Holiday Inn Express Taunton East by IHG

Comfortable and friendly staff

A little remote

Very clean, beds and pillows were comfortable, and breakfast did the job. Harvester sharing same car park makes dinners easy. Location is great for motorway.

Great location f you have a car, not so close to train station (walk is 40 mins or so). Wifi was unusable (room 144) and unfortunately I had barely any phone reception (that one's EE's fault not the hotel's).

Clean good value for money easily accessible

Nothing

Location/ reasonable price

The hotel is advertised as dog-friendly, but I don't think the arrangements for guests travelling with dogs have been fully thought through. Dogs are not allowed in the restaurant, which is particularly difficult if you are travelling alone and need to leave your table to use the breakfast buffet. On the first morning, the only option we were offered was one of four low tables in the reception area. With a bad back, this was far from ideal. On the second morning, I noticed there was actually a separate room with more appropriate seating for guests with dogs, but it was locked. After I asked about it, a delightful member of staff kindly opened it for us and we had a much more comfortable breakfast. If this room is available for guests with dogs, it would make sense to offer it automatically rather than leaving guests to discover and ask about it themselves. Another small frustration was the dog waste bin outside near the grassed area. The bin is quite small and black, which makes it very difficult to spot in the dark. On our first night I didn't see it at all, so I ended up leaving the bags safely under my car overnight and disposing of them in a bin at the nearby garage the following morning. Most dog waste bins are red or otherwise clearly visible, which would make much more sense, particularly at night. There also didn't appear to be any other bins in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. None of these issues is particularly significant in isolation, but together they made the hotel feel less genuinely dog-friendly than the description suggests. A few relatively simple changes would make a considerable difference for guests travelling with dogs