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Archive for the ‘Accomodation’ Category

We took ourselves off to Seaham Hall And The Serenity Spa on Lord Byron’s Walk in Seaham this week.  Setting out on Thursday we spent three days in this restful oasis away from the trials and tribulations life normally throws our way. Seaham Hall is a luxury hotel and spa on the cliff top on the seafront and is just 20 minutes away from Newcastle, a stones throw away from Sunderland and 15 minutes away from Durham. Seaham Hall has won a number of Spa awards and with its Michelin restaurant on site (The White Room – we will do a separate review) it is the leading luxury hotel and spa destination resort in Northern England.

After arriving a little after 1pm on Thursday we first check into the Serenity Spa itself where we had booked ourselves a couple of treatments to get us into the relaxed spirit that permeates this place.  Arriving at reception, the lady who took down our particulars looked momentarily thrown when ‘Dr Pryor and Mrs Pryor’ arrived at her desk, but her composure and professionalism was restored within seconds with a smile on her face.  The two hot stone treatments booked (normally for the women) must have been what tipped it!

Four hours later and wrapped in fluffy bathrobe sat around the Spa pool, we were relaxed and looking forward to what lay ahead over the next two days.

Getting dressed, we set off to to the hotel itself which you can access via an underground walkway, to check into our room.  We were given Suite 4 and opening the front door, we knew it was of standard that we would approve.  The room had its own hallway, living room, bedroom and a huge bathroom with roll top bath stood squarely in the centre.  With his and his sinks and mirrors, we felt we would be adequately catered for.  All that lay ahead now was dinner in the Michelin starred restaurant (The White Room) and two days of further pampering….

…. Checking out on Saturday, we both agreed that despite the cost, we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  We both nearly fell asleep during our Indian head messages but were quickly awakened during our deep tissue massage (part of the Brows of Men treatments).  They were by far the best massages we have ever had.  Promising to return we paid the bill and bade a ‘see you soon’ to the reception staff.

Pryordurkin 4 stars.

This week I found myself working out of The Queens Hotel in City Square, Leeds.  Situated right next door to Leeds station, this was the perfect place for my colleagues who were travelling by train.

As I arrived on Wednesday morning having parked up my car at the nearby Criterion Place Car Park, the sun was shining down on City Square, Leeds.  This brought out the beautiful people of Leeds and with lots of eye candy around it was a great start to my day.

The hotel is an elegant Art Deco Grade II listed building. It was constructed in 1937 by architects W.Curtis Green and W.H. Hamlyn for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). It is a four star hotel and it has a total of 217 rooms. My visit had me using its meeting room facilities this week and I was especially taken with the very nice wood panelled Boardroom.  A favourite amongst my colleagues.

As you enter the hotel foyer you step back in time to a long-lost era of quality service and atmospheric surroundings.  I particularly like the style of this place and along with very attentive and friendly staff, it was a pleasure spending a few days working amongst this old lady of a building.

Outside in city square, life was bustling by, but inside this building you could easily forget where you were.   The food served up for lunch was of reasonably good quality.  Unlike my colleagues, I never stayed over on an evening, so can’t comment from personal experience of the evening dinners served up in the restaurant.

The public facilities in this hotel are excellent.  The toilets were spotlessly clean and fantastically decorated in the continuing Art Deco style that runs throughout the building.  The old lifts that sit in the heart of the building were fascinating, but being a little claustrophobic, I could never bring myself to try them.  However the rattling cages that have been going up and down for many years looked wonderful from the outside.

In summary, I enjoyed my time working in Leeds this week, not only for the great city and its people outside, but also for this wonderful stylish historic hotel.

Pryordurkin rating 4 stars.

I hadn’t planned to be in London this week, which was a shame, because Paul was hosting an international scientific conference and it would have been a good opportunity to sneak into the venue to listen to his closing speech.  As it was I thought I would be working up in Manchester and therefore miss the opportunity to see him in action.

