We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff, Wales on 24th and 25th March 2023, for the first time. Reception staff were all super-welcoming and friendly. The reception bar seating area is contemporary with outside space overlooking the water. A little disappointingly the soft furnishings in this area could do with attention - they were badly stained in places. The bedrooms are adequate and clean. Our complaint concerns the fair number of refugees staying at the hotel. Apart from several adults there were unaccompanied children running around the corridors and stairs of the hotel and present in the breakfast room both mornings. All boys, aged between around 6 - 9 years old, they appeared to use the Hotel as a playground, running around when other guests were trying to get to the buffet and helping themselves to large amounts of food (although on this score I have to say the adult refugees were all very greedy, too, rudely grabbing the lion’s share of fresh fruit, cooked breakfast and bakery goods and taking still more food away with them, with one man clearing all the available bacon at a stroke). On the second morning I asked the receptionist where the boys’ parents were. I was told the children were with Ukrainian families and had been staying at the hotel for over a year. I was advised that two of the boys were the children of someone working at the hotel, but the receptionist wasn’t sure about the parents of the other two boys. I’m really not sure why IHG has allowed this situation to happen. Other guests, including us, had paid to stay in this hotel. We are IHG’s ‘bread and butter’ and we shouldn’t be subjected to this sort of treatment. Workers should not be permitted to ‘bring their children to work’ because they can’t do their job and supervise them. And kids should not be allowed anywhere in the hotel unaccompanied. This must be a breach of H&S rules. Not a great experience.
