Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Accor

  • Warsaw – Sofitel Victoria Warsaw

    Warsaw – Sofitel Victoria Warsaw

    I’m not normally decadent enough to stay at the Sofitel brand within Accor Hotels, but I had two expiring suite upgrades and thought that this might be a useful place to use them. Although I didn’t stay at this hotel on my birthday, as I wanted to be at the Novotel, it was a little treat to myself to stay here for a couple of days earlier on during the week.

    Richard had checked into his little room earlier on in the day, but I guessed correctly that my suite wouldn’t be available and hadn’t even tried. I tried to check in at 15:30, but the room wasn’t yet ready which wasn’t ideal, but wasn’t a problem. The staff member was polite, although she gave me a drinks voucher to apologise for the wait, although it transpired that this was the voucher they would have given me anyway as a welcome drink. I thought this whole element was botched by the hotel, who could only provide the room over an hour after the standard check-in time.

    There was then a problem that the hotel couldn’t find payment in their systems, even though they agreed that Accor had stated that they had taken it. There was some discussions about what had happened by staff members, but I thought best to just resolve it on check-out, which transpired to work well as I switched to a currency commission free card which saved me some money compared to if they’d used the card on file.

    The hotel’s water feature in the lobby, which kept making me think that it was raining when walking into reception. The hotel was built between 1973 and 1976 on the site of the Kronenberg Palace which had been destroyed by the Germans during the Second World War. There was lots of dithering about what to do with the site and the remains of the structure weren’t removed until the 1960s, and then there was talk of building an embassy here. It’s a large hotel, with 359 rooms and around 50 suites, and other than the Raffles over the road (also Accor, and too decadent for me) it’s the grandest accommodation option in the city.

    As another aside, there has been some drama here, with this paragraph coming from Wikipedia….

    “On August 1, 1981, the hotel saw an attempted assassination of the Palestinian Abu Daoud (nicknamed Mohammed Oudeh Daud), suspected by the Mossad of involvement in the attacks in Munich , who occupied the presidential suite.”

    I obviously feel the need to comment about the drinking options and there was a poor selection of beers available, this is a generic Żywiec in the Victoria Lounge. The whole set-up here felt quite dated, neither on-trend nor classy, and I thought this was the weakest area of the hotel, something more inviting could be done with the bar area.

    At this stage, I wasn’t thrilled with the hotel as everything seemed botched and muddled, but I arrived at my room with sort of high hopes.

    The suite’s living room area, with my first impressions being positive. I don’t usually watch television in hotels, but that’s one of the largest that I’ve seen in a room.

    I didn’t realise when booking that the suite came with two bathrooms, this is the one attached to the living room area. It was probably a little more than I needed since I was in the suite on my own, but it gave me options….

    The suite’s bedroom.

    And the second bathroom, with a shower and bath.

    The coffee machine.

    An umbrella was available should it rain.

    Slippers and dressing gowns were provided, along with a range of other posh toiletries and the like.

    The welcome letter and gift, which I always appreciate (both the letter and the gift).

    These were delicious, chocolate coated orange things, very moreish.

    I very much liked the view of Piłsudski Square from my room and that’s the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to the mid-left of the photo. It’s the largest square in the city and this was once the Saxon Palace, until the Germans destroyed it during the Second World War, but there are some quite surprising plans to rebuild sections of it. Incidentally and back to the hotel, the windows don’t stay open, although they’re meant to.

    Anyway, any annoyance I had with the hotel disappeared with the comfort of the room and two of the best night’s sleep that I’ve had in a hotel. The room can be blacked out entirely so no light comes in and there were no internal or external noise issues.

    And here’s a heap of breakfast photos. There was a wide selection of food and drink options, with the only slight omission being the variety of breads seemed quite minimal. But there were plenty of cheeses, cold cuts, yogurts, cereals and hot options. There was an egg section where omelettes and the like were available, with the staff member making me a rather lovely Eggs Benedict. There were plenty of juices, including some detox ones to give more choices. The quality of the food and drink was high, with the choice meaning it’d be hard for someone to complain about the lack of options. The breakfast room was large and spacious, with relatively few other guests, so it was a relaxing environment, not like the Holiday Inn Express set-up I’ve had this year which is a bit more, well, hectic and lively.

