Last week I decided to surprise my other half with a very splurgy dinner followed by a decadent evening in a luxury hotel. We've both been so busy lately it seems we haven't seen much of each other, so in a very rare moment of spontaneity, without a thought to the bank balance, I jumped on the net to book a hotel.
I had four criteria: 1. It had to have 24 hour room service, as I envisaged breakfast in bed and late night caps.
2. It had to have a jacuzzi.
3. It had to be within walking distance of public transport, and close to an airport. I had not told hubby of the plans - merely that he had to be in a certain place at a certain time. I told him to bring his passport, so as to put him off the scent (which in the end worked very well indeed!)
4. It had to have a four or five star rating.
I eventually settled on the Britannia International, a four star hotel in Canary Wharf. I figured that I'd get more for my buck being a little further out from the centre of London, and being in the heart of a business district I thought I'd get a great weekend deal. It was close to London City airport and was surrounded by great restaurants.
I booked through Opodo, although the hotel was listed on all the usual hotel search engines, as well as having it's own website (britanniahotels.com). Opodo came out cheapest, plus I got £5 back through greasypalm.
The room cost £109 through Opodo. The rack rate was £300. As with all hotels, rates vary day to day. A 15% deposit was charged to my credit card on booking.
As it turns out, Britannia is actually a chain of 3 and 4 star hotels across the UK, which I hadn't realised at the time of booking.
The hotel offers 2 classes of room below the room I reserved - on Opodo the prices were £10 and £20 less than for the jacuzzi room. Every person that checked in whilst I was checking in (of which there were a large number!) had paid different amounts, ranging from £70 up to £170 per night from what I managed to hear.
---------LOCATION-----------
The International is on Marsh Wall in Docklands. It's about a 10 minute walk from Canary Wharf underground station, or less from South Quay on the Docklands Light Rail. It's a very convenient location for London City airport, as it's a short train (on the DLR) and shuttle bus journey away.
I'm afraid I've been unable to find out any information about parking, as I don't drive and their website is completely silent on the matter. I assume that there is some sort of parking, although you may have to pay. However, as I'm not going to recommend this hotel you probably won't need to know anyway!
----------CHECK IN/OUT------------
This is where the story turns sour. The hotel is in a very ugly 1970s high rise building. There is a covered drive through section leading up to the front doors, which are, sometimes, manned by doormen. As you go in the theme changes from ugly 70s high-rise to faux 18th century glamour….. done badly. There are enormous glass chandeliers at every turn. Lots of black marble and terrible fake antiques - like giant papier-mâché swans. It was like walking into the set of a 1980s B rated American movie set for a bad period drama. All terribly colonial and thoroughly ugly.
The hotel had several functions that evening (a Friday), including what appeared to be a high school formal. There was a brass band playing very badly somewhere out of sight, which I assume was a school band.
There was a queue to check in, which I joined. Armed with my printed confirmation details from the website plus a copy of my confirmation email, I hoped for a speedy check in so I could make myself beautiful before whisking off to find hubby at the tube station and put him out of his misery.
Sadly, this was not to be. The girl "serving" me (I use the word loosely) couldn't find my reservation. After many minutes of staring at the piece of paper and willing the details to appear in her computer, she eventually mumbled something about having to call someone and went off to the only phone on the reception desk, which was at the other end of the counter. She then started to shout out questions to me, still waiting patiently at the other end of the counter where all my luggage and dripping umbrella etc was. I eventually relocated myself to the phone end, when she immediately gave up on the problem and left me to speak with the mystery person on the phone. I had to read every single word of the email over the phone, and was then informed that she would have to call Opodo.
I relayed this information to the girl behind the counter, who suggested I take a seat in the lounge area. As that area was out of sight of reception, and as I was not filled with confidence that the problem was to be solved imminently, I declined. It's just as well. Nothing happened for about 10 minutes, and I asked the girl to call back to check what was happening. Having nothing to report, she went back to checking in others whilst I waited. another 10 minutes or so, and the phone rang. Not one of the staff on reception answered it. Growing increasingly infuriated I pointed out to the girl I was dealing with that the phone had been ringing and that perhaps it was the woman sorting out my room. She told me to call them back myself, which I did. I was given a code number to give to reception.
