No bike, waiting to meet some work friends but blurh it's soulless
Tepid beer and noisey A roads
Still needs must!
May I recommend a night in the Knutsford Travelodge at the M1 services? After that, everything will seem posh and serene. A bottle of win and earplugs helps.
Buy if he did stop there, I could hop on the train and go out for a couple of pints in Knutsford.
Actually, Duncan knows me, so he may not consider that an improvement. 😁
May I recommend a night in the Knutsford Travelodge at the M1 services? After that, everything will seem posh and serene. A bottle of win and earplugs helps.
I can beat that. I worked away from home for a number of years and stayed in the Travelodge Reading M4 Eastbound.
For a bit of variety I then swapped around and stayed in the Travelodge Reading M4 Westbound.
It can be horrible. I've arrived at a Travel Lodge or similar after a days work, I think Plymouth way, taken a look and just driven home back to Berkshire.
Sometimes I just can't face it.
I found a new low of corporate hotels last month.
Hampton by Hilton.
You check in on an iPad thing and no staff appear until you've checked in, at which point they appear and hand you a key.
FFS, they won't even talk to you to order a meal or a beer - you *have* to do it by an app and then some minion appears to your table with a microwave meal and a tepid beer.
The interior designer swallowed the grey fad and went all in on grey.
The public area has back to back supermarket music on loud, even at 7am.
Premier Inn Oldham, spent a week there some years ago in December.
Probably one of the most miserable weeks I can remember. Monsoon rain and cold pretty certain I nearly had trench foot, tramping back and forwards to the tram stop.
Since that experience when asked to do a course for work I ask if it can be done online 😀
Travelodge Newbury Chieveley M4 - an absolute delight. M4 and A34 traffic noise. Best thing available for dinner is a sandwich from the M&S in the services.
I can recommend the MotelOne chain.
Imagine Travelodge but German, with edible food, helpful staff and clean rooms (so nothing like Travelodge)
Lots of Premier Inn so far this year. The worst part is the copy and paste menu with little variety at the best of times.
For sheer variety Travelodge is amazing. I've stayed in motorway versions like the above, but recently stayed in the Travelodge at Leamington Spa (visiting daughter at Warwick Uni) and it's a city centre hotel with a fantastic history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regent_Hotel
Britannia hotels. All of them. But in particular the one in Stockport.
After blood on linen one time I gave up and started staying in Manchester centre, finding some belting hotels.
I've stayed at the Knutsford travelodge and to be honest didn't mind it. Years ago I was working at the isle of grain power station for a few weeks and work put me up in a B&B in Strood, turned out it was closing down and didnt serve food neither did any of the local pubs. I ended up finding a sports bar where the owner let me get a kabab from next door and take it in to eat. On my mini pub crawl back to the B&B i found a nice wee pub so for the next week ended up having Guinness for my supper. They then moved me to a travel lodge in Gillingham i think it was and that was a dire place to be on your own.
The worst I've been in so far was the Ramada Wakefield just off J40 of the M1. After that I stuck to Holiday Inn for a while purely so I could get enough points for a free weekend away. Now I've done that I'm going for the same but with Marriott.
I found a new low of corporate hotels last month.
Hampton by Hilton.
Stayed in one once, was nothing like that. Was a good number of years ago.
Britannia hotels. All of them.
Alas, I have aso stayed in one of those (Lowestoft) a good number of years ago. I don't remember but it's definitely not the worst place I've ever stayed.
That honour goes to the hotel I was put into when joining my first ship as a shiny new cadet in Busan (in the Locale of Texas Street of you're familiar with the area).
Think of something from Oldboy.
Now think of metal doors painted intitutional green.
Now imagine a good number of them scuffed and bashed as if they've been kicked in a few times.
Now imagine you've been dumped there by a driver who doesn't speak English save for the cryptic sentence "I come tomorrow tomorrow", nobody else speaks English, the flight to get you there had been booked by an agent at Incheon before a mad dash to Gimpo airport for the connecting flight and none of your phones or bank cards work.
That was fun.
