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Hotel Ibis (Carlisle)
by fizzywizzy
Of late I have become quite a fan of Premier Inns, only of course in the sense that if you must stay in a bland, identikit budget chain, Premier Inns tend to be the most comfortable and least unpleasant. Alas, the Carlisle Premier Inn is too far from the city centre to have been a practical option on a recent overnight stay and so we ... decided to book the Ibis on Botchergate, a useful location being just two minutes from the station and five from the main market square. I did recall a positive review (on the Other Side) earlier this year but, unfortunately for me on this occasion it was the negatives rather than the positives I should have recalled.
My requirements were simple: I wanted somewhere fairly close to the train station and within easy walking distance of the shops and restaurants in the city centre. I also didn't want to spend too much money. Our en suite double in the Ibis cost just £34.00 for the night (without breakfast).
It had been many years since I had been to Carlisle itself so I was not aware that Botchergate is the nightlife hub of the city; in fact, there are gates at either end of Botchergate which are pulled across early on Saturday evening to create a safe pedestrian zone. Of course, we didn't realise this until we made our way from the train station to the hotel. (If only I'd gone back to that review at the time of booking!) Now, although there are lots of bars and pubs on this stretch of street, there is also a good smattering of decent restaurants so it's not all bad news (of course if you like loud bars then it's not bad news at all).
The Ibis Carlisle is a fairly new building that is typical of new build Ibis hotels nationwide. It is such a shame to see this when the city in general is filled with stunning buildings, many of them desperate for a new lease of life (I guess the problems inherent in converting such important elderly properties make it very difficult, or impossible, for budget hotel chains to consider taking on).
The public areas look like any other Ibis and as I have in recent years reviewed Ibis hotels in Sheffield and Leeds, I won't dwell too much on the subject here. On the ground floor there was a restaurant/bar which was empty every time we went past, except for one couple eating breakfast on Sunday morning. As is our usual habit we ate all our meals, including breakfast, outside the hotel. We were informed, however, that breakfast is available from 4.00am until 12 noon; a hot buffet is available between 6.00and 10.00 and a continental buffet only is provided at other times.
Our room was on the second floor. The first thing we noticed when exiting the lift on our floor was the overpowering smell of bleach/chlorine which made the place smell like the changing area of a swimming pool; it was not pleasant.
We could have been stepping into any Ibis hotel room in the country but that, of course, is what Ibis want. The room was not large but it was fine for a night or two. There's no wardrobe but there is a clothes hanging area built into the corner of the room. A working area is built in underneath the window. In Ibis rooms there is only ever one chair, but there's also an upholstered built in seat against the wall beside the bed.
In other Ibis rooms we've had a hair drier and extra pillows but none were provided here. There was a kettle and small number of coffee sachets and tea bags, but less than we've come to expect. In the bathroom a tiny bar of soap was provided and there was hair and body shampoo in a wall mounted dispenser inside the walk in shower. There were two smallish bath towels, but no hand towels were provided.
I always find the showers pretty good in Ibis hotels which makes me want to stay in longer but, while the pressure is good and there's always non-stop hot water, the design of the shower cubicle is such that it's hard not to soak the entire floor of the pod. This one was slightly better than most and I managed to have a shower without totally drenching the bathmat.
Usually hotels like this have devices attached to the windows so that you can only partially open them. In our room in Carlisle, however, this device was broken and the window could be opened fully; this could be an issue for people traveling with children. So warm was our room during the night that we would have been happy to open the window, if only it had been a bit quieter outside. Our room was at the back of the building and overlooked a small pedestrian courtyard where there was a Walkabout Inn and a pseudo-Irish pub. The noise carried on until the early hours, at which point the shouting transferred to the floor above ours and carried on until after four am. When we had returned to the hotel we noticed that there was a floor walker for night time security, which seems to be the case these days in Ibis hotels in city centre locations but I don't think his presence did much to make people behave themselves.
The next morning when we left our room we found the carpet around the lift strewn with chips and other scraps of food, the floor of the lift and around the door of the lift in the reception area was the same. When we approached the desk, a male member of staff took the key cards and ask "Checking out? Thanks very much". Saracastic to a fault I couldn't help saying "Well, since you ask... No, we didn't have a good night's sleep. There was lots of noise outside and then noise on the floor above us."
"Did you phone reception to complain? We might have been able to give you another room."
"Well, no because it was four in the morning and we didn't want the additional hassle of getting dressed, packing our stuff and moving".
"Sorry, but there's nothing we can do about the pubs."
"You could mention on the website that the hotel is situated in a party area and could be noisy at weekends. Other hotels do that."
"The manager has been told that before".
At this point, sleep deprived and hungry, I couldn't be bothered to keep arguing my point and retreated to the nearby Wetherspoons where breakfasts are better value for money and the surroundings are a lot cleaner. By 9.00 o'clock in the morning, I don't think it's too much to expect that the mess from the night before would be cleaned up. Even if there wasn't a cleaner on the premises, there were enough hotel staff to quickly tidy the lift and the reception area. I also expect some enquiry about my stay and whether I was happy.
Would I recommend this hotel to others? I would recommend it for stays on weekdays but not for stays on Fridays or Saturdays unless you are intending to stay out into the early hours yourself. It's not a brilliant hotel, and I've stayed in much better Ibis hotels than this.
If my rating of three stars seems overly reasonable I should stress that this is based on what I think the hotel would be like during the week. If it's like this every weekend, I'd have to award only two stars.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
All rooms have wi-fi that must be paid for. There is satellite television with limited channels but for a charge of £9.99 the media package gives you internet access and more channels and films.
The hotel does not have its own car park; there are pay carparks close by.
