Holiday Inn Derby Riverlights, Bakewell

I recently stayed at the Holiday Inn for couple of nights and couldn't be more pleased. I was greeted by the warm and friendly staff - The Manager, Omar & Reception Team & Bar & Restaurant Team were so friendly, helpful & professional. The room is modern, with all the amenities I needed, I appreciated a big hairdryer, convenient hand shower, and quiet air conditioning, small touches that made a big difference—options some hotels in Derby don’t have. The food was fresh, tasty, and nicely presented, arriving at my table in time. I have decided to make it my go-to hotel from now on. Highly recommended!

The mattress was that bad I was forced to change room, the springs were completely gone. They were very accommodating with the request although I would have much preferred a decent mattress in the first place. The room was average - old smallish tv with no netflix or hdmi ports. Mini gym was fine and location of hotel was good for access to city centre. Nearest parking is at NCP Siddals Road, it's a 4 minute walk and cost £3.95 for 24hrs if using the app.

I booked this hotel at 1am for a 3am check in. I just needed a double bed for me and my husband to sleep and carry on our travels the next day. Upon arriving I was told the double bed I had booked was no longer available and they only had a twin room which I said I didn’t want because it wasn’t what I booked, anyway I believe his name was Ash, the night desk staff and he was kind and efficient enough to move some things around and get us a double bed. That being said I was awaken at 9am by a knock from housekeeping. I jumped out of bed so scared that we had missed check out and opened the door for her to say “sorry I thought the room was empty”. I was so annoyed I couldn’t go back to sleep, so we went for breakfast, again it’s advertised as a buffet but we were told the hotel was quite empty so they were doing hot food to order, which was very disappointing. Very few options of fruit and 2 mini pain au chocolat for both me and my husband left, no other pastries. My husband only wanted scrambled eggs with toast and when he ordered that it came very watery in a tiny bowl as if it had been sitting there for a while and full of black pepper and no salt. I do not understand if you have food ready why not have it out for guests to choose how and how much they want of it? I then went on to speak to what seemed to be the manager about this housekeeping incident and I asked if they don’t have a sheet with rooms occupied, he said they have all the rooms which are due to check out and from 9am they have the right to knock at every room to see if it’s still occupied and if I didn’t want to be disturbed I should have used the “do not disturb” sign on the door, so I said: well ok is that a policy? Is it written anywhere? He said no. So this manager is telling me if you’re a guest of their hotel on your check out day you cannot sleep past 9am unless you have a sign in the door. After this again very disappointing experience I went back to my room to pack and guess what? Housekeeping was COMING OUT OF MY ROOM, they had been inside!! so I said you already knocked, it’s still occupied we haven’t left yet, so again she mentioned the do not disturb sign. I’m so annoyed I’ve never had a more stressing experience in a hotel than this one and I TRAVEL for work. It’s a ridiculous policy that they created in their own head and forgot to communicate to guests. At no point in time I was apologised to. Unless you wanna be up at 6am do not book this hotel. (Also ironically there was no hot food buffet because the hotel was “empty” but we were told late checkout wasn’t available as they were “fully booked”)