    The cost of the suite for two nights including breakfast would usually be somewhere around £300 to £400, but my suite upgrades meant that the cost to me was £187.16 for two nights. However, I gained 1,600 Accor reward points with this stay, which is around £28, making what I consider to be a charge of £160 or so for this rather lovely experience. At £80 per night including breakfast, I’m going to say that this is excellent value for a (very) occasional treat.

    The welcome was a bit botched, but the staff were helpful throughout and the breakfast was excellent. The room was beautifully comfortable, although lacked a large desk and some of the furnishings were a little rickety, but this didn’t impact on my stay. There was definitely an air of decadence about the whole arrangement and a turn-down service was provided on the first night with a staff member coming in to move slippers near to the bed and put a bottle of water on the bedside table. As an aside, I can’t be doing with that sort of thing and as there was no free chocolate, I put the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the second night. Richard didn’t do that in his room, he likes the turn-down service for reasons unknown to me.

    I’d absolutely stay here again and since I have a couple more suite upgrades to use next year, I might repeat this whole experience in November 2022. Absolutely the best breakfast that I’ve had in an Accor hotel and also the most luxurious room, but since I’m really an Ibis Budget person at heart, that’s probably not surprising. For anyone wanting more information, the hotel can be booked here.

  • Częstochowa – Ibis Częstochowa

    Częstochowa – Ibis Częstochowa

    I stayed at the Accor operated Ibis hotel during my few days in Częstochowa, with the price being about £25 per night including breakfast. There’s a Mercure in the city as well, but that was a bit decadent in terms of the pricing, with the cheaper option inevitably being the one I went for. My first impressions were primarily of concern as the hotel looked quite shut and there were signs on the front door, usually signifying a problem. It transpired it was just a sign in Polish saying that the doors were broken and to enter via a side door, so I was considerably relieved that I didn’t have to hunt for another hotel. The staff member at check-in was friendly and helpful, so my early impressions transpired to be positive.

    The room, all to brand standard, although this hotel doesn’t have hot drink facilities in the room which seems unusual for an Ibis. The room was on the top floor away from the lift, which is always my preference. It’s the older style Ibis room design, but I assume it’ll be updated when there’s refurbishment at the hotel.

    The welcome gift of meringue things, all very lovely as Ibis hotels don’t need to give anything.

    The view from my room, primarily of two petrol stations. The hotel has a policy of not cleaning the rooms because of the current health crisis, but it can be requested at reception if required. I checked the wi-fi (my Vodafone data gives me 25GB per month to use outside the UK which should be enough, but I use the hotel wi-fi when trying to back-up photos and the like) and it seemed to be reliable and at a sufficiently fast speed.

    The food menu for anyone interested who is reading this (goodness knows who though). Hotel prices are inevitably towards the higher end of the scale, but they’re not unreasonable (divide by 5 for an approximate UK amount).

    The welcome drink of Żywiec, which isn’t the most exciting, but it was free and so therefore clearly acceptable to me. I’m easily pleased.

    The breakfast options, lots of cold choices along with a few hot options that I didn’t bother with. The meat wasn’t the most exciting in terms of the quality, but there were plenty of options. The coffee in the hotel is all branded from Costa, I can’t recall seeing that set-up in an Accor property before.

    It all transpired to be a comfortable stay with no internal or external noise issues. I’m pleased to note that the windows opened, this wasn’t one of those sterile hotels where everything is sealed up, and the air conditioning also worked. It’s about a ten-minute walk into the city centre and there are KFC and McDonald’s outlets within a couple of minutes walk. The hotel inevitably isn’t the most luxurious, but anyone wanting that can find other options in the city, not least the Mercure.

    And, a handy booking link for the hotel…..

  • Warsaw – Mercure Warszawa Airport

    Warsaw – Mercure Warszawa Airport

    I’m back again in Warsaw and at a hotel that I stayed in last year during my brief sojourn to the city in between lockdowns. It’s conveniently located near to the airport and easily accessible to the city centre, hence why I thought that I’d go for two nights here. There’s also an Aldi opposite the hotel which is handily located and which provided my snacks on the first evening. For anyone coming from the airport, the hotel usually has a shuttle in normal times, but at the moment it’s easy enough to jump on the train into the city centre and then just jump off after a couple of stops (not literally jump obviously) with about a 6-minute walk to the hotel.

