Hotel berhampiran The Body Shop, Nijmegen

Although recently supposed to has been renovated the hotel doesn't give a fresh impression. The sink of the shower was clogged. On the 2nd day it got cleaned after I asked about it. A colleague claimed about the same issue in her bathroom. The curtains on the windows don't block the sunlight. That caused me waking up much earlier on a sunny day. One has to keep the double windows closed to be isolated well the traffic noise (my room was in the 5th floor). The rooms have air conditioning. The breakfast was very basic.

Had a lovely stay here in September with my mum and my daughter. We visited as a family to visit the war grave of my mum’s uncle. We arrived quite late in the evening as dinner was closing but the hotel ensured we got a meal. We ate in the hotel for 2 of our 3 night stay and the food was lovely and reasonably priced. Staff were friendly and attentive. We had two rooms and both were spacious and well decorated with lovely en suites. The hotel is ideally placed on the Main Street in Elst. We had a lovely stay, and would return.

Beautiful hotel and we got an awesome view from the kind staff members

Just a short (thankfully downhill) walk from the railway station (extensive rail and bus services give easy access to almost anywhere in the Netherlands) the hotel is an even shorter walk from the north bank of the Nederrijn with its shady walks and numerous restaurants. Very handy as there is no restaurant at any IHG Express. As I arrived mid-morning the room was not ready but the staff (more about them later) were happy to store my case until I returned that afternoon (and again after checkout before leaving on an afternoon train). The room itself was a good size with a large comfortable bed, a functional desk and chair and a comfortable chair. Air conditioning kept the temperature stable and the lighting was good - not the ”fashionable” near darkness of some. Bathroom was good with a spacious shower. Everything was spotlessly clean. Coffee and tea available. Breakfast is the only meal offered and is a fairly basic standard european offering. Meats, eggs and cheeses were adequate, yoghurt good, fresh fruit salad very good indeed. Coffee was machine provided and good with a variety of offerings. No hot options (standard with the Express brand) and I did not try any of the other cold choices. Although fairly centrally located with easy access to shops and all the usual facilities and infrastructure the room was quiet and peaceful. An Albert Heijn mini-supermarket opposite attracted small groups in the evening but was not a bother - indeed very useful for an occasional small purchase. All standard and as expected for the brand so why mark it excellent? I will come back to the staff who were unfailingly excellent - helpful, cheery and friendly (though never less than professional) and recognised me by the end of day 1. A credit to the hotel and its management. This is now my first choice when next in the vicinity

The transport strike, on the 28th, meant I needed to stay in Holland a day longer than I'd planned to and I couldn't extend my stay at the hotel in Elst (see separate review), I'd been staying in. I had to be out of one hotel by 11am and couldn't check in here until 3pm, but the Haarhuis (Her House, in English) has storage facilities and that gave me the ability to walk around Arnhem centrum (centre) and visit the Airborne At The Bridge exhibition (see separate review), without having to drag my luggage around with me. In an effort to keep my costs down, I'd booked a single room (without breakfast, as there's plenty of shops and fast food places around Arnhem Centraal), but the receptionist did some checking and gave me a free upgrade to a double room, instead. The room itself was very light and spacious, but lacked air conditioning - which was slightly made up for by having opening windows and, being north facing, the room was shaded from the Sun for the most part.. Some have commented on the noise level in the rooms at the front, but it wasn't all that noticeable to me (perhaps, because the strike meant a there were very few buses, no Trolleybuses and few trains were running), despite having the secondary glazing open the entire time I was staying. It came with all the normal amenities, such as a wardrobe, flat screen TV and coffee machine (why no tea, though?). The bed was single beds, pushed together, but had a (thin, but very firm) double mattress on top and I slept extremely well. The bathroom, whilst small, was very well laid out - though, being a slightly bigger framed man, I did find getting in and out of the shower to be a bit of a struggle, as the door only opened half way. The water was hot and very plentiful and the soap/shampoo provided did mean I didn't have to go rooting around in my case to find my own. In conclusion, staying wasn't planned, but it's a lovely hotel, with very friendly and helpful staff, and I'm glad I booked.

Hotel is perfect gelegen naast het Centraal Station en aan de rand van het winkelcentrum. In de lobby kun je werken en een kop gratis thee of koffie meenemen. Het personeel is jong en informeel. De kamers zijn niet groot, maar wel een goed bed en badkamer. Helaas troffen we de doodzonde aan voor iedere hotelkamer: een fles glijmiddel van vorige gasten onder het bed. Alhoewel de kamer niet vies was, is dit natuurlijk wel een aandachtspunt.

We are a family with 2 small children (babies) staying at the Elaya for a long weekend. After checking in we went to our room which we thought was rather small for a suite and immediately noticed someone had gone to town on the wall that my babies travel cot had been set up next to. There was/is a massive crack(s) on the wall where someone has clearly been punching it. Then looking further around the room noticed things hadn't been cleaned properly and overall was in need of TLC. We went downstairs where the receptionist was apologetic and changed our room. It's important to note we booked a suite but for some reason this room we were originally given was not one. We went upstairs to our suite thinking it was just bad luck, this room will be better and yes the walls are all in one piece and it's bigger but still unclean and incredibly shabby. You should never walk into a hotel room and feel It is so rundown that you question the cleanliness and not want to touch anything. Surely if they can't be bothered hanging curtains and there are random stains on things, where else, especially in the cleaning, have corners been cut. No washcloths in room, no mattress protector on bed, curtains broken or coming off (both easy/cheap fixes), questionable stains on furnishing, no thorough clean done recently (IMO) and again in desperate need of TLC. We stayed in 2022 and it was only marginally better. I don't know if the Elaya do not want to spend any money or simply do not care but we won't be staying here again. The hallways and balconies are also in the same state of disrepair. Location is good and receptionist was friendly and swift to act on the issue with the first room. Photos of some of the problems.