ホリデイ・イン リヤド イズディハール

The hotel is on ring road. Close to the airport. Rooms are spacious. Air conditioner is a very old system with an extremely noisy fan. They have two buildings across the street. When you book they don’t tell you whether they will accommodate you in eastern or western building which is very inconvenient. If you stay in Eastern building you need to get out of the building and walk across the street to reach the restaurant! The reception is very dull with poor lighting.

Typically, Holiday Inn older stock. Room are large, food is all ok, gym is big, it is clean and tidy. Pool is a bit weird (only 30cms deep for one large section, so using it to swim laps is not workable - have to do widths) It is definitely dated, and older style, with maintenance keeping it at an acceptable standard. Service - staff are casual, seemingly happy to chat while you wait (front desk and restaurant staff). All very non-international brand experience. A few examples, 3-4 times waiting at the front desk, and they allow people to just interrupt and respond to the other person's request, while serving you. On another occasion, I tried to drop laundry bag at the front desk and was told to go back to room and hang it up on the door. All small things, that in themselves, are nothing to comment on, but taken together, there is a clear pattern. The room are big and clean. But be careful with the location...the outer rooms back onto the main road, and the noise is high all night. Coupled with the very good but audible air conditioning....the room level noise is high (I measured the room noise is 40-50dB consistently, with air conditioning on low) Better hotels are available, but if you wedded to IHG, make sure you get the right room, and plan for a rush type interaction. I am gonna personally steer clear of in the future, and reorganize my stays for the rest of the year.

The breakfast was at 150 riyals, and the food selection was minimal, quality was just acceptable, some items felt stale and old. The stay is decent, just make other plans for food. The rooms have only 1 proper power socket, I luckily had an adapter. The other sockets are old and not compatible with any electronic device manufactured the past 20 years. On the plus side they allow food delivery from outside restaurants.