    It took me a few seconds to remember where the hotel room numbers are located, which isn’t on the door. This is the one little problem I had at the hotel, which is that the key card was a bit unreliable and sometimes required me to make several attempts to get into the room. To be fair I didn’t bother going down to reception to change the card as it was a bit of a walk and no-one saw me patiently trying again and again to get it to work.

    The room which the hotel had upgraded for me, which was rather lovely. There was a sofa, chairs, a large desk and a fridge, with everything being spotlessly clean.

    The bathroom was the size of a small changing room.

    There was a espresso coffee machine, other hot drink making facilities and two bottles of water. I spent a good few minutes trying to turn the machine on, until I realised there’s a small switch at the back. And then there was espresso coffee….

    And a welcome gift of fruit (which I did eat) and cake, all much appreciated.

    And a welcome drink voucher, which mentioned that I could have any drink, a policy which seems to vary at different Accor hotels in Poland.

    The friendly member of bar staff said that I could have the Żywiec Porter, so I went with that quite happily. I commented in my post last year that the seating in the bar area is a little basic, although I could have gone into the restaurant with my drink and I can’t imagine that they would have minded.

    Back in the room, the windows opened as far as I wanted them to, and it would be possible to walk out on that bit of roofing if anyone was particularly adventurous (I’m not). It’d take an idiot, but I like that the windows weren’t sealed up as some hotels seem to feel is appropriate. Lots of fresh air was accessible to me, although the air conditioning was also very effective for those who don’t need street noise.

    The breakfast arrangement, hot food on the left, breads and fruit on that table in the middle with cold cuts, cereals, yoghurts, cheeses, fish and the like at the back.

    Behind me is the hot drinks and fruit juice area. Another friendly staff member was in the breakfast room and she was busily clearing tables with everything feeling clean and organised.

    And food photos from the two mornings that I was staying at the hotel (I mention that in case it looks like this was just one breakfast, which would have been a little greedy). This is just the sort of breakfast that I like, cold cuts, cheeses, bread rolls and everything tasted of a decent quality. And there’s a certain decadence to having blue cheese in the morning, that’s always a delight.

    The hotel was around £48 per night including breakfast, although I had Accor Rewards points to use up which halved that price. It’s not the cheapest rate that I could have got in Warsaw, but I very much like this hotel and it’s my favourite non-central Accor option in the city. The staff were friendly throughout, the hotel was clean, the restaurant area was organised and everything felt really well managed.

    For anyone who wants to book it or find out more, here’s the link.

  • London – Newham (Borough of) – Ibis Canning Town

    London – Newham (Borough of) – Ibis Canning Town

    I’ve worked my around a good number of the Accor hotels in London, well, other than the expensive ones as I’m not that decadent. This Ibis in Canning Town is new to me and is located opposite the Underground and DLR station in the beating heart of Newham.

    The check-in was efficient and what appeared to be a manager was standing near to the reception desk welcoming and talking to guests. I thought that was a nice touch, there was a really warm feel to this hotel in terms of the welcome. They gave me a room on the top floor and the interior was the Ibis brand standard affair, but spotlessly clean.

    Well, that really is very lovely as Ibis don’t have to provide a welcome gift. Some other Accor branded hotels do, although often don’t, so this was another nice little touch. My loyalty is easily bought with popcorn and a drink.

    The extensive view from my window, a reminder of when I got the DLR every day into Canning Town when I lived near here.

    For the welcome drink I went for Meantime London Lager, a perfectly acceptable option for a chain hotel, although I was slightly puzzled when asked if I wanted ice with it. The hotel has done well here with its cafe, as they have a limited amount of space and it was busy with what appeared to be a combination of guests and locals. Hotels often have quite anonymous and quiet cafe bar set-ups which aren’t really much used, something that didn’t happen here. Although the flip side of that was that I couldn’t get any work done as the set-up wasn’t conducive to that as it was a little too loud, so I didn’t linger for long.

    The view from the hotel room at night. The window in the room opened which meant that I could listen to the sound of traffic and activity, something I find quite relaxing (who needs the quiet countryside?).

    I particularly liked watching this, the three levels of Canning Town platforms and the bus station in front of it, there’s quite a lot of integrated transport going on there.

    As another one of my irrelevant asides and a clear sign that I’m spending too much time in Accor hotels, but there has been a switch from the white dispensers to the black ones. This hotel had one of each, but the ‘Rock Your Body’ ones are often broken, such as this one, not really a very well thought through design as around a third of these dispensers I’ve had just don’t work (they’re full, but the mechanism at the top doesn’t do anything). It’s not ideal from Accor, although I accept that it’s not the world’s most pressing issue at the moment…..

