Nights in UK Hotels

The Dorchester

Hotel | "Stylish Stopover"

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I have been fortunate enough to stay at the Dorchester Hotel in London on two occasions. I made both bookings directly with the hotel as none of the usual intermediaries were able to offer better rates.I arrived at the hotel by taxi and doormen in green morning coats and top hats immediately rushed to open the door, welcome me and after I got out of the taxi they unloaded my luggage and brought it inside. Although there was not a queue at reception on either occasion, the check-in process is quite slow. I am not sure why, but they seem to spend a great deal of time working out what room should be allocated. Despite being attended to straight away, check in easily takes 20 minutes. On o...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on July 13, 2009

The Dorchester
53 Park Ln
London, England W1K
0871 223 5000

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Sofitel London Gatwick

Hotel | "Flying Visit"

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I have made several flights from Gatwick in recent years. On my most recent trip, I decided that rather than run the gauntlet of the M25 first thing on a Monday morning, I would book an airport hotel the night before and start the day at a more leisurely pace.The main reason I chose the Sofitel was its highly convenient location, we were not planning to get to the airport until the evening, had to return our hire car and the last thing I felt I would want to do would be faff around with airport hotel buses. No need to do this with the Sofitel as it is connected to the North Terminal by a covered walkway.We arrived at Gatwick at about 8pm, dropped off the hire car and crossed t...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 13, 2009

Sofitel London Gatwick
North Terminal, Gatwick Airport
London, England
0870 400 8494

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Hilton Dartford Bridge Hotel

Hotel | "Dart to the Shops!"

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The Hilton Hotel Dartford is in a particularly insalubrious part of Kent, literally a few moments from the Dartford crossing toll booths. However it is ideally situated for the Bluewater shopping centre and as my husband and I were having a late evening at the Bluewater cinema, we decided to book the hotel rather than face a tiring drive home to north Hertfordshire.As we approached the hotel over the Dartford Bridge we were quite concerned about the proximity to the main roads but in fact as we got closer we decided it was probably set back far enough for traffic noise to be a non issue. The hotel has a reasonable appearance close up as you can see from the dooyoo picture, but it really...Read More

The Hilton Hotel Dartford is in a particularly insalubrious part of Kent, literally a few moments from the Dartford crossing toll booths. However it is ideally situated for the Bluewater shopping centre and as my husband and I were having a late evening at the Bluewater cinema, we decided to book the hotel rather than face a tiring drive home to north Hertfordshire.

As we approached the hotel over the Dartford Bridge we were quite concerned about the proximity to the main roads but in fact as we got closer we decided it was probably set back far enough for traffic noise to be a non issue. The hotel has a reasonable appearance close up as you can see from the dooyoo picture, but it really is in an awful area. Still I doubt there are many people who will go on holiday to the Hilton Dartford Bridge, rather this is a hotel for a convenient stop over and as such I don’t think the surroundings are too important.

As we pulled in, we were quite surprised to find that we needed to take a ticket to get into the car park. The fees were quite substantial, other than for residents for whom they are limited to £3 per stay. We could not see why anyone would come here if they were not a guest and we thought the fee to park for guests and non-guests was quite ridiculous for a hotel in this location.

The hotel lobby is quite large, there is a bar off to one side and there is plenty of comfortable seating around, most of it vacant when we arrived. It was 3.30pm by this time, nevertheless the receptionist told us she would have to check whether the room was ready as it was apparently still showing as "dirty" on her system. I thought she could have said "not ready" as opposed to "dirty" to be honest and in view of the time I wondered if they are quite so forgiving to guests that might be late checking out.

Fortunately the room was ready and we were directed to the lifts to make our own way up. We did not have high expectations, when I was younger Hilton was a by-word for hotel luxury in but I think those days are long gone and so my low expectations were more than satisfied with the light coloured decor as we made our way along the corridors to our room.

First impressions of the room were not too bad either. The decor was also mainly in light colours and gave a feeling of a bright and modern room, it was only after a proper look around that I noticed paper peeling from the walls and other slightly tatty effects. On the other hand, we did notice that the TV was a modern flat screen, but we neglected to try it out so I could not say if there was a good channel selection unfortunately.

