Quality choice (Quality Hotel Chester)

Member Name: werewolf2

Product:	Quality Hotel Chester
Date:	04/06/06 (215 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good food, comfy beds

Disadvantages: small bar, no toilets in communal areas, stairs to rooms

NAME OF LOCATION: Quality Hotel, at Chester. There are 75 ensuite bedrooms but you will need transport to Chester as it actually at Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port and was at least 11 miles from Chester itself.

BACKGROUND: We chose to go on a weekend trip to Chester, my boyfriend Robert and I with Gee Vee Travel (see separate review) and it used this hotel as a base.

TRANSPORT
We visited Chester by coach and used this hotel as a base only. Some people on our trip had been informed that it was possible to walk into Chester from the hotel but this is not possible as its 11 miles away and you would have to cross the M56 and the A41, which are extremely busy roads.

Chester has a railway station but as this is some distance from the hotel you will need a taxi or hire car from here. The hotel informed us that it costs £18 minimum to get to Chester by taxi, so be warned.

Free car parking available at the hotel.

ATTRACTIONS
1. Disabled, family and executive rooms available
2. Stylish restaurant
3. Convivial bar
4. Leisure club with Fitness Suite, swimming pool, sauna and steam room
5. Conference and meeting rooms
6. Celebrations, weddings and dinner dances available on request
7. Civil marriages, available on request

PRICE (2006)
We had gone on a group rating and paid £89 each for dinner, bed and breakfast and coach travel to and from Chesterfield, including 2 drop offs in Chester.

However, I do know that the rooms cost at least £93 per night (for an non-smoking twin room in May) and the evening meal was £18.95 for a three-course meal plus coffee/tea. This was written on the top of the menu.

MEALS:
As I am on a wheat free diet, I always have this mentioned on my booking forms and to back it up mention it when I book in to reception and when ordering my meals in the dining room. It was a set three-course meal in the evening and we had to sit with our coach party in the Woodhey restaurant. The waitresses were very helpful and directed you to your table(s) and gave you the menu to select from.

There were 2 or 3 choices for each course but I had to ask what main course I could have as it was not immediately apparent. Robert had some lovely looking soup and bread rolls were already on the side plates and I had a melon starter with berry coulis, which was served with star fruit and was delicious.

The main courses included pork with apple and leek sauce, chicken and a vegetarian option of pasta. Both Robert and I chose the pork but he wasn’t keen on the sauce, whilst I adored it, but he doesn’t like sweet and sour much whereas I do. For those on a gluten free diet, it was heaven as the gravy was thickened with cornflour so you didn’t need to have a “special” one, without gravy, especially as this would have been rather dry. The waitresses served the potatoes, broccoli and carrots so you could have which you wanted rather than it already being on your plate – a bonus for me as I dislike cooked carrots – I prefer to be Bugs Bunny and eat them raw!
The sweets all sounded gorgeous but I was limited to the fruit salad and cream because they all had a pastry or biscuit base – cheesecake, apple pie and custard, etc. Robert nearly missed his apple pie as the waitresses brought them out one by one and he was beginning to think he wouldn’t get it and then one of the waitresses realised he hadn’t had his and went to check in the kitchens.

Breakfast was a serve yourself affair with a choice of cereal, yoghurts, muffins and fruit juices on one side and the hot breakfast – which included eggs (scrambled, boiled or fried and if they weren’t available you only had to ask), sausages, bacon, beans, tomatoes, hash browns, black pudding, etc on the other on hot plates, which were regularly topped up.

Toast was served once people were sat down on the tables, so it was hot – they even toasted my special bread for me. Teas and coffees were served and top-ups were available. I couldn’t fault the food at all.

GOOD POINTS
1. Bedrooms were well furnished with cosy twin beds
2. Tea/coffee making facilities in all rooms – in their leaflet listed as a hospitality tray as it included sugar, tea, coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits.
3. All rooms are en-suite
4. Our room had a TV, which could have had satellite channels, internet, email or Play station and pay movies available on request.
5. All rooms are equipped with a direct dial telephone, trouser press, ironing board (who wants to iron on holiday – I don’t like doing it normally so this was a non-essential item for me!), and hairdryer.


BAD POINTS
1. Rooms were not ready on our arrival at 12noon. Our coach driver had rung in advance of the trip to check if we could come “straight through” to the hotel and been advised this was OK but when he rang on route was told “we were not expecting you till after 2pm”. If he had known this, he would have dropped us off at Chester for a walk round first instead of at the hotel. He had gone past Chester so had to drop us at the hotel. My room wasn’t ready so I just used the facilities, dumped our luggage and returned to the coach for our trip back to Chester.
2. Distance from Chester so could not experience Chester in the evening and virtually nothing to do in the hotel, if you are not interested in the fitness facilities. On the weekend we went the bar had a small disco set up but this seemed to be to celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary party so we felt like we were intruding. Robert and I went to the room to watch TV, especially as the bar prices were expensive – I spent nearly £4 on two soft drinks (J20).
3. Swipe cards were issued to get into the rooms but if you share a room, you only get one swipe card so if one person wants to have an early night you have to go back with the person to retrieve the card.
4. The bar only had 1 member of staff on so it got rather busy quickly and she didn’t know who to serve next.
5. The bar was rather darkly lit and had a TV in it, which only seemed to show sport on it – I am not a lover of sport and found this irritating and rather loud. There did not seem to be any facilities such as toilets nearby and I didn’t find any in the reception area either, which for most people meant a long trek up to their rooms.
6. Disabled people need to specify a downstairs room as those upstairs although accessible by lift often have steps between the lift and the rooms for some reason. We had a downstairs room but this was some distance from the reception and restaurant and took at least 5 minutes to get to, so leave plenty of time.

DIRECTIONS
From junction 5 of the M53: At the roundabout, follow signs for Queensferry. Proceed across the first set of traffic lights, and at the 2nd set, turn right onto the A550. The hotel is 1 mile on the left.

From Chester: Take the A41 towards Birkenhead. Turn left at the first set of traffic lights in Little Sutton into Ledsham Road B5463. At T junction, turn right and the hotel is on the right hand side.

Hooton Station is 1 km away and Manchester Airport is 30-40 minutes away by car.

AFTERWARDS

Book another holiday!

MORE INFORMATION FROM
Quality Hotel, Chester, Berwick Road/Welsh Road, Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port CH66 4PS Telephone 0151 3395121 Fax 0151 3393214 or email enquiries@quality-hotels-chester.com or use the website www.quality-hotels-chester.com. Conference calls on 0500 616263.

They are part of the Choice Hotels groups so more information about this and other hotels in the group are available from: Central Reservations UK 0800 444444 or www.choicehotelseurope.com

werewolf2

Summary: Quiet Quality hotel in middle of Cheshire countryside