During this entire process I heard the word "sorry" twice, both muttered and both perfunctory.
There was the usual swipe of the credit card. There were some others checking in trying to pay in cash. The staff were grudgingly accepting payment of the first night in cash with a promise to pay the next night the following morning.
Finally, some 30 minutes after arriving, armed with a key and a room number I made my way up to my room on the 10th floor, only to find no jacuzzi. I stomped back down to reception and explained through gritted teeth that my reservation had very clearly been for a room with a jacuzzi and that this had been explained ad nauseum to both the reception staff and the mystery person on the phone. Again, my now well-worn copies of my booking confirmation were studied, with a muttered apology. After some collaboration with other staff a new room was eventually allocated and I stomped off again.
Now, the loss of the reservation may well have been Opodo's fault, not the Britannia's. I entirely understand that things can disappear into the ether on the net. What I cannot tolerate is poor service, particularly at a 4 star rated hotel. There was no doubt that I had a reservation. There was no lack of rooms. As far as I'm concerned the hotel should have simply allocated me a room and sorted it out with Opodo in my absence, instead of forcing me to hang around for the best part of an hour.
When it came time to check out there were yet more problems. The staff tried to charge me the full price for the room, despite my having already paid a 15% deposit. Again, this necessitated a phone call to Opodo whilst I waited, and took around 15 minutes.
My rating: 1/5. Service was appalling, and there was no attempt to make up for the difficulties (none of which were due to any fault of my own) with complementary upgrades, services, drinks or even proper apologies. All in all I spent over an hour just checking in and out, excluding time spent in queues. This is unacceptable in a four star hotel.
-------THE ROOM----------
My room was on the top floor (12th). I had hoped when I realised I was going all the way to the top that they had given me an upgrade of room.
However, the room was, to say the least, unimpressive. It was far smaller than the first room I had been allocated. There was a smallish double bed (definitely not a queen size), 2 bedside tables, a small table with 2 seats, quite a modern 42 inch television, a large set of drawers, a dresser with a mirror and a seat, and a large wardrobe with sliding mirrored doors. This took up most of the space. There was plenty of space to fully unpack - in fact there was enough space to have unpacked everything I own, which seems a little excessive in a hotel room, particularly at the cost of a feeling of spaciousness.
The décor was very dated indeed - all different patterns and colours, with paintings of women with parasols. Very kitch.
The air-conditioning was fairly modern, with a simple touch pad to increase or decrease the temperature. When I arrived it had been set at a spine chilling 13 degrees (why?????) and I never managed to get it to a reasonable temperature, despite setting it to 25 degrees overnight. I do feel the cold, so I may have been unreasonably sensitive to this, however it was certainly not 25 degrees in the morning.
The bed was terrible. You could actually see the springs through the sheets so you can imagine what it felt like. At least it didn't squeak, which was the only advantage it had over the mattress that currently torments me at home. The bedding was very old - apparently clean (although you never can tell in hotels….). There was only a bedspread and a thin blanket, rather than a duvet which is my personal choice. The blanket was quite scratchy - it looked like the picnic rug I used to have in the back of my car, rather than something I'd put on a bed. The bedspread was a thin mock-patchwork quilt. During the night both my husband and I were cold. It only occurred to me in the morning to see whether there were additional blankets - there were, but only of the same variety.
The pillows were excellent.
There was no where to put luggage except on the floor. If someone had had more than a small rolling suitcase they would have found themselves in some difficulties unless they fully unpacked. People with mobility difficulties would also have found this awkward.
The television was quite modern - around 42 inches, so a very reasonable size to watch from bed. It had some sort of limited satellite subscription, and you could listen to the radio through it. However, every single station flickered so that it was impossible to watch. There was clearly some sort of problem with the aerial/satellite dish.