However as is traditional for the Pryordurkins, nothing ever quite goes to the original plan and in the end I ended up working in London on Thursday.  Because it was a last minute change I had not booked my usual choice of hotel and when I tried, it was full because of some major event taking place in London. So, having no where to stay, a very nice lady at work came to the rescue and found me a room at the Park Plaza Hotel on Westminster Bridge in South Bank. As I jumped out the taxi that took me from my offices to the hotel, I was slightly apprehensive about the quality of the hotel accommodation I would find.  I had assumed because my usual choice of hotels were full, that the only remaining rooms in the city would be a bit dodgy (hopefully Paul will write up his review of the hotel he stayed at – you’ll see the connection if he does), but as I discovered, the opposite was true.   Anyway more of that later.  I entered the hotel, which directly faces the Houses of Parliament on the other side of the river across Westminster Bridge and took the escalator up to the lobby area.  It was an enormous space with LED patterned walls that change colour over the course of the day. It was around 10pm as I checked in and at this time the walls and patterns were a nice warm shade of inviting and relaxing red.  The check-in experience was very formal and professional but didn’t match the inviting warmth of the wall.  The lady who took my particulars down did not have English as her first tongue and with my accent, the communication was a little broken.

With the check-in experience over I made my way to the lift and  selected the gods, or  as others know it, the twelfth floor.  I noticed as the lift made its way from floor to floor that it also had a ‘-4th’ floor, that the wording beside described as the Spa area.  I was too tired to explore this at this time of night so continued my journey to my room.

When I opened the door, I was slightly disappointed by the shape of the room, but was quickly distracted by a poem about sleep woven into the deep orange carpet beneath my feet.

After this unexpected cultural diversion I looked for the main light switches.  When I found them, they took a little while to figure but once I had the ‘Relax’ setting seemed the most appropriate.   As is the case for me, this time of night in a hotel away from home, I can’t wait to get out of my suit.  I stripped off and then looked for the wardrobe.  It was late and I was tired and without warning a air grumpiness came over me.  (yes – grumpiness.  Me? – exactly).  My  mind had convinced me that because the hotel and room was so trendy they didn’t want to spoil the lines with something so mundane as a wardrobe. However after pushing and pulling on lots of doors and handles I discovered a large spacious wardrobe behind what I thought was a simple wall sized piece of art (see picture).  Crumpled suit now neatly hanging I headed to the mini bar, that was discovered during the now previous period of grumpiness.  My mood rapidly improved when I discovered, unlike the Intercontinental Hotels group, that they don’t ‘skin’ you for the cost of items from the mini bar.  My small but plentiful bottle of wine, was only £4.95.

Next it was time to figure the TV. A huge flat screen affair hanging on the wall, it had a great choice of channels and even served as an internet browser with the push of a button. Missing home, I selected our website, went to the gallery page and picked one of the photo albums to display.

So there I was, in a trendy hotel room, overlooking the Houses of Parliament with photographs of home flashing up on the wall. A glass of wine from the mini bar in my hand.  It was a welcome  end to the day.

A good night sleep later, I made my way to breakfast to be shown to a table by a friendly waitress. The breakfast area was full of Americans and tourists so along with my two colleagues who were staying, we settled at a small table near the window overlooking the  rear of the hotel. Wearing business suits, we all stood out somewhat amongst the fellow relaxed and slightly sophisticated (read stuck-up) looking guests. The breakfast selection was not particularly impressive given the rest of the amenities in the hotel and I have certainly sampled much better.  However because I am looking after my figure and waistline  (as anyone who has met me recently will tell you) I opted for a light start to the day.  Cereals, crusty bread, fruit juice, scrambled egg, sausage, bacon, tomato and mushrooms! It was at this point I noticed a slim, tall cute waiter standing beside my table offering coffee.  I sucked in and said yes please with a smile in my eye. He managed to keep the look of ‘another guest overdoing the English breakfast’ on his face while leaning over and pouring my hot kick-start to the day.  As he wandered off to serve other guests I sneaked a peek at his behind and was pleased to see that he had clearly sat on something earlier, the remnants of which distracted the eye from his otherwise pert butt.