The room otherwise contained a bed, sofa, dressing table and tea and coffee making facilities. The bed was not great, the headboard was a piece of wood attached to the wall but the rest of the bed was not actually attached to it and being a rather flimsy bed on wheels we found it parted company with the wall during the night and pillows ended up on the floor in-between. I also found the bed far too soft and lumpy for my liking. We found the room a bit too warm and there is no air-conditioning. The bathroom was small to medium in size and functional but rather dated. The floors and walls were covered in cheap looking white ceramic tiles and the grout was discoloured which made the room particularly the floor look dirty, although I don’t think it really was.

After dumping our bags, we headed over to Bluewater for some shopping and the cinema. Upon returning to the hotel we decided to have a nightcap in the lobby bar. There were a few other people doing the same by this time, although generally the hotel felt very quiet. The wine was quite nice but £10 a glass was silly money in this type of establishment.

We had a peaceful night’s sleep and left quite early the next morning after deciding to skip the £13 breakfast. The room cost £88 with another £3 for the privilege of parking there. I could have sworn I booked at £78 but unfortunately the email confirming the reservation does not include the rate. It was a very so-so kind of stay and I would say a hotel of a similar standard to the Premier Inn, nothing to rave about and nothing in particular to moan about either.

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Member Rating 3 out of 5 on July 26, 2009

Hilton Dartford Bridge Hotel
Masthead Close
Dartford, United Kingdom DA2
+44 1322 284444

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Premier Inn

Hotel | "Purple Place"

Quote:

My family recently had a get together in our northern hometown, but a shortage of beds in the family home meant that some local accommodation was required. As I had left it until the last minute and knew one sister had booked the Premier Inn in Milnrow (Rochdale), I skipped the research and booked myself in as well.I booked through the hotel chain's own website and found the process to be very straight forward, I had a confirmed reservation within minutes. I did double check I had the right hotel before I confirmed as this inn is officially called the Rochdale Premier Inn but I personally tend to think of Milnrow and Rochdale separately and thought there could be two hotels (there isn't)....Read More

My family recently had a get together in our northern hometown, but a shortage of beds in the family home meant that some local accommodation was required. As I had left it until the last minute and knew one sister had booked the Premier Inn in Milnrow (Rochdale), I skipped the research and booked myself in as well.

I booked through the hotel chain's own website and found the process to be very straight forward, I had a confirmed reservation within minutes. I did double check I had the right hotel before I confirmed as this inn is officially called the Rochdale Premier Inn but I personally tend to think of Milnrow and Rochdale separately and thought there could be two hotels (there isn't).

On the day, we arrived at about 2pm. The hotel is easy to find being visible as you leave junction 21 of the M62. I have to confess, I was not particularly looking forward to this stay and usually avoid this type of chain hotel but as we pulled into the car park, I thought the buildings looked new and in good order and everything was tidy outside.

There were no other customers waiting at the reception desk so we were attended to straight away and received efficient and very friendly service. It is practice to pay for the room in advance so we stumped up our £53 for the night and were certainly not complaining about missing those Sunday morning check out queues. We were asked if we wanted breakfast, which would have been an additional £7.50 per person but we decided to defer that decision until the morning and this was no problem.

We were allocated room 59 which was up one flight of stairs and along two corridors, in fact we appeared to be in the furthermost room in the hotel from reception which we were pleased about as it meant that there would not be people tramping up and down the corridor past our room during the night. With trepidation I opened the door...

And was pleasantly surprised. The room was a very good size and other than an overall purple glow to it, felt bright and fresh. The bed was a good size and was covered in white cotton bed linen, with a purple throw over the end. There were only two pillows on the bed but there were two spares in the cupboard, which I was pleased about as I like two to myself. There were no armchairs in the room but rather underneath the window there was a very large chaise longue. Purple I think. We also had a large wooden cabinet which provided hanging space for clothes as well as housing the TV and tea / coffee making facilities. The TV was a rather old 14 inch portable and had just the five channels but it was adequate, we were going to be out most of the time and were not expecting a 50 inch flat screen. I was pleased that there were some tea / coffee facilities but there were only two tea bags and two coffee sachets and I would have liked more generous stocks.

