"Excuse me, there's someone in our room!" (Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel (Bristol))

Member Name: rachelwestall

Product:	Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel (Bristol)
Date:	31/03/09 (290 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Realxing surroundings

Disadvantages: cost

The Royal Marriott Bristol

My hubby and I were lucky enough to be able to leave our 3 children with my Mum and escape for two nights away on our own. We didn't want to spend hours in the car so we opted to go to Bristol which is about 50 minutes drive from our home. So with our overnight bags packed, a stack of light reading, and vouchers for money off at a selection of restaurants, we headed off down the M5.

Marriott hotels are a well known International company in the hospitality industry. Its heritage can be traced to a soft-drink stand that opened in Washington DC in 1927 by J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott. Today, Marriott International has nearly 2,800 hotels, Inns and suits, in 70 countries around the world.

Bristol's Marriott Royal Hotel can be found next to the cities cathedral and close to the historic waterfront. It is an imposing Victorian building that has recently undergone a £3m Refurbishment. The hotel has a swimming pool and health club.
The hotel also boasts a ballroom as well as smaller rooms for conferences and meetings. The Palm Court restaurant offers fine dining and wines.

~How to get there~

By far the easiest way is to type the hotels postcode into your Sat Nav. And follow the irritating ladies directions! The hotel is very close to the city centre and the waterfront attraction of @Bristol. So following signs to this will ensure you are in the right vicinity.
We followed the A 38 towards Bristol City Centre - Take the A3029 sign posted Bristol City Centre, across three round abouts, keep in the left lane move into the A4, take the third exit off the roundabout onto Anchor Road turn left, into Park Street and then left into college Green. The hotel is on the left.

College Green,
Bristol
BS1 5TA

~Our Experience~

We do try to get away on our own once every couple of years. Usually we save up our Tesco points and swap them for hotel vouchers, but we didn't have enough this year (we had already spent them), and as I have been working more over the last six months we agreed that we deserved this break and would splash out our hard earned cash.

The hotel claims to be a luxury resort, but would we agree with this?
We had found the cheapest deal we could on-line and don't forget this is a 'Luxury hotel '(?!), and luxury comes at a price. We were paying about £130 a night for bed and breakfast. You also have access to all the hotels facilities.

On arriving, we parked outside the hotel and my husband went in to check in. As we had booked on-line this was an easy process. We then had to park the car in the car park - not an easy task - lots of small spaces filled with some very big cars! We managed to squeeze into a space, hoping no-one would scrape the doors of our car. The cost for this privilege was £11 a night - expensive, but cheaper than the train fair.

We then staggered with our tatty holdall and various bags to our room. ( I always feel a bit out of place when you see others get out of their smart cars with Samsonite or even Radley cases, all matching of course!)
We arrived at our room door and my hubby tried the key card. The little light flashed red, typical! He tried again, no joy. We stood for a minute and listened - there was someone in there!! Fortunately a housekeeper was walking past and we asked for her help. She checked our room number, and tried the key for us. The little red light remained. We pointed out that we thought we could hear someone in the room, so she put her ear to the door. She chuckled and agreed that someone was in the room! She then knocked on the door and a man in a suit, on his phone opened it. She apologised to him and then asked us to wait while she sorted it out. We hung around on the landing of the second floor, studying the worn looking, yellow patterned carpet. Eventually the girl returned and apologised. We had been given the wrong floor number we were in the same room on the next floor up - not 1264 but 1364. She was very apologetic and insisted on helping us carry our bags up to our room. She also checked no one was in there first !