Checking out with the equally cold reception staff I noticed the walls were now a bright blue and on leaving the spacious lobby area I reminded myself that next time, I will aim to check in earlier so that I can explore the -4th floor underground Spa and leisure facilities.

Pryordurkin rating 4 stars.

PS.  I never managed to see Paul’s closing speech, because work over took my day and I didn’t leave the office until 6pm when I ran the length of Euston Road to catch the 6.30pm train out of Kings Cross to York.  Unusual for the Pryordurkin effect, Paul was there on the platform as planned and we both found a four seater table in the first class carriage restaurant to ourselves.  A nice meal later, we pulled into York and drove home.

I have recently had to travel to Blackpool on business and have found myself staying at the De Vere Herons Reach Hotel on East Park Drive, near the Zoo.  I know it is near the Zoo for two reasons.  1) The sign near the hotel that says Zoo and 2) I could hear elephants shouting for breakfast each morning.

This weeks visit was very typical.  I arrived at reception to check in and found a mixture of other follows guests made up of tourists and business people alike.  You can spot the business people quickly and not just because they mostly wear cheap boring suits, but primarily because they looked stressed, miserable and grumpy.  The tourists however, look relaxed, happy and content with life.

This week, my check in didn’t result in a free upgrade, so I was off to a bad start.  The upgraded rooms I should say are nothing special, so I was particularly concerned about what I would find as I entered standard room 364.  As it happens, it was a reasonable size, with a good king size bed but the bathroom was tiny and dated.  The coloured bath suite took me back to my childhood.

Anyway, I didn’t have any plans for the evening so decided to take it easy with a spot of room service and bit of TV.  The TV was very poor.  Not your flashy LCD variety, but an old, fuzzy CRT with bad reception and crackling sound.  I didn’t hold out much hope for room service so was actually surprised by the food that arrived.  The ingredients were a bit basic (the steak was a very cheap and tasteless cut), but at least it looked good and was presented hot and fresh.

Finally, I settled down for the night and awoke the next day still feeling grumpy.  I put this down to the lack of air conditioning and a window that could not be opened.  I promised myself to try another hotel next time I visit Blackpool.  What worries me is that this is one of the best.

Pryordurkin rating.  2 stars.

I made a return visit to the Holiday Inn on Carburton Street in London on Thursday and discovered little had changed.  The same tip tray sat on the bar, even though they add a service charge to every order.  The rooms looked the same in terms of layout and size, only this time they looked even more tired. The air conditioning chugged away with little effect but thankfully I could actually open the windows on my inner courtyard room.  I checked out the next day, still wondering how they can charge £140 per night for such a basic hotel.

Original Post. 4th Aug 2008. Checking in was fairly straight forward but there was no warmth or ‘make you feel at home’ welcome from the trainee staff on reception. The much heralded Priority Club loyalty scheme was not much in evidence either. Being a platinum member doesn’t account for much it seems. A complimentary newspaper was never offered let alone a sniff of the room upgrade they constantly promote in the priority club literature.

I headed off to my room in the concrete square that is the Holiday Inn Regents-Park. The room was OK and looked like any other Holiday Inn room. Closing the curtains on the building site outside, you could be almost anywhere in the UK.

The TV worked and the air conditioning chugged away. The selection of pillows was plentiful and the room was functional and clean although it amazed me just how small one bathroom can be while still being functional.

Ordering room service I recalled the quality of the food served at the Radisson Edwardian Grafton Hotel and hoped this would be of a similar nature. Within half an hour I was to be disappointed. The food was crap.  What I don’t understand is on top of the inflated meal prices they also add a ‘Tray Charge’ of £2.50 onto your bill.  The room service waiter was friendly enough though and I felt a momentary pang of guilt as I said goodnight without tipping.

The bed is comfortable and I hope a reasonable night sleep lies ahead.

I’m not holding out much for breakfast though as it will no doubt be the same quality as my room served food.

Score: 3 Stars.