The bathroom was average size, everything was white, clean and still looked new although I don't believe it would have been. We had a bath with a shower over and the shower temperature and pressure were easy to control. After a quick look round, we decided to head out. The windows had been left open and the room was just a touch chilly, so we shut the windows and turned up the heating before we went.

Some hours later we returned to the hotel and decided to have a quick nightcap in the hotel bar. Sadly the wine was utterly dreadful and after two sips we abandoned the drinks and went to bed in our now nicely warmed room. Earlier in the evening, my 16 year old niece who had stayed the night before as well, had reported being disturbed by people thumping around outside her room at night, but we closed our door and didn't hear a peep.

I had decided that in the interests of research I should try breakfast in the morning, unfortunately middle sister had decided to poison me at dinner the night before and I spent the night being rather ill and could not face breakfast. I do know that the hotel breakfast offering was the usual selection of hot and cold buffet, but the standard does vary and I can only report that my sister's partner breakfasted both days and was very pleased with the spread.

I do not usually consider budget chain hotels when I am looking for accommodation, but I did so this time out of convenience. I was pleasantly surprised and very pleased with the £53 cost, I am sure that the standard can vary across the chain, but I would nevertheless be very happy to try Premier Inn again based upon this experience.. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 13, 2009

Premier Inn
Newhey Road
Rochdale, United Kingdom OL16 4JF
+44 8701 977 219

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Clough Manor

Hotel | "Lancashire Nights"

Quote:

Another weekend and another family gathering in the north. A hotel for a couple of nights was required and I decided to try Clough Manor in Denshaw, which despite the grand name is a small boutique hotel with, I believe, about 25 bedrooms. Denshaw is one of a few extremely pretty villages surrounded by the Saddleworth Moors. It is a few minutes drive from junction 22 of the M62 and only about twenty-five minutes drive from Manchester city centre. I had made my booking through laterooms.com and was pleased with the rate of £55 per night inclusive of breakfast for two.We arrived around midday, parked up and took a few moments to admire the stunning views from this high vantage...Read More

Another weekend and another family gathering in the north. A hotel for a couple of nights was required and I decided to try Clough Manor in Denshaw, which despite the grand name is a small boutique hotel with, I believe, about 25 bedrooms.

Denshaw is one of a few extremely pretty villages surrounded by the Saddleworth Moors. It is a few minutes drive from junction 22 of the M62 and only about twenty-five minutes drive from Manchester city centre. I had made my booking through laterooms.com and was pleased with the rate of £55 per night inclusive of breakfast for two.

We arrived around midday, parked up and took a few moments to admire the stunning views from this high vantage point. We then went inside and within a few minutes were checked in and directed to our room on the first floor. Upon opening the door, first impressions were quite good. The room was spacious, the furniture was modern and we had an up to date, albeit small flat screen TV. Although we had come up a flight of stairs, the hotel is built on a slope so the room had French windows that opened onto a small, grassed area, although I won't call it a veranda as there was no outside seating, it would have been a bit too chilly to sit out anyway. We had some tea and coffee making facilities in the room, but no bottled water and only a couple of teabags and coffee sachets and we would have liked more.

The bathroom was not as attractive as the bedroom, it was quite dated with a fake mahogany bath panel and dreadful grey tiles on the walls and floor but at least it was clean. The shower was over the bath, it was difficult to get the temperature right as the hot and cold taps were separate and finding the right balance took me a long time. It did not help that the shower screen was fixed so it was difficult to reach round to the taps and I did not want to get into this bath before the water was ready as the hot water was absolutely scalding hot. The hairdryer was of the type that hangs on the bathroom wall, sounds like a vacuum cleaner and gives of a feeble puff of warm air at best so takes about five times as long as normal to dry your hair.

After a quick freshen up, we headed out for the afternoon and returned early evening. We were quite hungry as we missed lunch so decided to have something to eat in the bar area. We were the first people in but over the course of the evening a few other groups did come in and have a drink before heading to the restaurant for their meals. Apparently it was "Lancashire Night" which meant the staff all wore flat caps. We liked the bar area, the décor was contemporary and we got comfortable on the big brown leather sofas. The menu on offer in the bar was the same as in the restaurant, I decided to have a fish pie and my husband a chicken and mushroom pie. Service and the food was very good, although I thought £11 for a pie was a bit on the steep side.

