July 27th, 2007
Checking into the Hotel yesterday, the reception process was quick and efficient. The chap on the desk new his stuff and was polite and professional. Unfortunately this was the highlight. Getting out the creaky life on the 1st floor, I could feel my mood sink rapidly. The corridor was long, dingy and dated. The carpet looked like it had seen to many stag or hen nights and the wallpaper should have been stripped of in the 70’s. The lighting only added to the misery as I headed towards my room.
The room was large in size and had a large queen sized bed but that was about the only thing that impressed. The TV reception was poor, the cleanliness of the room (especially behind the lamp stands and bed) was filthy and hadn’t seen a dusting for a good few months. The bathroom consisted of dated tiles and ceramics which included hairs left behind by the previous occupant. As usual in hotels of this sort the air conditioning didn’t actually cool, just recycled already too warm air. (Apparently hotels don’t seem to realise that they have to actually turn on the outside coolers to chill the air! – or they do, but choose not to save money).
Resigning myself to a miserable few days in this god forsaken hotel, I headed down to the gym to work out my frustration in the pool. Thankfully this was a better experience. Again the staffs were knowledgeable and friendly.
After that, it was time to check out the restaurant. It started badly and only got worse. Shown to my table I could see they were understaffed and overworked. The staff trying their hardest had no chance. Placing my order I settled back too tired to care. The food arrived (I had to remind them I was still waiting for my drink) and I started. At this point I heard an argument kicking of behind me. One of the BT engineers who had obviously been here a few days was finally giving up the will to smile. Shouting loudly that the food was disgusting he mouthed of at the waiters and stormed out the restaurant. It turned out that I should have followed. The food on my plate was luke warm and consisted of various portions of micro waved or fried food. Foul, foul, foul.
My drink arrived which incidentally was overpriced as usual for the quality presented.
Heading back to my room to finish my drink I’d had enough of today.
Breakfast turned out to be a bit of a surprise. It was actually quite nice with a good choice of healthy and traditional (un healthy) options.
The rest of my stay was pretty much the same. I will be pleased when the Croydon Park Hotel re-opens but in the meantime will find somewhere else to stay rather than return to this miserable place.
AMENDED. THURSDAY. I take it all back about breakfast. Today I was told to wait in the bar area because they had no tables ready. Along with three other business people we sat grumpily waiting to be seated. The ‘manager’ seemed to be making a crisis out of a hiccup, the place was chaotic.
Score: 0 Stars.
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