Of the 102 rooms, five are accessible for guests with reduced/limited mobility
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Ramada Jarvis London West Hotel (London)
by Larrabee
I have recently spent two nights at the Ramada Ealing hotel in West London. While it could in no way be described as a luxury retreat, it is perfectly adequate for the needs of most travellers, particularly those on short stays which I imagine is who they mainly cater for. Unfortunately I can't comment on value for money as my stay was ... (thankfully) paid for by a third party!
The hotel is located at Ealing Common, about 5 minutes walk from the tube station and close to the very busy North Circular road, although I wasn't disturbed by traffic noise even with the window open all night. Ealing Common tube is on the district line and its very easy to connect to all the major tube lines and get anywhere you need. I'd say its about 20 minutes into central London which isn't ideal during the crowded rush hour but in the middle of the day or the late evening the journey is a breeze. The hotel is located in Zone 3.
Check in was quick and easy, and the room key is a credit card style one. You need to swipe it quickly in and out of the mechanism on the door to unlock your room. It took me a couple of goes to get the hang of it but its easy enough, I was a bit tired!
The rooms are basic but perfectly adequate. The beds are reasonable comfortable, there is air-conditioning which was a life saver during my stay as it was bordering on a heatwave. The TV has a decent selection of freeview channels as well as an on-demand movie service which I thought was fairly reasonable at £6.99 for a recent blockbuster. The TV was a flat screen which made a nice change from the old fuzzy CRT boxes you often get in hotels. The other facilities were pretty standard, a cheap hairdryer, a trouser press, a tea and coffee tray and for some reason, 2 phones within about 3 feet of each other.
The bathroom was a similar feel to the bedroom, good enough but nothing to get excited about. The sink area was spacious and clean, the towels were freshly washed although a bit scratchy, some fabric conditioner wouldn't have gone amiss! The bath was a bit too small to really enjoy a bath in it and the water pressure in the shower was a bit low which made it hard to get all the conditioner out of my hair. The water temperature was consistent and easy to adjust though.
Breakfast was included in my stay, and was served between 7 and 9.30am on weekdays, later on weekends. It was a very familiar buffet setup with the traditional English options of sausages, bacon, eggs etc. along with cereals, fruit and some more european cooked meat and cheese choices. I don't usually think much of hotel breakfasts so I was pleasantly surprised by how nice everything was. It was a great way to start a busy day.
There are five floors, and two lifts. The lifts aren't terribly roomy and probably only fit about 4 or 5 people in, or only 2 or 3 if they have luggage. The lifts get quite busy around breakfast time and you might end up watching a few pass you by already full before you get on one, so if you're able to it might be easier to take the stairs.
The reception area was always clean, there was plenty of seating and a bar which opens in the evenings, the reception area toilets were clean and spacious. The reception staff were friendly, but not overly or irritatingly so, and competent which is the most important thing! Checking out was just as easy as checking in.
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Hotel Golden Lion (Padstow)
by grahamt
Our latest visit to Cornwall was for the Mika concert at the Eden Sessions but to make the long journey even more worthwhile we decided also to take in a couple of other things. One was to be a visit to the Lost Gardens of Helligan and the other was for a return visit to Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstow. We had so much ... enjoyed our last meal there that we just had to go again. However, unlike last time, when we were staying on the other side of the peninsular, this time we wanted to stay locally so we could "fully" enjoy the experience.
But where to stay?
Once again I consulted Tripadvisor and spotted there at No.3 in the list of reviews The Golden Lion, which had received almost universally high approval and had a good picture into the bargain. I booked with them at a very acceptable £70 including breakfast for the two of us.
The Golden Lion is basically a pub with rooms rather than a hotel. It's right in the centre of the town and although it is possible to drive a car up the very narrow street it isn't really possible to stop there nor does the pub have its own car park. By all means drive up to drop off luggage but it's no more than a five minute walk from the Harbour car park, opposite Rick Stein's, where a 12 to 24 hour ticket will cost you £6.50 at the time of writing.
From the harbour the Golden Lion is on the left at the top of Lanadwell Street and can be recognised by the dozens of flower baskets although in this it seems to be in competition with the London Inn further down the street on the right.
The Golden Lion is a typical old Cornish pub. Clearly hundreds of years old it is distinguished by the low entrance and internal ceilings. The entrance leads into what would have been the Public Bar once upon a time with the bar situated on the left. Behind the bar is what would have been the Lounge.
This caught us out when we stopped off in the bar on returning from the Seafood Restaurant for a nightcap. We ordered in the front bar but were disappointed by the mediocre selection of spirits although, with two of Sharp's real ales plus Timothy Taylor's Landlord on tap, there can be absolutely no complaints about the beer. Later we discovered that the better spirits, including a bottle of Laphroaig, seemed to be on the rear bar.
The bedrooms are all upstairs, reached from a door in the rear bar, up a steep flight of stairs. Access is not best suited for anyone disabled, nor is lugging a large case upstairs an easy exercise either. The rooms, however, couldn't be more attractive. Ours overlooked the street insofar as the very low sash windows permit. However, with such little traffic and sufficiently far from the harbour, noise did not prove to be a problem.
The room was of a decent size and the bed large and comfortable. The bathroom had a shower cabinet but no bath and the shower cabinet door did prove not to slide smoothly. We reported this to the owner but, as we only stayed one night we can't report whether anything was done about it.
Breakfast in the morning was the usual expected and included the Full English, if required, in the price. Perfectly enjoyable and nothing special to report.
We did enjoy our stay at the Golden Lion and would have no qualms about returning should the need arise.
N.B. Part of this review also posted on Tripadvisor UK.
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