The other folk who joined/left in Busan got to stay at Hyundai Beach.
That was by no means the only shit hotel I stayed in at college, go Team Z. BP were better, I got the Orchard for joining in Singapore.
Pre pandemic I spent 8 months doing 3 nights a week at The Village hotel in Farnborough. Utterly soul destroying
Have you dismantled your Corby Trouser Press yet?
Second the Hilton comments. Stayed in a few flavours of Hilton with work (humble brag clang), absolutely shocking. Prefer premier inn
Working with another guy on a networking project at a v/large factory in Hemer Germany, all the locals were mullet wearing C&W fans and the engineers in our Dussledorf office joked it was the land that time forgot. I ended up in a B&B on a main road, completely empty apart from me, not even any staff. No food but just up the road was Fat Willys Schnitzel shack where they did 30cm burgers, or doubles if you were hungry, got back the B&B stuffed to the gills with barely cooked red meat and a lot of beer, followed by the sound of the traffic all night keeping me awake. The other guy ended up in a hotel near the centre of town and was gloating to me that he at least had a McD's in walking distance, he went out for his food and witnessed a Police shootout at the McD's, so ended up starved for the night. The next day at the customer site we agreed to get out of there ASAP and ended up doing our four days work in two marathon 18+ hour stints so we could escape back to civilisation.
About the only good thing to come out of COVID is getting other people to accept Zoom calls rather than 8 hours drive each way for a one hour face to face which could have been over in 30 minutes.
I have so many work hotel memories that they blur into one great grey morass
Just had a romantic weekend away with MrsSteve at Slough Premier Inn*. Brilliantly sound proofed, to be fair. Short walk to the delights available on the High Street.
*Her idea, cheapest accommodation for us, the kids and their respective partners for a trip to Legoland.
Just had a romantic weekend away with MrsSteve at Slough Premier Inn*. Brilliantly sound proofed, to be fair.
Worst humblebrag ever 😉
a romantic weekend away plus for us, the kids and their respective partners
All sounds a bit wrong
Hampton by Hilton.
I once stayed in the Hilton in... Wimbledon I think it was, for work. We were like "ooh, up-market!" It was grim. The kettle was literally growing inside.
Just had a romantic weekend away with MrsSteve at Slough Premier Inn*.
Is that the one whose front is little more than a heavily armoured door in the middle of a block, or am I thinking of Travelodge?
Britannia hotels. All of them.
Britannia hotels are just boggling for the quality of patterns on every surface. Reminds me of an era of florid Victoria decoration and pattern that was a result of a distorted perception thats symptomatic of syphilis.
I think my travel-for-work low-light was the Doncaster Restover. Styles itself as a travel-lodge-alike in its literature but it's a strange modular building a bit like an off-shore accommodation block - thats been deposited by the ring road by a freak high tide. You just take it for granted these days that rooms will be en-suite.. but they weren't. The only facilities we could find were a single, weird modular toilet that was similar to the Tardis like public toilets - as in the whole room flushed. And a similar single modular shower cubical. Both of them opened straight out into the hotel reception.
Apart from the bed the room was furnitureless and undecorated other than a sign warning you not to leave any possessions less than an arm's length from the window 🙂
I've stayed in worse places for pleasure rather than work. Stayed in a 'hotel' in New York that it turned out was actually a bail hostel and halfway house that was letting its rooms out to tourists illigally. Our room had a bed with only a sheet on it - a massive cast iron radiator that seemed to plumbed directly into hell which was why inspite of it being December and in the middle of an ice storm we didnt mind the single sheet, and massive old CRT TV balanced precariously on top of old broken fridge. When we checked out the guy at reception said 'aww man you got the best room'. Actually quite liked it there - very hand for Central Park - but when we tried to book it again a few years later it had been busted.
In contrast, I once had to visit some reference sites in Mexico City. Sadly, travel policy meant I couldn't pick my own hotel, the only one on the list was the Four Seasons Hotel. What a terrible way to spend a week.