    Anyway, I very much like this hotel, with friendly staff, clean rooms, a nice touch with the welcome gift and the views over the River Thames. It’s well reviewed on-line and it’s a quick journey into central London given how near the Jubilee Line station is, and it’s a short DLR journey to get to London City Airport and the ExCeL centre.

  • Hull – Ibis City Centre (Visit 3)

    Hull – Ibis City Centre (Visit 3)

    This is my third visit to the Accor operated Ibis in Hull, centrally located and reasonably priced.

    I was able to have a little meander around the reception area when checking in at around 22:30 as the staff were all elsewhere for several minutes.

    The room, which is brand standard and what I expected, although missing a hairdryer but I can cope without that. The set-up is becoming ever more rickety, they’re going to have to refurbish this hotel soon as the rooms are becoming slowly but steadily more damaged and the carpets more stained. Cleanliness was adequate, nothing more, with this being another Accor hotel which isn’t cleaning the room during guest stays. They also hadn’t filled two of the three shower gels in the room, which was hardly a problem, but wasn’t perhaps ideal.

    I slightly suspect a dispense problem here, as the already very average Boddington’s was devoid of any taste at all, almost a junk product. This Accor doesn’t have a very good selection of beers, it’s one of the weakest selections I’ve seen in an Ibis hotel and they should perhaps make more effort here. I can’t overly complain as it was a free welcome drink, but it’s all a bit lacklustre. Also, the chocolate bar they used to give as a welcome gift has gone, perhaps not their wisest move as it’s just a cheap gesture that likely created at least a bit of goodwill (it did with me anyway).

    However, there were no noise disturbances either internally or externally, so I had no issues during my stay. When I asked for more coffee I was given a huge heap of them, so no complaints there either. I didn’t want breakfast here, but I note their old previous offer price has gone, and it’s back to £8.50. I didn’t see anyone having breakfast when I walked by on three mornings, I suspect that the Wetherspoons over the road has stolen nearly all of that trade from them. I shall likely stay here again, but I hope they start a refurbishment programme soon. Oh, and dump their generic beer options, or at least get something marginally more decadent.

  • London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Ibis Budget Hounslow

    London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Ibis Budget Hounslow

    I’ve been in London this weekend to have a rather lovely time seeing Liam and his wonderful two boys, a really nice day on the cable cars, the ArcelorMittal Orbit (which we have to go back to as their slide was a bit jammed yesterday), Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, M&Ms World, the Lego Store, the London Transport Museum and about 62 trains. There weren’t many cheap accommodation options, so the best value that I could find was the Ibis Budget in Hounslow.

    The usual basic room, which seems to be the older design, judging by the lovely new set-up at hotels such as Ibis Budget Whitechapel. It was very clean, no issues there. The hotel also isn’t currently offering daily cleaning of the rooms and they’re claiming Covid-19 restrictions, but that is now becoming rarer in hotels within Accor and other chains and is perhaps not entirely believeable now. If they’re short of staff or saving money, I’d personally rather that they were honest about that.

    The main public area on the ground floor, with the staff being friendly and engaging, which seems to often be the case at Ibis Budget hotels. There are no free hot drinks in the rooms at this Accor brand, but there is free tea at reception and there’s chargeable coffee.

    The breakfast buffet arrangement, which only costs a few pounds and I find really quite good value. There’s cereals, jams, Nutella, ham, cheese, yoghurts, orange juice, coffees, porridge and so on, basic but perfectly acceptable quality.

    I was very brave and used the toast machine, although I’m always slightly nervous I’ll set the hotel on fire. All went well actually with the whole breakfast arrangement and I didn’t break anything which is always a positive way to start the day. It was quite quiet in the breakfast area, but I did go down early on both days.

    The breakfast arrangement I went for, or at least, part of it. The coffee was of an unusually high standard, I very much liked that.

    The reviews of the hotel are mixed, although the staff and location are well reviewed. It’s rated a lot better for solo travellers than it is was friends and families, which is entirely understandable. One guest left a negative review, but I liked the hotel’s reply of:

    “I believed that the fact that you kept extending your stay on numerous occasions meant you were satisfied with the hotel”. It’s a fair point from the management……

    I had expected a weekend at Ibis Budget to be a little louder than it was, but there was no internal noise or disturbances at all. Being under the flightpath of London Heathrow was more annoying at 06:00 though, my sympathies to the local residents as the aircraft do indeed make one hell of a noise. I liked this hotel, it’s a short walk away from Hounslow Central underground station and the staff were friendly. I’d happily stay here again if it was competitively priced.

