Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts Hotels in Birmingham

No complaints - the hotel is walkable from the New Street Station and the room itself is expected from the crowne plaza chain. Spacious room and generous 2 double beds as standard. Only very minor complaint is that the buffet breakfast could have had a bit more choice with the hot food.

The nicest part of the hotel is the bar. Other than that I see no reason to stay here. The check-in desks are informal islands, the size of a dinner table where they check two guests in at the same time. So you are shoulder to shoulder with another guest and trying to make out your portion of two simultaneous conversations. When I got to my room, it was warm and stinky. I tried turning on the ventilation system, but it would not work. Called reception, they said they’d send somebody up to look at it. I waited over half an hour, nobody showed, so I called reception again. No answer. Over the next 15 minutes I tried a few more times, still no answer. So I figured I’d go downstairs to see what’s going on. The three reception clerks were just standing there chatting amongst themselves, no guests waiting. I guess they couldn’t be bothered to answer the phone. Anyway, now that I was at reception and explained the situation again, they gave me another room. That room had some really old, worn furniture and was actually a bit smaller than my original room. My punishment for requesting a decent room I guess. We had booked two rooms and the other room was very cold throughout the stay, with the air conditioner running hard all the time. Changing the settings on the thermostat has no effect. Breakfast was mediocre in offering. For a big room, there was only one coffee machine working. The queue was about 20 people deep at one point. Some of the warm food on the buffet was clearly not being warmed and had cooled to room temp, which is probably a food safety issue. We had requested a late checkout, were told 2pm, but keycards stopped working at 1pm. If you are looking to stay here because you want to be next to the shopping mall, be sure to check out the mall’s website first, it is quite small, and does not offer women’s apparel. There is also not much else to do in the area. I feel that this hotel is very expensive for what it has to offer. The rooms are worn out and uncomfortable and the staff that can’t be bothered to put in the slightest effort to make things right. They are probably just as frustrated working in this place as the guests are that stay here.