There was no mini bar, which greatly surprised me. There were basic tea and coffee making facilities, with just two sachets each of instant, decaf and tea. 2 packets of biscuits were provided, which hubby demolished without any complaints.
There was an iron, ironing board and trouser press in the wardrobe, which took up much of the space. There was a hair dryer stashed away in one of the drawers in the dresser which I didn't manage to locate until some time after I needed it.
The bathroom had a small jacuzzi with an overhead shower. The fittings were all covered in lime scale. The shower nozzle was very old and the spray was all over the place. There was no shower curtain, just a small glass panel. No matter how carefully I showered I managed to get water all over the floor, which made it extremely slippery. The jets in the jacuzzi weren't working properly, so all the pressure was at one end of the tub. The plug had a long metal spike at the top of it, so if you shared your jacuzzi with your other half the unlucky one had to sit at an odd angle to avoid it. The towels provided were old but adequate. On the plus side there was a range of good-sized complementary toiletries (shower gel, shampoo and body cream, bars of soap and a shower cap.)
No bathrobes were provided, which annoyed me. I've often wondered why hotels offer room service without providing robes - do people take their own, or do they get dressed in order to answer the door? Surely a credit card imprint is sufficient security in the event that guests steal them.
I had booked a non-smoking room, but true to form the room provided had an ashtray, so I assume it was a smoking room. Thankfully I couldn't smell any staleness or smoke.
My rating: 2/5. If it had been a 3 star hotel I'd put it up a notch to 3 (no hotel room with a bad bed deserves any higher), however as a 4 star it is struggling to get to 2/5 in my book.
---------Room service-------------
There was 24 hour room service. However, the range on offer was woeful, particularly considering the hotel boasts 3 restaurants and a bar.
I had envisaged a relaxed breakfast in bed, however the only room service option for breakfast was for an extremely basic continental breakfast (juice, cereal, toast, fruit). To order it you simply needed to tick the relevant boxes on the card and hang it on your door knob before 5am. We decided to give this a miss and went out for brunch instead, so I cannot rate it.
There were some meals on offer for room service, but only the choice of 3 or 4 options. I'm afraid by the time I got to studying the menu I was fuming and have failed to retain any of the details in my head.
I did order a couple of drinks from room service. Again, the range was woeful - only the most basic of spirits, and all were out of miniatures. Spirits were £4.50, which I suppose is not outrageous for room service drinks. There were I think 3 varieties each of red and white wine, and soft drinks. When I called for the drinks (at around 10pm on a Friday evening) I was informed there would be a 30 minute wait. How long can it take to open 2 miniatures, pour them into a glass? In the end, it was closer to 15 minutes, which is still too long in my book.
According to the information leaflet they offer the usual concierge services (the mind boggles about how successfully…).
My rating: 2/5
-------Leisure facilities----------
I didn't use it, but guests do have access to the Health & Fitness Centre, although they have to pay for the first visit! According to the website it is "beautifully appointed with a Roman style heated swimming pool, whirlpool, sauna and steam rooms and a split level gym".
-------Food----------
The hotel boasts three restaurants and a bar. As hard as I tried, I could not find any reviews of the a la carte French restaurant (Cromptons French Restaurant) and so I had reserved a table elsewhere for our posh nosh. In light of my experience with the service in other respects I am heartily glad of my choice. The other restaurants are Jenny's Carvery Restaurant and a pizzeria, which both offered basic, reasonably priced food. The Conservatory Bar apparently offers a wide range of drinks and snacks.
A hot breakfast is served in one of the restaurants in the mornings at around £14.
----------Recommendation------------- A resounding "no". I have written to the hotel to complain about the lack of service and the numerous inadequacies with the room. If this were a hotel offering rooms at bargain basement rates I'd be less inclined to complain, but £109 on a Friday night in a commercial district is not bargain basement.
More details
Quality of Facilities
Poor
Family Friendly
Average
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