jelly beans and honesty bar (Quebecs Hotel (Leeds))

Name: Cat19

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Product:	Quebecs Hotel (Leeds)
Date:	11/07/06 (840 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: larger than average rooms, central location, beautiful building and furnishings

Disadvantages: street noise might disturb some, no hotel bar, no parking

The days of kipping down on friend’s available floors, sofas or bathtubs are long behind me now that I am (well) into my 30’s. So when I knew we were going to Leeds to meet up with some friends for a Saturday night out, I set about finding some more suitable accommodation in the city centre.

I have been to Leeds once before but I don’t remember it and so had no specific ideas about what part of the city to stay in and I certainly did not have a hotel in mind. My husband lived in Leeds for a few years but these important decisions are really best left to me and accordingly I started my internet search. I generally find that well-known sites such as expedia or octopustravel come up with what I need or at least with a few ideas.

Booking and prices
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I have never attempted to use expedia to find a UK hotel before but it came up with several options same as it does for any other city in the world. The attractive photographs of the interior of the boutique hotel Quebec caught my eye amongst the bunch of Leeds hotels, many of which were part of large chains and were ugly 1960’s style, grey brick and glass buildings. Quebecs had five different categories of room available costing from £83 to £140, we opted for the middle category room which cost £90 a night although expedia admin costs were another £15.

I looked at the hotels on-line booking as well but the first three rates available were all over £200 a night. I now realise that these rates were for various special packages such as the “massage package” but if you do go far enough down the list there is a room available for £97, if I had seen this I guess I could have booked directly and saved a few pounds. Nevertheless I though that £105 for a 5 star city centre hotel for one night would do.

The stay
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The hotel’s website states that it is centrally located and close to shops and amenities and indeed this is the case, it is a few minutes walk to the main shopping area. It is also just a few minutes walk from the train station and we parked our car here as unfortunately the hotel only has seven parking spaces. I had called the hotel after I booked and they told me that they could not reserve a spot for me but that it was easy to park at the train station. Actually we were unable to find the entrance to the station car park through the complicated one-way system but we found a car park nearby and it cost us £12 to park here until the following day.

The hotel is an attractive Victorian red brick building located on a fairly busy side street in what is definitely not the most salubrious part of town. It is also next door to a nightclub which was concerning but we were told that our room was at the front but in the middle and we shouldn’t hear any noise. Check in was polite and efficient, we were offered assistance with our bags and told where to find breakfast (not included in our rate) and then we headed up to our room on the second floor.

We were very impressed with the lobby area, the sweeping staircase and the huge stained glass windows were simply stunning. Our room was above average size, with extremely high ceilings making it feel even bigger and it had two huge ceiling to floor windows so it was very bright. The walls and furnishings were various shades of a relaxing sage green and the paintings, vases, lamps etc were ornate creating a very good look overall. It was equipped with hairdryer, iron, room safe and a mini-bar offering a good range of reasonably priced drinks and jellybeans. The bathroom was also impressive, the tiles were a grey marble effect, the suite looked brand new and the power shower was fabulous. Molton Brown toiletries were provided.

Unfortunately it was very hot in the room, 25.5 degrees according to the air conditioning unit, which is about the temperature I like to sun bathe in! We gave the air conditioning unit a bit of time to work but to no avail and for a fleeting moment thought we could make do with open windows then decided this might not be a good idea later on when the nightclub was in full swing. In the end we mentioned it at reception as we headed out for the evening. They immediately promised to fix it and when we returned later on it was fixed.

Before or even after our night out we would have liked to have invited our friends to the hotel for drinks. Unfortunately it is lacking a proper bar, as hotel guests we could go to the Oak Room on the third floor which was a gorgeous and comfortable room with an “honesty bar”, i.e. there is a small selection of drinks available which you help yourself to and mark down what you take in a book to be added to your bill later. Unfortunately the selection and quantity of drinks was very limited and it did not seem a suitable place to bring non-guests even if they are allowed, which was not clear. We did go up for a nightcap though and ended up spending two very enjoyable hours here talking to fellow guests who were on a hen weekend.

That night we slept peacefully as the bed was very comfortable and we were delighted to discover that the nightclub had actually closed down the previous month and apparently for good. There was a little bit of traffic noise that might bother some, but as I grew up living on a main road it does not even remotely bother me, in facts birds tweeting would be far more likely to disturb my sleep.

On the fourth floor there is a small restaurant serving breakfast and dinner, however as breakfast was not included with our rate we opted for a lie and didn’t try it out. The hotel also offers room service and I thought the menu looked quite good but again we did not try it.


Summary
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I thought our room and indeed every part of the hotel was absolutely beautiful and furnished to an extremely high standard. I am nevertheless surprised that it is rated as a five star hotel because I thought this was based on amenities as well as soft furnishings and the Quebec does not have the amenities that you would expect from a five star, a hotel bar being one example.

After I had been to the hotel, I read some reviews of it on tripadvisor and I noticed it was a mixed bag. Some were very happy like me, but I noticed several people commented on having very small rooms and bathrooms. I would therefore recommend upgrading from the cheapest room, it was only £2 more a night for the next category and it was another £5 a night to the deluxe room that we stayed in.

Overall I would recommend this hotel and have rated as four stars as I was pleased with most things and enjoyed my stay. I have marked it down for a few reasons; not having a bar, because some people might be troubled by street noise but mainly because it is marketed as a five star hotel and I just don’t think it is.

Summary: a gorgeous boutique hotel in the heart of the city centre but with a couple of niggles