Everything went well, room, bed and breakfast, apart from one niggle.

There is NO area for guests to sit and eat with their dog anywhere near the restaurant / bar area. We were forced to sit at the far end of the austere, soulless reception area. This is not good enough, especially as the growing trend is to be travelling with your pet, expecting the hotel to cater properly for all of your needs

The location is perfect for us to visit family in Colchester.Clean, friendly and helpful staff,and an excellent choice at breakfast.

I wouldn’t say dislike, but it would be very helpful if there was somewhere to hang wet towels in the bathroom,like a towel rail!

The staff is so friendly and cooperative. The staff is really exceptional in the way they deal with the guests. The breakfast is rich and delicious. The restaurant in general is excellent. We tried the dinner many times and every time we like it. The playground is suitable for kids. The swimming pool and gym is fantastic. The location is in a quiet area, but not far from town. You need 12 minutes by car to reach town. Anyway, Stanway is just 4 minutes driving and you can find a lot of modern and new shops there. We really liked staying in this hotel. We enjoyed the 10 days we spent in this place.

Nothing

friendly helpful staff. a lovely man gave us a complimentary voucher on arrival for nine hot breakfasts as a gift to my daughter as she was celebrating her 16th

sharing the pool with swimming lesson group. the teachers were a bit abrupt with my grand children . they were given one lane to swim in and the teachers kept telling them to move. there was no seating for guests as the parents of the children in the swim lesson took them all. we only had one hour to spend in there but the school was there until 12. Also my grand daughter was taking pictures of her family as we had not seen each other since Christmas and had all met here to celebrate a 16th birthday. so they were excited to keep memories of them but they were told to stop taking pictures by a staff member who threatened to take her phone and remove her photos. she got very upset.

The rooms were a good size, clean and comfortable. Breakfast was delicious.

My only grumble was the chap receiving us for breakfast. Asked if we had a voucher. We didn't but had paid a deposit on our room and had been told anything bill related would come out of that. We needed a voucher he says. So trail my 3 kids to the reception to get the voucher, which of course came out of the deposit. I return to the chap with the voucher who then regurgitates all the information he'd previously given us. Person behind us had forgotten their vouchers. Oh don't worry he said to them what's your room number!

Our room was very clean, had everything we needed, and the beds were very comfortable. We had dinner and breakfast in the restaurant, where there was an extensive choice of food for both, all of which was very tasty. Contrary to other reviews during our stay breakfast items were replenished regularly. The reception and restaurant staff were very friendly and helpful, which made our stay even more enjoyable. Our only regret was that we didn't have time to use the gym and swimming facilities.

Although not disabled, I had some difficulty getting safely in and out of the bath to shower, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has an issue with this. This problem can be easily resolved with a strategically placed hand rail.

Excellent value. Stayed one night in a standard double. Location spot on, short drive to Colchester and it's environs, plenty of parking at the hotel, pleasant ambience inside and out. Very helpful staff on reception and in the restaurant, where we had some very nice food from the starter menu when we arrived.

Breakfast, there was plenty of it and we chose the full English, but didn't like it. Bacon was leathery, the sausage and black pudding didn't taste nice. Would have taken off a star on the excellent rating we gave, but didn't because when we fed this back to reception they endeavoured to compensate us by not charging us for the breakfast. What more could you ask? Apart from breakfast everything we experienced was deserving of 10/10

really comfortable room, loved the shower with the lovely soap and shower gel. the bed was really comfy loved the doggy treats and water for the dogs, they looked forward to their treats on the way past each time😂

got quite hot in the rooms but thankfully could open windows a bit . The car parking area was quite dark at night (the bit directly opposite the entrance ) which was tricky when arriving late at night. also doggy poo bins would have been great as felt bad putting the bags in the regular bin . couldn’t get many channels on the TV but that wasn’t that important to me , it might have been my technical skills though !

Room comfortable. Beds comfortable. Staff in restaurant went out of their way to help us. All staff helpful. When there was a small problem it was dealt with quickly (safe was locked shut). We were initially unhappy to find the pool would be out of use for most of our stay. One of the reasons we booked it was for using the pool. However. the manager got us a four day pass to a nearby hotel to use their pool, which we did on a couple of occasions. Many thanks for that Dan. Neither myself or hubby are used to ordering food using these new-fangled electronic devices. I don't even possess a smart phone! The restaurant staff could not have been more helpful in helping us. Thanks again Elaine.

The new-fangled electronic devices for ordering food! Not having the use of the pool although they had to close it as parts of the surrounding tiling was dangerous.

Staff were fantastic. Made me feel very welcome. I did 15 years working in hotels, and believe me, I can be picky. Room was great, and for reception, bar and restaurant staff, I give a 10 out of 10.

Wasn't keen on the amount of emails and notifications I received from booking to arriving. But that is probably down to booking.com rather than Holiday Inn. Another thing...... When I first arrived in my room I put my bag down and sat on the bottom corner of the bed. Not realising that the mattress is a little larger than the bed base (and it wasn't central), I carried on with the downward motion and rolled right off the side of the bed and onto the floor as the mattress disappeared from under me. I hadn't even had a drink. No harm done and I did have a little chuckle to myself. Perhaps it's something to be aware of though.