We were travelling back to Hertfordshire after visiting my wife's mother (who lives in Spalding). We wanted to stay somewhere on the way back to break the journey up for my daughter. On top of that, we were looking for somewhere that had a pool, to give my daughter a little treat! We went for the Holiday Inn Peterborough West because the price was pretty good (about £71, inc. breakfast) and because they had a reasonable-looking pool.

Upon arrival at the hotel (fairly late in the day, around 7pm) I dropped my wife and daughter off at the entrance, while I went and parked the car. There were no parking spaces remotely near the property, which was a bit disappointing; however, there was a large car park, with plenty of space, so getting in was not a problem.

After a bit of a walk back to the hotel, I met my wife and daughter at reception, only to be informed that, unfortunately, the lifts weren't working and so, therefore, we would have to ascend several flights to reach our room. Although my wife told me not to mention this point in my Trip Advisor review (she said it wasn't the fault of the hotel) I do think it is an important thing to mention as regards our specific stay - particularly as it was a bit of a pain every time we left the room to go anywhere (specifically down to breakfast the next morning, then back up to the room, and then back down to the swimming pool). I do think that a hotel with many rooms on higher floors does need to get its lifts working as quickly as possible. In our case, our daughter was able to walk (slowly and with faltering steps) up and down the stairs. However, this would have been much more difficult for guests who were older in years, not to say impossible for the disabled. Whenever I mentioned the lift to staff on reception, I was met with a bit of a shrug and the response that it had 'only broken down today.' Is that my problem? Answer: no. The lift should have been fixed there and then.

Aside from the lift malfunction, everything else was pretty good. The hotel went out of their way to accommodate our wishes and provided a camp bed in the corner of the room (for my use, so that my daughter could sleep in the main bed with my wife), and overall we had a good sleep.

The next morning, breakfast was fine (not exceptional), with a serve yourself buffet the order of the day. By their very nature, buffets are something of a hit or miss affair, and this was definitely more the latter, with sausages and bacon that had a rather 'processed' taste and other hot food that can only be described as 'stodgy.' On the plus side, the D.I.Y. coffee machine was very good.

The swimming pool was located quite far away from the reception and was of the Holiday Inn 'Club Moativation' variety. All Club Moativations seem to be pretty standard, and this one had the obligatory small-ish pool, with jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. My daughter had a good time in the pool and I got a few much needed laps in, so overall we were pleased with the leisure facilities on offer.

Overall, what you would probably expect of a Holiday Inn, but not as good as some Holiday Inns we have stayed in. Could do better points: quicker lift fixing and better quality breakfast.