On Wednesday gone, I spent the night at the Marriott Forest of Arden Hotel and Country Club near Birmingham.  This is a large sprawling hotel set in acres of beautiful Warwickshire countryside, yet only 15 minutes away from Birmingham Airport.  I arrived at around 5pm and was quickly checked in by a friendly receptionist.  I made my way up the two flights of stairs (there is a lift available) to my room which was large, clean and airy.  It had a huge queen size bed and a great flat screen TV.  If only I had the time to watch it.  I dropped my bags and then made my way to the main bar area near Oaks restaurant where I met some colleagues for a little ‘work’.

We were offered drinks by a small friendly waitress and having ordered it, my decaf latte soon turned up from the Costa concession that seems to be a regular feature of Marriott hotels these days.

We dined in the restaurant later that evening.  A large brightly decorated contemporary space, I was happy to discover linen napkins on the tables.  The food served up over the next two hours was very good by hotel standards and I was pleased with the way they cooked by Sirloin steak. Served up with ‘almost’ home cooked chips, it was seasoned perfectly and medium cooked as requested.  The service itself stood out.  The staff were very attentive and seemed almost put out, if you found yourself reaching for the water jug, to top up your glass.  They were friendly and professional to the point of being available, but not getting in the way of the conversation around the table.  I think most of  my colleagues were equally pleased as well.

Opting for a reasonably early night, I had a really good sleep.  The window in my room opened wide and the fresh freezing Warwickshire air filled was wonderful to breathe as I tucked myself under the white crisp duvet.

Breakfast was served up in the main restaurant and was very tempting.  A chef stood by waiting to cook your morning eggs just the way you liked them.  The decaf coffee I ordered up though was a bit of a disappointment.  It had little by way of taste.

Later that day, we made use of the conference facilities for a meeting and were well looked.  Coffee, Tea and cakes were on offer throughout and lunch was a freshly served buffet with hot and cold dishes.  The chocolate profiteroles in a glass were particular welcome by me but not my waist!

All in all a great hotel.  I just wish I had the time to explore more of its facilities which included a spacious spa, leisure centre and golf club.

Pryordurkin rating 4 stars.

Shrigley Hall Hotel near Macclesfield was home from home for the last two weeks.  I stayed there with some colleagues working on a project that needed us all in one place.  I checked in on Monday 8th Feb and was pleased to find that this hotel had bags of character. ( and lots of stairs – not great for the disabled or those with kids in trolleys). The first room I was given was quite small, near a banging swing door and next to a lift.  They moved me!  My next room was altogether nicer with plenty of space, its own jacuzzi and a nice airy feel.  Unusual for hotels, this one had a window that could be fully opened and although we were in the middle of winter, I could have freezing fresh air all night long. It even came with its own ghost who I saw one night walking into my bathroom – perhaps for a jacuzzi I thought to myself when I’d finished screaming in a manly way before going back to sleep.

The conference facilities were ideal for what we needed and the manager was very accommodating and helpful.  During the two weeks we ranged from having 10 to 40 people at varying times.  The hotel coped with this extremely well even though they also had a couple of weddings running and other conferences playing out over the two weeks.  Somehow they managed to cope with the numbers of people for meals and overnight stays, with very little notice.

Taking it slightly easier while working there last weekend a few of us decided to try the Spa out.  Housed in the old church (see left in picture) the swimming pool, sauna, steam rooms, gym and treatment rooms are all housed inside this 18th century former Catholic training school.  The massage I booked was OK, nothing special, except the very low price they charged us for being regulars at the hotel. The changing rooms leave a lot to be desired though and are in desperate need of modernisation.

The restaurant and bar areas have friendly and attentive staff. Unusual for a hotel again, the prices charged were actually reasonable even though they had a captive audience.  The food was variable in standard.  Some days, the buffet lunches were very good, whereas the evening three course dinners were often poor.  The deserts were especially awful, clearly bought in from somewhere like Brake Brothers and at the bottom end of the value chain.

However over all, we came to really like this hotel.  The service was excellent, the staff really accommodating, the surroundings very beautiful and the atmosphere very warm and relaxing.  You really did feel at home.

