Basildon – Campanile Hotel

This stay was a few weeks ago, before everything was shut back down.

One thing I’ve noted is that motels don’t tend to do very well in the UK, there’s something that the British don’t seem to like about having open and external corridors. There was a little bit of a building frenzy of them in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s, but that ebbed away. They work well in the United States and they seem more common across mainland Europe, with Campanile being a French chain (and they seem to have lots of locations in Poland amongst others). Anyway, I stayed here as it was the cheapest option, I can eschew luxury.

The room was actually clean and comfortable, although dated. The welcome at reception was one of the best I’ve had in a hotel, a very enthusiastic staff member explaining everything he could. So, there was nothing really wrong with the room’s cleanliness or the staffing.

The plug sockets are hidden away, I can’t recall a sign in a hotel room helping customers to find them. This could, and probably should, be remedied even with the use of extension leads. They can be nailed in (not through the wire, even my limited electrical knowledge knows that) if customers keep pinching them.

Hmmm, this lamp should have just been thrown away. This is doing nothing for the room.

I was moderately puzzled at this. It is in keeping with what is being offered, a room with en-suite bathroom. But, I’m not entirely sure that it’s the best image to offer as the first thing a customer sees.

The hotel has sunk to the bottom of the reviews and has collapsed its prices as well, which is usually a freefall for a location that it can’t recover from. The difficulty is that groups on a night out often book the cheapest option as they’re just looking for somewhere to stay. And, unfortunately, sometimes these groups cause issues for the hotel and their guests.

And…. The hotel dealt with this little crisis well, it was a birthday party coming back which got out of hand very quickly in terms of noise. The police were called immediately (I assume by the hotel, although a guest might have reported them I suppose) and came in about six vans. The group were not the politest to the police, but the law won out here quite quickly. Anyway, this is just what the hotel didn’t need at 01:00 (although I quite like drama like this, as I was awake anyway), and this sort of problem is riven through its reviews. Along with the rooms which need refurbishment.

But, the staff here seem determined to turn things around, with the recent reviews for their food being positive and customer service was way above average. Other than policegate, the location was quiet and everything was clean, so I’d stay again if I went back to Basildon. Although, I’m not sure why I’d need to go back to Basildon, but the town’s main attraction is just around the corner from this hotel.