4 years ago
To start of, the building itself is beautiful and ...
To start of, the building itself is beautiful and gives a good impression of what to expect. Unfortunately, when you walk through the doors, that grandeur diminishes due to chipped paint, dirty walls and creaking floors and doors (the latter could be down to the age of the building). On two nights driving into the car park, I had to wait for a group of young guys playing football against the outside wall of the car park to move and let me past through the hotel gate.
It's fairly dated, although you can see attempts to keep it original and authentic.
The room: I was in a room in an odd part of the hotel, but the bed and pillows were superbly comfortable. I enjoyed sleeping there, however the decor was poor, with stained walls, sockets not secure to the wall and a bathroom that looks like it was fitted on the cheap and not cleaned properly since completion. The curtains were good at blocking out light, but looked ill fitted and the hotel seems to be directly under Birmingham airports flight path so the single glazed windows do little to help alleviate the noise. As I was in the area for work, I was in meetings during the afternoons mostly so I was allowed to enjoy the noise of a function in a room directly opposite mine and the hammering of new carpet being fitted.
Food: breakfast was included, however after sampling the eggs Benedict one morning, I decided to stick to the fruit selection and boxed cereal, and also to make my own lunches and go out for dinner.
Staff: None of them seemed ecstatic about their jobs (I kind of get it - hospitality isnt always fun and the general public can be irritating as hell) but a smile wouldn't go amiss. Very little to warmth. I stay at many hotels for work all over the place in much busier hotels and staff are usually smiling and polite, happy to check you in and out whereas here I got the impression that customer interaction was more of a nuisance. And I got this purely from checking in and out, I never sought assistance for anything else other than check out time.
The WiFi was good though!
I chose this hotel as I was in the area for much longer than I usually am with work, so wanted to stay in something more homely and comfortable than the holiday Inn express around the corner, however from now on, I think I will be choosing holiday inn. Shame, as it looked very promising from our online booking tool our company use.