After dinner we retired to our room, it was a bit chilly as the radiator was not working, we called reception and they quickly brought us up a heater and the next day maintenance fixed the one in the room. We managed to get a decent night's sleep, although the walls are paper thin and I found the bed far too soft and bouncy. I also didn't like the duvet, it felt like it was made of a waterproof material, a bit like sleeping bags are made of and the cover did not fasten so over the course of the night it tended to part company with the duvet itself. I reasonably well the second night too, although I think this must have been alcohol induced sleep as my husband reported being kept up by a disco complete with shouty DJ until gone midnight.

Breakfast was served in the dining room, which like the bar area was decorated contemporary style and was very attractive. Guests help themselves to breakfast cereals, fruit salad, yoghurts and juice. I decided to have some cereal, however the milk was not kept on ice and as I only like milk cold I had to leave it. We both ordered a full English, which was cooked to order and very nice. On the second morning I could not be bothered going down, buy my husband did and asked could he have some toast for me to bring back to the room and they were happy to oblige.

On the second evening we got in at about 9.30pm and as we had not eaten much during the day we decided to get something in the room. However they refused to do us anything hot, not even a BLT sandwich. I complained and they finally relented, although the food was not very good this time and we were annoyed that we could not have room service at 9.30pm even though they were still serving downstairs and were quite prepared to keep the house guests awake by running a disco until the small hours.

Our final bill was £200 which included two nights accommodation, breakfast and dinner for two both days and a couple of bottles of wine. Overall we thought this was reasonable. The other positive to Clough Manor was the staff, who other than the awkward chef who would not cook hot food, were all very helpful, friendly and seemed to try their best for guests. On the downside we found the room noisy as the walls are thin, the bed was uncomfortable, the shower was a challenge, we didn't like having to argue to get some hot food and my husband did not appreciate being kept up by a disco.

A few weeks earlier, I had stayed at the nearby Premier Inn in Milnrow. I thought Clough Manor would be a better experience. It was not and I know where I will be booking next time Read Less

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on July 13, 2009

Clough Manor
Rochdale Road - Denshaw - Saddleworth
Lancashire, United Kingdom OL3 5UE
+44 1457 87 1040

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Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel

Hotel | "Conferencing in the Cotswolds"

Quote:

Earlier this year I decided that it would be a good idea to take some training courses in order to demonstrate that I was keeping up with recent developments in my choosen occupation. A few hours later I was booked on a two and a half day residential course which was to be held in the Cotswold Water Park Hotel, part of the Four Pillars Hotel chain.My hotel accommodation was booked by the course organisers and included in the course fee paid. However I decided to arrive the day before in order to avoid a very early start on the first morning of the course. The hotel website was offering rooms for £80 a night but before booking I called to see if there was a better delegate rate available...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on July 13, 2009

Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel
Spine Road East - South Cerney
Gloucester, England GL7 5FP
(44) 01285 864000

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Quebecs The Leeds Town House

Hotel | "Jelly Beans and Honesty Bar"

Quote:

The days of kipping down on friend’s available floors, sofas or bathtubs are long behind me now that I am (well) into my 30’s. So when I knew we were going to Leeds to meet up with some friends for I set about finding some more suitable accommodation in the city centre.I have never attempted to use expedia to find a UK hotel before but it came up with several options same as it does for any other city in the world. The attractive photographs of the interior of the boutique hotel Quebec caught my eye amongst the bunch of Leeds hotels, many of which were part of large chains and were ugly 1960’s style, grey brick and glass buildings. Quebecs had five different categories of room available ...Read More

The days of kipping down on friend’s available floors, sofas or bathtubs are long behind me now that I am (well) into my 30’s. So when I knew we were going to Leeds to meet up with some friends for I set about finding some more suitable accommodation in the city centre.

