We stayed here for two nights, at the beginning of this month, as part of a short visit to the area. We arrived about 10.30 am, not expecting to be able to check-in until later, but hoping to leave o... more
We stayed here for two nights, at the beginning of this month, as part of a short visit to the area. We arrived about 10.30 am, not expecting to be able to check-in until later, but hoping to leave our bags in storage. The receptionist was very helpful. Our bags were duly stored, but there was no clear indication of when our room might become available. So we said we would come back later, after doing some sightseeing and having had lunch. This we did, returning to the hotel just after 2pm, only to be kept waiting for some considerable time whilst a tour organiser paid over a large amount of cash, and then to be told that our room was still not ready. We were informed that the hotel had been full the night before, and that new beds were being put in some of the rooms. Not our problems, we thought. We explained that we felt that we had been quite reasonable in waiting this long for access to the room, but we were then told by 2 senior managers, in a particularly aggressive manner, that we would have to wait until after 3pm, the normal check-in time for a room at this hotel. So, we asked why we had not been told this before, and things went downhill from there. Eventually, we were told that if we wanted a room now, we could have an inferior ground floor one. We declined this. One of us did take up the offer of a free coffee whilst waiting for a better room, but we spent most of the waiting time in the nearby tourist office complaining about how rude the senior staff had been at the hotel. We received a shocked and very sympathetic ear from the tourist office staff, then returned to the hotel to finally claim access to our room.
The room, itself was reasonably clean, quiet and comfortable. The bed could have been new! The décor was very "70s", however, (especially the carpet stains) as was that of the rest of the hotel. The cold scrambled eggs offered for both breakfasts were also probably from the "70s".
We appreciate that this is a budget hotel but work really needs to be done on refurbishing the place and greatly improving client management techniques (as well as the breakfast). The management attitude significantly reduced our enjoyment of the latter part of our short break.
The hotel seems to accommodate coach parties of teenagers, at least at Easter time, and management does not seem to be able to cope with the workload. less