We decided in our visit to Christchurch to try the Holiday Inn in the city again. One advantage of this hotel is the cheap cost of car parking. $9.00 per day. Check in was smooth as usual however the room we were alloacted looked onto a concrete wall however upon asking we were changed to a room facing Cashel Street and some streetscape. The room was generally tidy however the bedspreads were stained and had seen better days. The bathroom was standard and was clean and tidy as was the room overall . What was not clean however were the glasses in the room. The wine glasses were dirty and had not been washed at all from previous guests using them. We washed every other glass and cup before using after that. The hotel was offering a special rate of $18.00 for full breakfast which represented the value of the very processed and ordinary breakfast food. The breakfast room has the atmosphere of a large industrial worksite cafe serving stewed tea and bland food. Paying full rate for breakfast would be very disappointing unless you like to stuff yourself full of highly processed food. Instead we would recommend you head down High Street to a number of excellent cafes serving delicious breakfast food and superb coffee for less money than a bland hotel breakfast. There is some outside noise heard in the rooms at night from the bars and nightclubs in the area, however the hotel is in the process of double or triople gtlasxing the windows. Like any inner city hotel we would always recommend you take ear plugs. Overall if you want to be in the inner city, near shops and all the inner city restaurants, cafes and bars and manage to obtain a room at a discounted rate this hotel serves the purpose well.

I always had anticipated that our experience at the Holiday Inn may not be the best and we were not dissatisfied. Ideal central location but the hotel is so old and outdated. We were in fairness given a room on the lowest Executive level and the room was large but in all other respects the hotel was poor. What hotel inthis age does not have room safes ? The Reception is drab, the staff unattentive and the breakfast is uninspiring in terms of quality, content and the restaurant is, well below what you would expect. It was Chrsitmas admittedly however the hotel was far from busy and I can understand why. The final straw was the noise and music which was coming from a local disco/rave party venue quite close to the Hotel until 4.30am each morning.

We stayed here in July of '05. The location was what drew us - we had only 2 days in Christchurch and didn't want to mess with public transit or anything like that. The hotel was a typical Holiday Inn - we could have been anywhere in the world. The rooms were comfortable and clean. The staff were friendly and helpful. In fact, I assume it's due to being guests in the city's down season, but we arrived after a 27 hour flight at 7:30 in the morning. We asked to store our luggage until check-in time, and the man at the front desk said "You two look like you could use a room right now. We're not busy - you can go right on up and have a rest." I could have kissed that man! The showers in this hotel were exceptional, too. As for the location, you can't beat it. A 2 minute walk to the Cathedral, Shops and restaurants right outside the door. Given that it was July, and rainy and 8 degrees, it was so nice to be in easy access to our hotel at all times, for when we needed to come back and dry off. We've recommended this hotel to friends; it's a standard, safe bet, and if you book well in advance, you can get a good discounted rate. Our nightly rate came out to $75 CAD. Not bad!

I stayed at this hotel for three nights in March 2007, Sat - Mon. First impressions upon check in at reception were of a quality, bright, clean and spacious hotel. The room was very comfortable and more than adequately sized and suitabley well equipped. In fact the only fault I could find with the room itself was I was unabe to open the window to let some air in, I'm not sure if it was permanently locked or not. I found the hotel to have a problem related to it's otherwise great location in the city centre of Christchurch, less than five minutes to Cathedral square and that is external noise. Noise from nearby bars was only a problem on Saturday night during my stay, possibley contributed to by the fact it was St. Patricks day. Even though I was quite high up on the 9th floor, street noise was still very distracting lasting well into the early hours of the morning. All in stark contrast to the almost total lack of noise within the hotel itself. The staff were pleasant and helpful at all times.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn City Centre for 2 nights at end March 2007. The hotel is in a good location within walking distance to many of Christchurch's inner city attractions. We had requested a quiet room and were assigned a room on the 9th floor. Unfortunately this hotel building is in close proximity to several pubs and clubs that operate until around 4:00 am and all seem to be immune from any noise control requirements. We had intended to stay there for 3 nights but after two sleepless nights due to excessive noise from thumping beats emanating from the nearby clubs and pubs, their rowdy patrons coming and going, and the immature hoons with their excessively noisy cars in the streets below, we decided to check out and cut short our visit to Christchurch. Not even the 9th floor was high enough to minimise significant noise intrusions. We spoke with other guests staying on higher floors and they also had had sleepless nights from the noise. The hotel appears tired, the furnishings were well worn and the king bed was not comfortable. The buffet breakfast was reasonable. The hotel appears to be past its use-by date for a significant heavy renovation, which should include the fitting of double glazed windows to help insulate against street noise and complete refurnishing of rooms. After the first night, we complained re the noise to the reception staff but they said they were unable to do anything other than possibly transfer us to the other Holiday Inn if they had availability. Given that Christchurch City seems to have alcohol restriction zones just about everywhere in the public city areas, it seems most unusual that the City / NZ State does nothing to require pubs and clubs to operate within buildings that contain noise emissions to below acceptable levels in the wee small hours and to confiscate noisy vehicles that the hoons race around the streets at night....... obviously the authorities have no regard as to the bad impression that tourists are left with from unacceptably high night-time noise levels.