Holiday Inn Rugby - Northampton

The pool and gym are a nice bonus, and the rooms are decent quality. I get a warm welcome at reception every time I stay, and I've always had a good experience here. Justine deserves a mention. I first met her working front of house in the bar while I was eating, and now she does the morning breakfast shift. She's friendly and helpful, which puts me in a positive frame of mind to start the day.

The parking issue is my biggest concern. I received 2 tickets from my first day, even though I followed the procedure and gave my license plate number at check-in. I don't understand why I was penalized, and this needs to be resolved immediately. The hotel still hasn't replied to my emails, and I'm really disappointed. I also had problems with charges during an earlier checkout. Food and drink items I hadn't ordered were put on my invoice. They eventually removed them, but missed one item, which was concerning. On my latest stay, the restaurant was disappointing again. The food was poor and the service unprofessional. I wanted to believe my earlier experience was an exception and give it another chance, but one evening I waited so long without being served that I left without ordering. It wasn't even busy, so I can't explain the lack of service. I travel internationally regularly and have never had service this poor at a hotel anywhere in the world. I wouldn't recommend this hotel. If you do book, be extremely careful about everything here. They will try to scam you.

Some staff were nice and professional, including Justine, Cal, Rory, Neil, Edward and Freddie. But the customer service overall was disgusting, and I wouldn't recommend staying at Holiday Inn again. The worst problems were with ‘’Dave’’, their night shift manager. He was extremely rude and unprofessional and treated me in a disgusting manner. Even though I had a booking for the following whole week, he told me to leave or they would lock the doors. Their staff member Malina yelled at me in his presence. She also lied twice: she claimed she'd spoken to me about the £211 outstanding balance, which I'd already paid during my stay, and she gave me two different accounts about an item I'd lost in room no 36. I asked her many times about it and she kept neglecting me. Later she said housekeeping had given it back to me on 16-02-2026 in room no.01, though I wasn't at the hotel at all that day. I reckon they must have returned it to a ghost in that room. My Manager and I spoke to their Senior Manager Alice about these issues and the rude behaviour, but she did nothing. There were other problems too. Staff would stare at me near the front by the dining area as if I were an alien from another planet. The rooms are quite small. The sink was blocked in room no 01, there was no socket by the bed in room no 28, and room no 104 wouldn't close properly. There was no light or pedestrian way on the route to their building. The restaurant got orders wrong in both directions. One day I placed a dinner order, they lost my receipt and didn't prepare it. Another day I hadn't ordered dinner, but they prepared something on their own. When I did order Hand-battered Haddock & chips, they charged £18.85 for a tiny piece that weighed barely 150 grams, though it was supposed to be a minimum 1 kg. They don't serve the items at the exact weights listed on the menu.

Anna, the administrator, was extremely helpful, intelligent and professional throughout my stay. The restaurant food was great, and the service was very good. I also really enjoyed the swimming pool and sauna. The gym was modern and well equipped. I had an excellent stay at Holiday Inn Crick.