  • Accor – New ALL Credit Card

    Accor – New ALL Credit Card

    This is positive news (for me anyway), a credit card linked to Accor’s Limitless hotel loyalty programme. I’ve got the IHG credit card where spend is rewarded with IHG points (and extra points when paying for IHG hotels), although I originally only got it solely to get automatic Gold Status. The ALL credit card is currently only being rolled out in France, but it looks like it’ll be coming to the UK in 2022. I accept that once again I probably need to get out more if this is the sort of news that I find exciting….

  • Accor Hotels – ibis Berlin Hauptbahnhof

    Accor Hotels – ibis Berlin Hauptbahnhof

    Just as an irrelevant aside (another one…), I wonder how bad the room description text must have been for someone at Accor to reject it with the words “you can’t use this text – it’s just too directly suggestive”….

  • Bingley – Mercure Bradford Bankfield

    Bingley – Mercure Bradford Bankfield

    Hotel prices at weekends are at the highest levels I’ve seen them in the UK at the moment, which has required me to be quite creative. There’s near 100% occupancy in chain hotels across the north of the country, a result of people wanting to have some weekends away. For my Saturday night stay the Mercure at Bradford Bankfield was showing at £45 for a double room, which was very cheap compared to everywhere else and seems to be a quirk, perhaps someone just cancelling. I also have a heap of Accor rewards points, so paid for most of it with that.

    I walked for twenty minutes from Bingley to get here and it’s an impressive building and I tried to ensure that I didn’t include the wedding party in my photo who were having photos taken outside the front of the main entrance. Unfortunately, Mercures in country locations in the UK generally have a poor reputation, and I had low expectations of this one, usually the grand frontages hide some dated rooms in cheap extensions.

    “Set in a Gothic style mansion house surrounded by landscaped gardens, the Mecure Bradford, Bankfield Hotel is a peaceful retreat and a short stroll from the banks of the River Aire.”

    The above is what the hotel has written, and ignoring the issue they can’t spell the hotel name, they’ve probably set up expectations here of a grand country house that they clearly can’t deliver on. Most of the hotel isn’t in a Gothic style mansion house, it’s in more modern extensions that are quite rickety. That means guests expecting they’ll be in lovely historic rooms won’t get what they hoped for.

    I also only realised after leaving that the hotel has been dumping inventory on Groupon, which in nearly all circumstances I’ve ever encountered is a sign that there are huge problems in getting customers and it’s almost always a last resort. They’d perhaps be better just reducing their prices on Accor’s web-site rather than handing over a big cut to Groupon, but there we go….. It could be claimed that it’s great marketing, but it doesn’t look like that, they’ve got some devastating reviews because they’ve over-promised a country house luxury stay and haven’t delivered on that to Groupon customers.

    Anyway, I digress.

    The main hall. The welcome at reception was helpful and the staff member apologised that he couldn’t offer me a free upgrade as they were full. To be fair to them, I was aware of that as the hotel filled soon after I booked the room that I did, so they were being entirely honest there. They didn’t bother with the welcome gift though, which they should have done, although the drinks voucher was pro-actively offered. I was nearly charged the wrong amount for the room, but it was soon fixed.

    I was aware that the bedroom was small when I booked, probably too small for two people, but fine for me.

    I think that the bathroom was about the same size as the bedroom….. There were some basic maintenance issues that needed addressing here that the hotel probably should have already fixed, such as the state of that window ledge.

    I took my welcome drink back to the room as I didn’t want to get in the way of the wedding that was taking place. As a drinks option, this Goose Island bottle is perfectly acceptable to me.

    The room wasn’t really clean enough, although it sufficed for me as I have relatively low standards here, otherwise I’d permanently be at receptions complaining. The bedding was clean, but the floor wasn’t and they had left half-used shower gels in the little bottles in the bathroom rather than replace them. That was shoddy and cost-cutting they shouldn’t be engaged with. Those mini bottles are a slight environmental disaster as it is, but they should be thrown away if they’re part-used.

