Holiday Inn Express Portsmouth Gunwharf Quays

The location is good and I love that the hotel is dog friendly, but I wouldn’t want dogs near me while eating. My mum, who doesn’t own a dog, felt the same. It would be better if dogs were directed to the separate room beside the buffet area at breakfast. The staff were excellent, but for £170 for one night for two people, we were very disappointed with the condition of the hotel. Room 125 was dusty, especially in the bathroom, which needs redoing. The air con didn’t work, though they supplied a fan, and the bathroom extractor was broken, leaving an unpleasant drain smell. The grout was dirty, the bathroom looked tired, water leaked from the shower, the corridors had stains on the walls and the carpets were frayed. It’s poor value, and there are much better hotels in Southsea for a much better price. The bar stays open until 2am, but there was no water to buy. They sent us to a vending machine on the second floor, which was hard to reach from our first-floor room because of mobility issues. It wasn’t what I’d expect from a Holiday Inn Express.

We paid £110 for one night, 27-28 Dec 2025, and found the basic room and barebones amenities staggeringly overpriced. It was tiny, with a cramped bed, barely any storage and just one plug socket for charging our phones. The table fan rattled and was poorly maintained, so I had to fix it myself. There were no toiletries at all. The room hadn’t been prepared for new guests, and there was no shampoo or body wash in the bathroom. Three staff members spent several hours failing to open the locked dispensers, making us late for dinner. At night we were eventually given a shampoo bottle but told it was body wash, so we had to shower with shampoo. We only got the right items after stopping housekeeping in the corridor just before checkout the next day. The lift was out of action for hours because someone was trapped inside. Along with the broken room features, it pointed to poor building maintenance. The front desk only admitted after we asked that they couldn’t access the dispensers because housekeeping is outsourced, yet they’d wasted our time sending three people to try. They weren’t very helpful in the morning either. At £110, this is extortionate, and it looks like rooms now cost around £150 in March. I’ve stayed in much fancier hotels for less. Avoid it: the service was incompetent and the value for money nonexistent. I’m still seeking a partial refund for this mess.

Rooms are pretty good, though two chairs would be better. Heating worked okay, but we turned it off because it was noisy. As in many hotels, people returning at night let doors bang shut. You’d think hotels would have sorted soft-close doors by now, lol. It’s handy for shops, with some great deals if you book ahead. Breakfast and 24 hours of parking are included, and some nearby outlets, restaurants and bars offer a hotel-related discount of 10-20%.

A decent location, and parking at Gunwharf is very good value: the first 24 hours are free, then it’s £2 a day. Service was very good, housekeeping was good, and the rooms were clean, though some are showing their age and could use an update. It’s the usual HIEX offer. Breakfast was as expected, and it’s a nice touch to have hot drinks available 24/7.