On exiting the lift I was delighted to see a sign that said 'Superior Rooms' - I was looking forward to a bit of luxury and I wasn't disappointed. There was a very large bed with loads of soft pillows and cushions. On the bed was a basket containing a Marriott robe and a pair of slippers (how posh!).
The room was large, airy and tastefully decorated in muted colours, but with hints of lime and turquoise. The furniture was contemporary in dark wood and the accessories modern. There was a lovely chair and footstool in a beautiful shade of aquamarine. The room contained the usual mini bar (do not touch unless you want to spend a lot of money!)and tea and coffee making facilities - another plus point for Marriott, not only was there a kettle, there was a coffee machine with fresh coffee - a real treat as we usually take our own cafetiere and a pint of milk as we don't like instant coffee. Also the usual packet of biscuits was instead, little cakes - very tasty too!

The bathroom was less modern and was decorated in a more Victorian style - heavy marble, but still tasteful. There was a basket containing shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, soap, mouthwash, cotton buds, cotton wool..... the list goes on. I was impressed. The shower was over the bath and there were lots of fluffy white towels.

Our room overlooked the Cathedral.

~The breakfast~

This is almost as important as the room. My husband always tries to ensure he eats enough food to make sure he has got his moneys worth!
Each morning we had to wait a few minutes to be seated in the large, grand dining room. Once seated we were asked what drinks we would like and we were happily sent off in the direction of the buffet... There was the usual selection of cereals, fruits, cold meats etc along with a table laden with pastries, croissants and delicious looking breads. There was also an industrial toaster - one where you put the toast in and wait for an age for something resembling dry bread to come out. I think they should bring toast to your table.

My husband loves the cooked breakfast and this section didn't disappoint. There was a chef on hand cooking eggs to your requirements - poached, fried or scrambled. The usual suspects were on offer of bacon, sausage, sauté potatoes, mushrooms, beans, black pudding and hash browns (have I forgotten anyting?).

All in all, a great way to start off the day. Most definitely no need for any lunch - a great money saving ploy!?!

~The Leisure facilities~

After that huge breakfast we felt that we ought to make an effort and do a bit of exercise, so we headed down in the lift to the pool and gym.
The Roman style leisure club, has an indoor pool, spa, sauna, steam room. Before getting changed we had a quick nosey at the pool area. The pool was large and rectangular and did indeed live up to the idea of it being like Roman baths, with pillars and decorative wall paintings.
Around the pool there were plenty of tables, chairs and sun loungers. There was a large spa and the sauna, steam room were set back from the pool. The front desk provided us with towels. We could also order drinks etc from here to help us through the morning.

The changing rooms were small but clean, with plenty of lockers.
We spent a very relaxing couple of hours by the pool. I enjoyed reading my book while my husband pounded up and down the pool trying to work off his breakfast!

I must say that this is the nicest leisure club that I have been to in a hotel, mainly due to the fact that the pool was such a good size and you could actually swim in it.

There is also a private salon - Revival Salon - where you can book beauty treatments and spa days, but just relaxing by the pool with a good book was good enough for me.

~Checkout~

This was very easy. A bill was put under our door and we could use this to do a quick checkout if we wished as we had already paid for our rooms. We however went to the front desk to checkout as we wanted to sign up for Marriott Rewards. A scheme where you collect points each time you stay in a Marriott hotel and then you can use the points to pay for hotel breaks. This is ideal for people who stay in hotels on business regularly.

For more information see http://www.marriott.com/rewards

~Worth a Visit?~

Most definitely yes! If you can afford the price, this is a lovely hotel, and a great place for a short break. The room was great and the bed very comfortable. Both of us slept well which is really important especially for my other half who rarely sleeps past 5am! We enjoyed wandering around Bristol's water front, visiting the cinema and shopping (well window shopping) at the new Cabot Circus shopping centre. There were loads of good eating places and we were able to use or vouchers from moneysavingexpert.com. It was lovely not to have to use the car for two days.

If you want to know what there is to do in and around Bristol, then watch this space as I will write about Bristol as a tourist destination soon (I know you can't wait!!!).

Thank you for reading. (I didn't realise how long this was until I did the preview read! :o)

Summary: A lovely hotel - ideal for a short break.