This is a great new hotel in a very nice area of Birmingham close to many good restaurants and shopping. Be sure you have very clear directions though because the hotel is not highly visible from the main road as it is located on a culdesac behind some commercial buildings and restaurants and is not very well marked. Once I found the hotel, I found the staff and manager to be extremely friendly and helpful, the rooms to be very tastefully decorated, clean, and QUIET (despite that fact that the hotel was extremely busy with lots of kids running around), the breakfast was well above par for an inclusive hot/continental type breakfast comparable or better than most Hampton Inns or Holiday Inn Expresses. Also, I was very impressed with the modern decor and bright colors throughout the hotel (public areas and rooms) which seem to be pretty common in these new Holiday Inn Express hotels. The only negatives that I could find with my stay was that there was no exhaust fan in the bathroom and the corridors seemed kind of narrow, and were especially tight in the areas near the elevator...those were just minor things though and overall this hotel was excellent and well exceded my expectations!