About the only good thing to come out of COVID
Working in film and TV the best thing to come out of covid was deals with locations where the crew was accommodated on site so that the crew were bubbled together day and night. With all the cancelled weddings and events that means filming and staying in various glamorous rural locations on private estates then get put up at night in the bridal suite
That looks like Culzean, guessing not though?
May I recommend a night in the Knutsford Travelodge at the M1 services? After that, everything will seem posh and serene. A bottle of win and earplugs helps.
Assuming it's the M6 services ?
I am sure Knutsford has some pleasant pubs ? Not too far away from Delamere Forest if you had a bike and a longer warm summers evening.
Pre pandemic I spent 8 months doing 3 nights a week at The Village hotel in Farnborough. Utterly soul destroying
I've stayed there a few times and it's just bloody loud. Could always be the Premier inn in the town centre though, last time I was there my room was close to the kitchen extractor fan and the whole room vibrated, asked to be moved and they said they were full. I was knackered and it didn't turn off until near 11 and then it came on again at 5.48 Am. Company got a refund as I complained though.
I have several clients who are in the hotel/banqueting business in Las Vegas and have got to spend some time in some VERY nice hotel rooms. In fact, just about all the hotels I've stayed in for works purposes and have been a LOT nicer (and a lot more expensive) than any I've paid for myself...
I've stayed in some bloody cold hotels for work. There was one near Aberdeen (I think) I had to use the laptop as a very expensive hot water bottle.
Another in Blackpool, the polystyrene ceiling tiles would lift with the draft everytime the wind blew..
Also some stupidly hot ones with those security devices to stop you opening the window properly. Meaning id have to get some tools from the van...
One hotel in Bury St Edmunds, housekeeping kept shutting all the windows. I returned after a couple of refreshing beers with a colleague and accidentally opened a window semi permanently. It was the top floor, massive windows, stupidly hot, not sure who they thought was going to break in.
At the Rock Hotel on Gib, I was very glad I'd shut the balcony door, the monkeys turned up, nicked my beer off the balcony table and were trying to get though the small window, I assume to raid the mini fridge..
Mate, until you've stayed at the Bowen River Hotel or Fernando's Hideaway, you have nothing to complain about. Both were nice and quiet... but.
Bowen River Hotel - arrived in pitch dark half an hour down a dirt road to discover you're the only two people staying, it's your young female colleague's birthday and the bottled beer is on its best before date, there's only one meal option and your rooms are 'dongas.' Special times.
https://www.queensland.com/au/en/plan-your-holiday/accommodation/p-5f17bba7b91632da7ba86698-bowen-river-hotel
Fernando's Hideaway - stuck in the 70s. Same colleague, Great Danes, stuffed Lionness, suit of armour, lifesize pirate, cigarette ash on the bed. There's almost no photos on the internet ... because.
Until you’ve stayed in the Britannia Airport Hotel at Manchester none of you can complain. Sort of place there’s a chalk outline of a body in the car park and the local prostitutes ply their wares in the hotel reception.
And the toast at breakfast was damp, limp, and cold.
Another shocker was a pub in a town called Clermont in Central Queensland.
Two female colleagues this time. The junior got the best deal - a modern room in an annex. I got a room directly above the bar, with a bare wooden floor, and noisy old Kelvinator in the corner. For a Tuesday night the bar was banging.
There was a shared bathroom, which arguably nobody was going to leave cleaner than when they went in.
The fried egg at breakfast was perhaps the least edible egg i've ever considered eating.
Stayed at the M4 Heston East side Travelodge a few years ago. There was a family living in a car there , along with a few others in tents just to the side of the car park. They were having a BBQ when I pulled up in the evening. Spoke to one of the young lads from the tent who was asking for money. I gave him £5 and asked him to keep an eye on my car for me.
Came out in the morning , and they had the BBQ fired up again cooking their breakfast.
The young lad gave me the thumbs up and I was off.
Much better experience than when I stayed on the west side 😉
The Isle of Man. Basically a competition to stay in the least shit hotel you can, that's bookable by the company.
Once managed a stay in The Sefton, which was nice. But only got it because I was there with my boss's boss.
