Guest User
May 19, 2024
We stayed here for a concert at the Utilita Arena. Location was great for us, 10 mins walk to Broad Street and another 5/10 mins walk to the Arena. It’s difficult to find the entrance from the road as it isn’t very well signposted. The old building is lovely looking and it looks like it once had nicely kept gardens although the entrance definitely needs a good tidy up. At check in we were given zero information. We were told our room number and the briefest description of where it was “upstairs, carry on, up some more stairs and it’s there” in reality it was a lot more complicated than that and we trudged around for a while before we found it. The signs are not much help either. We weren’t given any information about breakfast (ie where it was and what times) and no information about check out times either. Our room was in the 60’s extension which looks very grotty from the outside. The room was dated and tired but clean but there were no mattress protectors. The bed was comfortable though and the bedding was clean. As we were meeting friends we went to the bar but there seemed to be only one member of staff working. He had to cover reception and the bar so if you wanted a drink you had to go to reception and ask him to come and serve which wasn’t ideal for him or us. He did say there was supposed to be someone covering the bar but he didn’t know where they were. The terrace could be lovely with a good jetwash and a bit of tlc. The night security guy was really friendly and professional when we got back from the concert. He asked how our night had been and if there was anything we needed, a very different reception to when we checked in. We asked him where and when breakfast was served. In the morning we headed for breakfast and every member of the cleaning team who passed us was friendly and said good morning. A lady who I think was the supervisor was particularly friendly and chatty as we passed her. At breakfast some of our friends were already seated and warned us that there wasn’t much food available. This was 9am and breakfast was supposed to be available until 10:30am however the only hot items left were one rasher of bacon, a couple of grilled tomatoes and half a piece of black pudding. Everything else had run out. There was a few slices of bread but no butter. Our friends had said that they had to ask for items to be replenished but each time only a very small amount had been put out (such as a single croissant, a small bowl of beans, a handful of butter sachets etc) It was genuinely painful to watch the young waitress too-ing and fro-ing with single items when the whole set up needed completely restocking. There were three members of staff working the dining room and only a handful of guests, there was no excuse or reason for the lack of available food. In the end we ate our breakfast in stages with long gaps between items. A kind of breakfast tapas I suppose. We did complain to the manager, but he didn’t really seem too inte