Holiday Inn Portsmouth by IHG

Great place to stay. The rooms were clean and of good standard. The staff were very polite and helpful. We didnt have breakfast as we needed to leave early but the food that we saw looked very nice.

Don’t rely on the availability of car parking or electricity! We’d picked this hotel because it had car parking at only a £5 charge, however there are not enough spaces for the number of rooms and we had to park on the street (which felt unsafe and cost £15.20 to park overnight, so £10.20 more than we expected to pay) and had we known this we would have stayed elsewhere. But the biggest issue was that our room didn’t have electricity! The lights in the bedroom wouldn’t switch on, so we only had the bathroom light to see by (so left it on all night to find our way. We also had to wedge the suitcase by the bathroom door to be able to use that light to find things!) and were unable to charge our phones. This caused a lot of anxiety being unsure if our phone batteries would last long enough for our 5am alarm and also to show our ferry tickets. We were able to have showers but I couldn’t wash my hair due to being unable to use a hairdryer or straighteners afterwards (which I know is not vital, but did mean I felt gross/self-conscious all of the first day of my holiday). We called reception to report the lack of light/power but they weren’t bothered - they said it’d have to wait until tomorrow when maintenance were in (so with it being a 1 night stay, that would obviously be after we had checked out!) and were unwilling to let us change rooms (it may have been fully booked and thus impossible, but they didn’t say) and didn’t even apologise!

Great location for Gunwarf, walking distance. Facilities were good, nice swimming pool area and sauna. Staff were very friendly. Breakfast was lovely, lots to choose from.

Clean room, good location

Clean room, friendly staff and swimming pool