    There’s no air conditioning in the room, although it’s an old building and so that’s not surprising. But, they haven’t bothered with putting fans in the room, and even Travelodge and Premier Inn do that. This to me is an omission, they should be doing this. I was also staying only for one night so this doesn’t affect me, but the hotel is saying it isn’t cleaning rooms for Covid cleanliness reasons. This is a little disingenuous, every other hotel I’ve stayed at recently is now moving back towards the usual housekeeping schedule. If they are short staffed then that’s fair enough, but they shouldn’t be claiming they’re doing it for cleanliness reasons, especially when they’re not properly cleaning the rooms anyway.

    The reviews for the hotel aren’t great and they should perhaps be most alarmed about how they’re doing badly on service looking at Google Reviews, that should usually be around 4.2 to 4.6 out of 5, but it’s down at 3.5 here. It’s easy to assume reviews aren’t reliable, but trends like that usually tell a story. There are a lot of negative reviews, although this one was quite blunt:

    “Worst hotel ever, no staff on reception. No food despite being pre booked my room has no lock and the door can be pushed open easily. The bedding was dirty. The curtains were falling down. The walls are like paper thin. I could go on for days. So instead of staying here give yourself a free upgrade and just sleep in a cardboard box outside the conditions will be much better”

    No lock? That’s not ideal. The walls were quite thin, although this was only evident to me in the morning as I could hear the television next door. The doors probably also need door closers on them as well to try and reduce noise, rather than them slamming shut.

    “Getting my bill right was clearly a major problem for the lady and she didn’t manage it (a subsequent charge to my credit card) as, in her words, she was emotional over the death of a disabled pigeon that morning. Clearly the cycle of nature passed her by. Food was adequate (no pigeon on the menu) but expensive as were the drinks. Bedroom was comfortable but the shower was unadjustable – fiercely hot all the time and unusable. A totally unsatisfactory stay and despite its convenience we shall not return.”

    I don’t want to make light of the disabled pigeon, but that review did amuse me.

    I can’t complain too much because the room rate was one of the cheapest in the area, but they often charge higher rates and I’m not confident they’re offering the standard of service that they should be. For my stay, it was entirely acceptable, but I wouldn’t stay here again.

  • Barnsley – Ibis Styles

    Barnsley – Ibis Styles

    The Ibis Styles in Barnsley, which is around a 30 minute walk from the centre of the town. I had thought about getting the bus, but I couldn’t be bothered and so just walked there and back every day. Sometimes it’s just easier to walk than try and understand the bus ticketing policy. For those who don’t like walking everywhere or getting the bus, there’s a free car park on the site.

    This hotel wasn’t built as an Ibis Styles, it rebranded a few years ago when it became part of Accor, so it’s a slightly different design to what I’ve seen before from the chain.

    Every Ibis Styles has a theme, sometimes quite quirky, although this hotel seems to have gone for glass which is in fitting with the new Glass Works development in the town centre. The room was spacious, had a modern bathroom and was very clean.

    I quite like the look of all the lights, but I was slightly concerned that I’d break one. Not that I actually break much stuff, but it’s good to have something to worry about. I didn’t break any incidentally….

    The hot drinks arrangements, with a carton of water.

    My view from the window, there’s actually the M1 in there as well, but the railway line is more visible in this photo. I quite like the noise from the road and railway, something a little different. The windows open in this hotel which is quite handy, saves me complaining about sterile rooms.

    The welcome drink, which was satisfactory to me even though it’s from Greene King. I wasn’t given a drinks voucher and had to ask for one, which is never quite ideal. Friendly barman though and there was a choice of around eight different beers across the taps and fridges, which isn’t bad at all.

    The breakfast area, although I didn’t eat at the hotel and went to the neighbouring Toby Carvery on one morning.

    The reviews for the hotel are broadly positive, although the management seema  bit abrupt in their responses to the negative ones. They had a run of complaints about the decor and they responded:

    “The rooms are not dirty, however we have steam marks on most of our bedroom walls as the decorator who did our refurbishment in 2015 used the incorrect paint and we now are unable to remove any marks from the walls and the steam marks have stained the walls, we have tried our hardest to remove the marks. All our bedrooms now require a full re paint and this will be completed soon.”

    That must have been a bloody nightmare, go through a refurbishment and they end up worse than when they started. Anyway, it all seems fixed now. I really quite liked this hotel, it was all quiet and peaceful with the room cleaned and restocked every day.