Holiday Inn Express Melbourne Little Collins By Ihg

A relatively new hotel in a very convenient location. The room was clean, comfortable, and had plenty of space for our stay. We stayed during AFL week, so it was understandable that the weekend rates were quite expensive. Overall, we had a very good experience, and the reception staff were friendly and very helpful throughout our stay. The bed was a little too soft for my preference, although that may just be a personal preference. One small suggestion would be to have a designated smoking area away from the main entrance, as there were often people smoking directly outside the front doors. Overall, a very pleasant stay and we would happily stay here again.

My mother and I stayed at Holiday Inn Express Melbourne Little Collins for 3 nights, and it was a terrible experience from start to finish. On our first night, we both began itching in bed. After calling the front desk twice and waiting nearly an hour, a duty manager finally came, removed the duvet, and found strange cotton-like residue underneath. My mother also showed him a photo of a disgusting, stained toilet bowl in the same room. They moved us to a second room as a "compromise," but it was no better. The room had a foul smell, a stained curtain, and when we asked for antibacterial spray, it took an unreasonably long time to arrive. We were moved again to a third room on day two. The housekeeping manager spoke to me, he tried to defend the situation by saying: "In my 5 years of experience, this is the first time this has happened" and mentioned the housekeeper had 5 years of experience. I told him clearly: if the job had been done properly in the first place, this wouldn't have happened. At checkout, I demanded a refund for the appalling conditions. Or even a refund for the first night. Front desk hid behind "policy" and refused, offering only a complimentary lunch—capped at just two people. To move guests through three different dirty rooms in three nights and offer a basic lunch voucher instead of taking proper responsibility is completely unacceptable. Save your money and book elsewhere.

Thank you to Pinky and Gushan for their warm hospitality and helpfulness. They promptly assisted me in replacing the kettle in my room after I noticed it was faulty upon check-in. The photo is attached for your reference. Although it took some time, I completely understand because there was only one housekeeping staff member on duty at the time. I'm not sure if the housekeeping staff understood my request. After bringing the replacement kettle, I asked if he could also bring some extra coffee sachets to my room. He said yes, but they were never delivered. Overall, thank you again for the excellent service of Pinky and Gushan. I will definitely be back!

Convenient location and the hotel looks nice. That's about where the positives end. We checked in late and called the hotel directly, but ended up at an Indian call center who couldn't actually help us with anything. Getting into the building is a process. You have to ring the buzzer twice and then go up to the second floor for reception. Not great for first impressions, especially with luggage. The room itself has issues. My bed feels like springs, my friend's bed in his room feels like wood. So they're not even consistent on which way they got the mattresses wrong. No alarm clock either, which the last two hotels we stayed at had. The TV is also mounted way too high on the wall for watching from bed. Floor restricted keycards too. I can only access my own floor, which means visiting a friend's room means going back down to the lobby. Most hotels just require the keycard to call the elevator and let you press any floor once you're in. This place locks you out of everything but your own floor. Then there's the bathroom. Translucent glass walls, so privacy is essentially nonexistent. The bathroom door has three positions: open, closed normally, or closed in a way that seals off the shower. No proper towel bar in the shower either. The only place to hang a towel is the inside of the door handle, which only works when the door is closed in shower mode. Whoever designed this never actually showered in it. Hot water also swings when someone in another room flushes, which suggests the plumbing isn't sized for the building. Visible dirt on the upper shower glass too, where housekeeping clearly couldn't reach. Breakfast was unremarkable. I've stayed at budget hotels that were cheaper and more functional than this. Not nicer, just more honest about what they were and better at the fundamentals. This place looks the part of a modern mid-tier hotel but the actual experience of using the room is full of friction.