Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport: the one with the shuttle

The hotel's full name tells the truth twice: Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport - NEC, at National Exhibition Centre, Coventry Road, Bickenhill, B26 3QW. It stands on the exhibition estate within about a mile of the NEC halls and Resorts World, whose arenas, restaurants and cinema are covered in the guide to things to do by the airport, while the terminal is about two miles away by road. Like its neighbours, it is an events hotel that moonlights as an airport hotel, and it does the second job better than most because of the shuttle.

Watch the sibling trap when booking: the Holiday Inn Express Birmingham Airport NEC on Bickenhill Parkway is a different, more basic hotel, and IHG's own page says its local shuttle is not available. If the shuttle, the pool or the restaurant is why you are booking, make sure the confirmation says Holiday Inn, not Express.

The hotel's free electric shuttle runs from 05:00 to 23:00 between the hotel, Birmingham International station, the NEC and Resorts World, taking about five minutes to the station, where the pick-up point is the lower-ground entrance by the taxi rank. It runs roughly half-hourly at the busy ends of the day with a late-morning lull, and it is currently flagged as running a reduced timetable, so confirm times with the hotel before you hang a flight on it. From the station, the Air-Rail Link finishes the job: a free ride of about 90 seconds to the terminal, running 03:30 to 00:30.

For the earliest departures the arithmetic changes: the first shuttle leaves at 05:00, so if you must be at the terminal before about 05:30, or the reduced timetable leaves you no margin, book a taxi the evening before; the hop is around five minutes and reported at £8 to £12, and the taxi guide covers operators. If someone is driving you to the flight instead, the terminal's drop-off rules apply as usual.

Rooms are spacious by airport-hotel standards, with blackout curtains and family rooms that make the hotel a natural pick for children, and one traveller-tested tip is worth repeating: rooms facing Coventry Road pick up traffic noise, so light sleepers should ask for one facing away. The leisure club is the headline extra, and none of the other six hotels this guide compares has one: an indoor pool with a steam room, jacuzzi and gym. The pool gives some weekday hours to swimming lessons, so check the day's public times at reception if the swim matters, especially with children counting on it.

Food runs around the clock: a restaurant and a laid-back bar in the evening, and 24-hour room service with a £5 tray charge you can dodge by collecting the order from the restaurant yourself. For a family filling the awkward hours before an evening flight, a swim and an early dinner here beat pacing the terminal by a distance.

Overnight parking for guests is quoted at £12 a night, which handles the night before a flight or an NEC stay, and like every hotel here that figure covers your stay, not your holiday: nobody sells this car park as flight-length parking. The packaged version sold through the brokers is a two-step: the car stays at the hotel overnight for that £12, then on the morning of the flight you drive it the few minutes to the Airparks compound, whose Express site runs a three-minute shuttle to the terminal.

Whether that bundle beats a long-stay car park plus a room booked separately is the standard two-way check, walked through in the hotel and parking guide; the park, sleep and fly explainer covers the morning mechanics, including exactly this move-the-car shape.

Book it when the extras earn their keep: a family burning off energy in the pool before a night flight, an NEC show with the halls a shuttle stop away, or a car-free trip where the free shuttle and Air-Rail Link replace every taxi between 05:00 and 23:00. Rates sit in the mid tier, usually £60 to £90 on quiet nights, spiking with the NEC calendar like everywhere here, so book early against the what's-on list, directly through IHG's page for the hotel or as a package.

Skip it when the flight is everything: for a dawn departure the ibis pair and the Novotel put you on foot from check-in with no timetable to trust, and the Premier Inn nearby undercuts it for a simple family bed if you never planned to swim. The hotels comparison sets out the whole field.