A Central Hotel that's well worth a visit (Central Spa Hotel (Blackpool))

Member Name: flyingsparks

Product:	Central Spa Hotel (Blackpool)
Date:	06/05/07 (710 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap price, comfortable bed, good food

Disadvantages: Small rooms, difficult to find staff sometimes

I came across the Central Spa Hotel by accident. I needed a room in Blackpool for the night and an internet search on two or three sites turned up the Central Spa Hotel. At only £30 a night for a double room and two breakfasts it was the cheapest hotel in Blackpool, and seemed to offer great value for money.

The Central Spa Hotel is in a great location right on the central Blackpool seafront. This makes it easy to find, although it is not necessarily easy to park near. Hotel parking is very limited and you may struggle to get a space there.
On first entering the hotel the first challenge is to find the reception desk, this is not as easy as you might expect. Upon climbing the front steps and opening the door visitors are confronted with a long corridor on the right, and a long corridor on the left. Part way down the corridor on the right side is a door leading to a bar / lounge that has some comfortable seating and views of the seafront. If you keep on walking past the stairs, and past the lounge, you will eventually reach a hatch in the wall. This is the reception. The only problem is that it is not usually staffed. The hotel website promises a receptionist, barman, chef, and night porter. During my time at the hotel all these roles were being performed by the same person. The only other member of staff that I saw was a girl who assisted by waiting on tables during the breakfast session.

After checking in the next object was to find my room. The hotel has rooms on two levels, my room was on the upper floor, to get there necessitated going back down the corridor, up the stairs mentioned earlier, and go all the way down another corridor, turn around a corner, go down a couple of steps, and finally discover my room at the farthest extremity of hotel.

The room was small but adequate, there was just room for the double bed, a small wardrobe, along one wall there was a storage unit with a television, and tea and coffee making facilities. There was also a small electric heater which was useful as the room was a little cold in the morning.

The en-suite bathroom was the size of a large cupboard, it contained a toilet, sink, and shower, it was accessed by climbing up two steps from the bedroom. One concern in the bathroom was the maze of pull cords with which I was presented. One worked the main bathroom light, another one controlled the heating for the shower, and I could never decide what the others did. The problem was that done of them were marked, and none of the were situated near the item they operated. I just had to pull them and see what happened.

I passed a comfortable night in my room which had a fair, if unremarkable view of the back streets of Blackpool.
In the morning when it was time for breakfast I discovered that this was served in the basement of the hotel. The food was really excellent. Tea, coffee, and fruit juice was unlimited, as was the cereal, all of that was self service, and guests just helped themselves to whatever they wanted.
Each table in the breakfast room was provided with a menu, although a full English breakfast seemed to arrive in front of every guest whether they requested it or not, and if they didn't want it they had to send it back and request something different from the menu. The food was all excellently cooked and was certainly plentiful. Extra toast was provided several times without being requested.

After breakfast it was time to check out. As the room bill was paid in full during my check in, it was simply a case of slipping the key under the shutter of the now unstaffed reception and leaving quietly while the hotel staff were all busy serving breakfast to the remaining hotel guests.
I would be happy to recommend this hotel as a comfortable, good value place to spend a few nights. It doesn't have the luxury of some of the bigger hotels that I've stayed in, but the beds are comfortable, and the food is good, and for the price I paid I wouldn't really expect more.

Summary: Good, Cheap Hotel with Great food