I'm not the sort of traveller who's had his head very much in the 5 star clouds, neither in the 4 star ones either, however I'd travelled enough on road trips and holidays to take some rewards nights with an ICH hotel and explore somewhere I've never been - Liverpool. And I chose the Crowne Plaza, based on some good reviews I'd seen here and because of the 5000 point reward night rate!

Some things to note then. First, we were charged for the car park, which, though not extortionate, is unnecessary. If the argument of "security" is given, let me point out that though needing a ticket to exit, they leave the entrance barrier open. I was also charged for our newspapers. Having been to Crowne Plazas where these are complimentary (to Priority Club members) I was annoyed when they showed on the bill - we would not have had them if we were informed of the charge when asked which newspaper we wanted at check in!

To the room [288]. It was a poor example for the Crowne Plaza chain. Smells of damp I'm afraid. Couldn't locate the source either - it wouldn't be from a bathroom upstairs as this was the top floor. Nicely decorated bathroom but paint flaking off the ceiling. Awful sleep due to the very springy saggy bed. We moved the double mattress onto the floor for the last night to give our backs some rest. Much better! I would suggest that the hotel replaces the sprung divans with solid ones. Art deco features were very nice, though the furnishings were tired. The desk chair was unacceptable, with the knackered leather literally breaking at the seams. Room safe fine, all other features of the room in working order.

I want to give this hotel more but can't. The only plus points were that the cleaning staff kept it immaculate and the sports facilities (courtesy of David Lloyds) next door are excellent. Maybe I had a bad room, but as a chain or an individual hotel you shouldn't be giving bad rooms to rewards nights guests? Or maybe you get what you pay for!! Hehe.

I have stayed in this hotel on a number of occassions and always found it excellent in all aspects. The last time I stayed was for a Christmas event and when we settled up the bill and gave in our parking ticket we were charged for overnight parking. We all thought this outrageous as we were patrons of the hotel and it was their private car park. We would have shared cars or parked somewhere else if we had known. We feel this is not good practice on for the hotel as all other aspects would have lead to us recomending the hotel highly to others.

This hotel is the refurbished original airport building, and the building itself is a treasure, sympathetically refurbished, with the bathrooms particularly having retained their art deco features. I wanted to give it a higher mark, but I was unimpressed with the cleanliness and attention to detail in the room. It was dusty in places, the box of tissues in the dispenser was empty, there was no soap and there was a sharp staple on the floor of the bathroom which would have been very painful to step on. While the heating in the room was very effective the bathroom seemed to have no heating at all which made it freezing to visit the toilet. Bed comfortable but some would find it quite soft and it sagged in the middle.
Is expensive for what it is especially considering the deals you can get at smart hotels in the centre of Liverpool.

We stayed at the hotel in Dec 2011 for just under a week. The housekeeping & reception staff were lovely, they are an asset to their company. The hotel is nicely styled in Art Deco which was a great touch and is quite near to the airport. Only thing I didn't like about our hotel was the room heating wasn't very efficient so I did feel a little cold at times even with the thermostat turned up to the max. That said it was very cold outside (hail storms!) during our visit. I would definitely recommend the hotel and would go back again. If you enjoy shopping there's even a large retail park opposite with all the high st names so if you're limited on time you don't even have to go to town!