If you want to stay in the heart of Camden Town, this is the spot. You can watch the Camden Market and Lock (and hear all the noises) from your room. The noise is well muffled when your windows are closed and should be expected however. It is not something the hotel can control beyond what measures they have already taken. If you are a regular Holiday Inn traveller, this property is better than expected. For non-Holiday Inn people, this means well appointed and clean plus the staff is better than the US Holiday Inns to me. In general I like Holiday Inns because they are fairly stripped down (i.e. no cost adders like valet, BS club floors, and etc.) but always consistently clean and the staff is always excellent whether you are at a truck stop along the Rte. 66 in the US, or in a foreign country. The reason for a 1 star drop is just for the counterintuitive way the penthouse suites are laid out. It makes it so the air cannot circulate in relation to the odd shape of the room but other than having a weird boomerang shaped suite, the room was excellent. The weird shape of the room also makes it so you cannot watch TV in bed but to me, that is a good thing. I just mention it because falling asleep to bad late night TV in a hotel bed is part of a relaxing holiday ritual for my wife.
The Camden Holiday Inn staff was particularly stellar. I got the unfortunately common traveller food poisoning, and although I did not impose on the staff to clean up after my unfortunate situation, they were incredibly helpful to me in the 48 hours I was down for (i.e. helping with laundry, extra towels, and etc.). The rest of the week I was in town was also excellent. I really liked the immediate access to a wide variety of food in the area. The Ethiopian Coffee stand in the market right near the property is especially good and became a daily necessity to help with jet lag.
Besides being in the heart of Camden Town, you are about a block or so from the tube and I found is very easy to get around London from that particular stop. It is also super easy to get one of the (excellent) black cabs if you don't feel like taking the tube. read more