they could no longer honor the booking, but no reason give. Now highly unlikely to get anything that close to the venue and definitely not at that price. Thanks for nothing