I have been traveling to the UK, on and off, for a number of years. I have yet to stay in a hotel which was up to my standards, and my standards aren’t that high.
In the last 90′s I was in London on a regular basis for a series of consulting projects. I stayed in the city a number of times, often near Trafalgar Square. I remember small rooms, dark hallways, and plumbing that was apparently older than the Queen of England. I had a project out in the suburbs once, and I stayed at a truly dismal hotel in a forgotten little town called Burgh Heath.
I’ve been to the Amazon.co.uk offices twice in the last two years, and I’ve had the distinct displeasure of staying in Marriott properties. I stayed in the “regular” Marriott in Slough last year. This time I stayed at the Courtyard Marriott, also in Slough. I haven’t linked either of those, since they deserve no attention and certainly no link love. Both of these hotels “feature” small, cramped hallways with low ceilings, dark and depressing rooms, and not much else to recommend. With the notable exception of the restaurant staff (in both places), the hotel staff were generally friendly and helpful.
Neither hotel is located convenient to any off-site restaurants or shops, and I don’t like to drive in the UK, so I had no choice but to use the on-site restaurants. I don’t know what it is about the Marriott restaurant staff, but there’s really a problem. The staffers are slow, indifferent, forgetful, and lazy. The service is slow, and the overall quality of the food is mediocre. Menu selections are limited, and there’s really nothing to recommend here. In both hotels, guests went unserved while staffers hung around the cast register or chatted with their co-workers.
Bill Marriott has always made a big deal about service, but this message has yet to reach the United Kingdom.
Yes. Is the short answer… I have been travelling to the south east on a weekly basis for almost 9 years and the standards have steadily decreased and are now totally appalling. The problem is that in the whole area between London and Bristol (the infamous M4 corridor) demand is far higher than supply, and most establishments have totally lost any incentive to provide a decent service. There are a few exceptions, but rather far and few between…
What gives you the right to come over here all high and mighty and slam our British hotels. Well apart from the fact that you are 100% correct. I think you have just seen an example of what it happening all over the UK. I moved Texas in 1999 and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I have also traveled quite a lot round the US and the one thing that you can say is how much you are service orientated. And if something is wrong, you complain, and rightly so. In the UK, we won’t complain. We wait until we leave and don’t say a think. How do they know that they are doing something wrong if we never complain to their faces. In the US, it is ok to complain, its acceptable to complain, its required to complain. Its called honesty. Unfortunately, I had to leave Texas because of redundancy, and I had to come back to the UK. And I hated it, and I still do. You can’t say I am not patriotic, I server almost 9 years in the Royal Navy, but I hate what is happened to the UK. We should just board up the windows, turn the lights off and all move to China (where all our manufacturing and jobs are going). SO to answer your question do all English hotels suck, no they don’t, England’s service industry sucks
English hotels don’t rate well by American standards, but many American hotels don’t do well by English standards.
English hotels often have exceptional public areas, with antiques on display, a full bar, meeting areas, etc. Many American hotels skimp on the public areas, and have a dingy bar, lackluster libraries, etc.
The breakfasts at English hotels are often extraordinary — uncanned kippers, a selection of smoked fish, fresh Irish soda bread, and other goodies. American hotels are above average if they have two meats, eggs, and a couple of starchy items. Even the Slough/Windsor Marriott has a nice tea/coffee service, with packets of hot chocolate as well as a couple of cellophane-wrapped cookies. I’m not sure I’ve ever stayed in an American hotel that had cookies for their free coffee/tea service, and hot chocolate is rare.
It all depends on what you’re used to, and what you like. Personally, I’m American so I prefer the nice rooms, etc. The Marriott in Slough (which is where I’m staying for most of this week) manages to combine some of the good aspects of American and English hotels, but doesn’t score high with guests of either nationality, I suspect. The rooms aren’t deluxe enough for Americans, the public areas are drab by British standards, etc. Classic case of trying to make everyone happy.
I am going back to the UK in 3 days time – and I find the thought totally depressing. I will be staying in (or near) Bury, Manchester.
The last hotel I stayed in there sucked. Most hotels in England sucks. I can’t find something which looks even remotely decent ONLINE within 10 miles of the place.
English hotels suck
I would agree with you that the hotels need a little bit of service training. October of 2005 my self and a business associate stayed at the Marriott County Hall in London. The hotel was in a spectacular location in a historic building located next to the London Eye and right on the river. A better location would be hard to find. The rooms were actually appointed in an acceptable manner.
The killer was that for a small upgrade fee of about $30 dollars US we could have had a view of the river instead of the dumpster storage location. What it comes down to is that the staff does not let you know of your options. We also requested food services for our guests following a meeting. The number of guests was estimated to be 30 and we we were to receive a variety of sandwiches and other simple foods.
As it worked out the food was not delivered until the vast majority of our guests had departed and what was delivered was far less than promised.
I will say that all of the staff was very friendly. They simply lacked the follow through on our order that was placed days in advance and reviewed the morning of the meeting.
So the question I must ask based on my experience and yours is if this is a Marriott UK problem or is it a culture that runs through out all of the UK hotel and service industries? I will let you know following my next trip to London in March.
March 1, 2006, I returned to England and I have to say the experience was much more pleasant than before. While the level of service did not arise to that of a fine hotel in India where they attempt to wait on you at every turn, it was much improved. This time the hotel was the hotel was the Land Mark http://www.landmarklondon.co.uk which was a wonderful location located near the tube and some neat shops and restaurants. The Land Mark was very well appointed, and it had a fairly high nightly rate which I’m sure helps keep it nice. All in all it was a much improved hotel experience over my previous trip of October of 2006.