The Branford Holiday Inn Express is a wonderful place to stay in the New Haven area. The hotel is located on a main street with plenty of eating places nearby as well as shopping.

The hotel is extremely clean and rooms are spacious. We had a fridge in our room which was a nice plus.

Hotel staff was friendly and check in and out was a breeze.

Pool and spa area is very clean and nicely decorated.

I read reports of thin walls and didn't have a problem with this until our second night (we stayed two nights) when guests upstairs were up walking and talking until midnight and then again at 6AM. It's true that you can hear others talking.

We were on the second floor and the only ice machine I saw was on the first floor near the entrance.

Hotel has a washer and dryer which we did not use but was in use. Another nice plus.

Toiletries were nice but had an odd scent like red hots. Interesting.

Overall, I completely recommend this hotel to those traveling in the area.

We were very impressed with the cleanliness of the hotel. Looks and smells brand new. The room was very comfortable and the business center and fitness room were helpful. My only complaint was the thickness of the walls. I could hear EVERYTHING going on in the rooms around us.

I would recommend this room to others, just make sure you bring ear plugs!

The rooms in this hotel were excellent - good size, fresh paint, attractive furnishings, with a clean large bathroom. The hotel itself was a typical Holiday Inn Express with the expected facilities (breakfast, pool, business center, etc) that were all perfectly acceptable.
Unfortunately, every member of the staff was incompetent, rude or both. We were there for a wedding and our room had been booked by the groom. When I tried to check in under first my name, then his, they said they had no bookings under his last name. Since most of his family was staying there, I knew this could not be true and I asked to see the list of people in the blocked rooms for the wedding. When I looked at this list, I found four reservations under the groom's name. But neither the woman at the desk nor her manager seemed to recognize this, despite the fact that it is neither an unusual name nor an unusual spelling.
Once that was cleared up, I was told I could not yet check in (at 3:30 pm) because there were no clean rooms available.
Another staff member checked in my friend in at the same time. When she reached her room, she found a paint bucket and a step ladder. When she returned to the front desk to report back, they shrugged and said "oh, Phil must be in there."
The staff was also rude in our dealings with them regarding the shuttle to the wedding and check out. I would not stay at this location again.

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Branford for one night in May 2007. I didn't spend a lot of time there, checking in late at night and out fairly early in the morning, but it was a decent stay. The hotel is very clean and well kept. The staff is courteous and friendly. The room was spacious and comfortable, and the free breakfast is a nice perk. The fitness center is small but not as antiquated as is usually the case in these hotels. My only complaints about the hotel are as follows:
- the walls are very thin. I could hear the people next door to me talking and listening to their TV, even when I put on my air conditioning to drown out the noise
- the halls smell like smoke, particularly in the morning when housekeeping is cleaning the rooms. The smoking rooms are directly across the hall from non-smoking rooms, which seems like poor planning to me.
I booked my stay through an online booking service where you bid for your stay and got a very fair price. I would stay there again, but would probably bring earplugs next time.