Pryordurkin rating 4 stars.  (They just need to sort the food to turn this into a fantastic hotel)

“An iconic 18th Century Georgian country house hotel, set in 270 acres of stunning Cheshire parkland. This is Mottram Hall.”  Taken from their website.

Along with some colleagues I spent the night at Mottram Hall near Macclesfield for one night last week.  I had booked an event where 50 of us spent the day working in their conference facilities and the evening dining in their restaurant.

The hotel was tricky to find by road but once I entered the large grounds I was happy with what I found.  Pulling up outside the main front entrance I found the welcome warm and the staff friendly and attentive.  As the description on their website says, this is a very old building in parts.  Additional rooms and facilities have been added over time and the large leisure complex at the back is modern and stylish.

After a days working in the conference rooms I checked in to discover my bedroom was small, functional but neat and clean.  It was a short walk from the reception area, but involved a couple of tight staircases to navigate while dragging a suitcase.  The lunch time buffet was nothing special and the evening meal was the ready prepared mass catering Chicken Kiev variety.  (I’ve had exactly the same chicken served up in other hotels).  The house wine offered up over dinner was decidedly “ropey” but other drinks were available at the extensive bar.

All in all, it was a nice hotel to spend a day at for a meeting and overnight stay, but I don’t think I would like to stay there regularly during the week because I prefer more modern hotel surroundings.

Pryordurkin rating 3 stars.

I stayed at the Manchester Airport Marriott Hotel this week.  Check in was straight forward and quick, but when I was given a map and shown how to get to my room, I wondered just how big this place was and whether the quality and service would be up to scratch.

I need not have worried.  Having found my room, with the help of a friendly young porter, I was delighted to discover my room was very large, brightly decorated and had a great queen sized bed.  The bathroom was even large as well.  You ‘could’ actually swing a cat in there if you wanted too.

Having dropped my bags, sampled the complementary chocolate biscuits with a cup of decaffeinated coffee, I made my way to the Spa Leisure complex on site, to have a swim.  What a surprise.  It was beautiful, well laid out, had a great swimming pool, where you could actually have a decent swim. Surrounding the large pool, were a steam room, sauna, jacuzzi and dip pool.  Elsewhere in the leisure complex were a fully fitted gymnasium, a coffee bar and treatment rooms.

Having worked up an appetite, it was time to eat. I made my way to the restaurant where I was quickly seated at a nicely laid table; offered up the menus and had fresh bread put down so I could nibble away while choosing my meal.  I opted for a vegetable soup starter and seared organic salmon fillet main.  For a hotel, the food was actually quite good and the service was impeccable.  Reasonably priced as well, I enjoyed my lot.

A good nights sleep lay ahead and waking up the next morning, I could not have faulted either the bed or the air conditioning.  Both of these things are key elements for me and they worked perfectly well.

In summary, a very nice hotel, with great facilities, beautiful rooms and a fantastic leisure centre.

Pryordurkin rating 4 stars.

I have come to really like this hotel.  Despite being the wrong end of Kings Cross, nearly a ten minute walk from the station along roads lined with dodgy looking housing, people, hostels and shops, it is a little oasis of tranquility.  It has a few quaint things about it, like no mini bars in the rooms, cheap towels and old fashioned rooms but the service is excellent and the atmosphere  is warm and welcoming.  Over time, when you get used to these little issues, you come to like its style, comfortable surroundings and amenities.

The recently refurbished leisure centre, below the hotel in the basement, is a joy.  Stylish decor houses a nice pool, gym, steam room and sauna.  Unusual for hotels in the centre of London, this one really does steal a march on its competitors with this facility which is great for winding down at the end of a busy day.

The restaurants are great and the breakfast is always well cooked and efficient.  Room service is good, so long as you know what you want as the menus provided in the rooms, don’t tell you the story!

The hotel is popular with tourists and business folk alike and so long as you don’t mind being stuck behind some loafing holiday makers occasionally, it is a great place to stay.

Score: 4 Stars.