I have never attempted to use expedia to find a UK hotel before but it came up with several options same as it does for any other city in the world. The attractive photographs of the interior of the boutique hotel Quebec caught my eye amongst the bunch of Leeds hotels, many of which were part of large chains and were ugly 1960’s style, grey brick and glass buildings. Quebecs had five different categories of room available costing from £83 to £140, we opted for the middle category room which cost £90 a night although expedia admin costs were another £15. Nevertheless I though that £105 for a 5 star city centre hotel for one night would do.

The hotel’s website states that it is centrally located and close to shops and amenities and indeed this is the case, it is a few minutes walk to the main shopping area. It is also just a few minutes walk from the train station and we parked our car here as unfortunately the hotel only has seven parking spaces. I had called the hotel after I booked and they told me that they could not reserve a spot for me but that it was easy to park at the train station.

The hotel is an attractive Victorian red brick building located on a fairly busy side street in what is definitely not the most salubrious part of town. Check in was polite and efficient, we were offered assistance with our bags and told where to find breakfast (not included in our rate) and then we headed up to our room on the second floor.

We were very impressed with the lobby area, the sweeping staircase and the huge stained glass windows were simply stunning. Our room was above average size, with extremely high ceilings making it feel even bigger and it had two huge ceiling to floor windows so it was very bright. The walls and furnishings were various shades of a relaxing sage green and the paintings, vases, lamps etc were ornate creating a very good look overall. It was equipped with hairdryer, iron, room safe and a mini-bar offering a good range of reasonably priced drinks and jellybeans. The bathroom was also impressive, the tiles were a grey marble effect, the suite looked brand new and the power shower was fabulous. Molton Brown toiletries were provided.

Unfortunately it was very hot in the room, 25.5 degrees according to the air conditioning unit, which is about the temperature I like to sun bathe in! We gave the air conditioning unit a bit of time to work but to no avail and for a fleeting moment thought we could make do with open windows then decided this might not be a good idea later on with the street noise in a city centre. In the end we mentioned it at reception as we headed out for the evening. They immediately promised to fix it and when we returned later on it was indeed fixed.

Before or even after our night out we would have liked to have invited our friends to the hotel for drinks. Unfortunately it is lacking a proper bar, as hotel guests we could go to the Oak Room on the third floor which was a gorgeous and comfortable room with an "honesty bar", i.e. there is a small selection of drinks available which you help yourself to and mark down what you take in a book to be added to your bill later. Unfortunately the selection and quantity of drinks was very limited and it did not seem a suitable place to bring non-guests even if they are allowed, which was not clear. We did go up for a nightcap though and ended up spending two very enjoyable hours here talking to fellow guests who were on a hen weekend.

That night we slept peacefully as the bed was very comfortable. There was a little bit of traffic noise that might bother some, but as I grew up living on a main road it does not even remotely bother me, in facts birds tweeting would be far more likely to disturb my sleep.

On the fourth floor there is a small restaurant serving breakfast and dinner, however as breakfast was not included with our rate we opted for a lie and didn’t try it out. The hotel also offers room service and I thought the menu looked quite good but again we did not try it.

I thought our room and indeed every part of the hotel was absolutely beautiful and furnished to an extremely high standard. I am nevertheless surprised that it is rated as a five star hotel because I thought this was based on amenities as well as soft furnishings and the Quebec does not have the amenities that you would expect from a five star, a hotel bar being one example.

After I had been to the hotel, I read some reviews of it on tripadvisor and I noticed it was a mixed bag. Some were very happy like me, but I noticed several people commented on having very small rooms and bathrooms. I would therefore recommend upgrading from the cheapest room, it was only £2 more a night for the next category and it was another £5 a night to the deluxe room that we stayed in. Three years later we made another trip to Leeds and decided to stay here again, which I think says something in itself. I have nothing in particular to add from the second visit, it was very similar to the first and we came away as satisfied customers.

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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 13, 2009

Quebecs The Leeds Town House
9 QUEBEC STREET
Leeds, United Kingdom LS1 2HA
44 113 2448989

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United Kingdom Journals

Nights in UK Hotels

The Dorchester

Sofitel London Gatwick

Hilton Dartford Bridge Hotel

Premier Inn

Clough Manor

Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel

Quebecs The Leeds Town House

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