The Hilton was just awful. Noisy, smelly, single bed, view of a brick wall, right by a fire escape seemingly used as a staff shortcut all night. Early morning fire alarm. Breakfast was chaos.
Topped only by a Travelodge overlooking some sainsbury's car park somewhere. Disabled room, no heating. Slow wifi, thin duvet and pillow, hard bed, knob heads doing burnouts all night.
Since then, I stayed only at premier inn for several years - about 100 nights per year. Consistent, quiet, reliable. But I now hate purple.
Holliday Inn, M6 J15, (Stoke)
The worst Holliday Inn I've had to stay in, everything about it was completely awfull. From the state of the place to the microwave food.
Then at the weekends it's packed with an endless stream of kids going to dance competitions endlessly rehearsing in every available communal space. I just wan to eat my miserable scrambled eggs on miserable toast and drink my miserable coffee in peace so I can face the day, not be greeted by a troupe of 9 year olds twerking to Nikki F**** Minage at 6am.
Closely hollowed Deansgate Premier Inn in Manchester. Mostly fine, except the bed had been pissed in my the previous occupant. And not a subtle ammount of piss that housekeeping could possibly have missed.
Honourable mentions to:
Preston Marriot - like an expensive version of 80s nostalgia in a country house.
Huntingdon Marriot - like Preston, but on an industrial estate and in an 80s building.
Any retro Marriot - overpriced, apart from the food which is awfull and very overpriced. But people think they're doing you a favour by upgrading you from the Holiday Inn for some reason.
Not travelled with work much recently, but memorable ones from 20 years of travelling were:
Ibis in Warsaw. There were dozens of prostitutes in the bar. It was like their club house.
A pub in Canterbury (Three Tuns?). A nice medieval place, but the doorways were all about 5'10" and I'm 5'11". That was a painful few days.
Somewhere in Ashford that was like an old folks home. Lots of plastic coverings and those high backed leatherette arm chairs. The satellite TV receiver had dials on it and had to be tuned in like you were a spy reporting in from under a bed in occupied France.
Anywhere in industrial China outside the big cities. Like the end scene of Full Metal Jacket, but with a room service.
A place on Seoul that had rooms on the 7th floor, but a night club on the 6th. A jet lagged and noisy week. Miserable.
Best Hotel.
https://mybusinesshotel.de/hotel/
Stayed here half a dozen times over the last few years. Would move in if they would let me.
One hotel in Bury St Edmunds, housekeeping kept shutting all the windows. I returned after a couple of refreshing beers with a colleague and accidentally opened a window semi permanently. It was the top floor, massive windows, stupidly hot, not sure who they thought was going to break in.
That sounds suspiciously like the Angel? Nice hotel, but you really didn't want to be on the top floor if it was warm weather!
I'm currently working my way through the hotels in and within striking distance of Canary Wharf.
The views from the 16th floor of the Docklands Central Travelodge take some beating, but why do the showers have to be so rubbish 🤷♂️
Keeping with the Britannia theme, the Waterside in Peterhead was memorably grim. This was afew years ago and looking on booking.com it *may* have improved since.
It was a 70s vintage and had had no visible improvement since them. There was a obvious path worn into the carpet approaching the front desk. It had a seperate even shiter annex that was built later and swapped the worn oppulence of the main hotel for painted breeze blocks and damp. All compounded by being in Peterhead in the first place.
From a business point of view they had it sussed. Zero investment but certainty that every time there was a) bad weather offshore b) turnaround at one of the nearby gas plants c) conference in Aberdeen d) peak tourist season / golf event they would be full to bursting. No incentive to make it better.
Sadly our company banned us staying there after the ops director got put in the annex. And found the story in the local paper that it was being used to house homeless people over winter.
Britannia Wigan - I didn't believe anywhere could be so bad.
It was the top floor, massive windows, stupidly hot, not sure who they thought was going to break in.
It's probably to stop people from leaping out.
Hampton by Hilton and Hilton have always been prrtyy good for me - I am surprised that it's getting such bad reviews here.
I slept in my car in Ashford Tesco rather than stay at the Britannia Dover...