Formule 1 Liverpool City Center, Liverpool

...we decided to try the Formule 1 that we had spotted the year before advertising rooms for £30.00 a night. The location was fine - right next door the hotel we were staying in - perfect for an early hours stagger home after the after-show knees up. This is a good point at which to remark that Liverpool has a shortage of reasonably priced small hotel or budget options close to the city centre. The main chains are represented but with a ten minute walk ...
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The Formule 1 is situated almost opposite the Albert Dock on busy Wapping - thankfully set far enough back from the road to escape the noise of the traffic. It has a small car-park which it shares with the adjoining Ibis Hotel. If you've never stayed in a Formule 1 hotel, it's at this point you begin to realise why the rooms are so cheap.

We booked our room by telephone; on-line bookings are also possible. You simply ... more

My visits to Liverpool in December are now an annual event; my old friend and musical hero Ian McNabb (formerly of the Icicle Works and now a solo artists with an impressive catalogue - check him out, he's really rather splendid) plays a gig in his hometown just before Christmas. My long-suffering partner kindly foots most of the bill as a birthday present to me but last year we decided to try to reduce the expense.

The obvious way to do it was by going for a cheaper hotel: we decided to try the Formule 1 that we had spotted the year before advertising rooms for £30.00 a night. The location was fine - right next door the hotel we were staying in - perfect for an early hours stagger home after the after-show knees up. This is a good point at which to remark that Liverpool has a shortage of reasonably priced small hotel or budget options close to the city centre. The main chains are represented but with a ten minute walk into the heart of Liverpool they can hardly be described as central. Closer to the centre are a couple of boutique hotels - expensive and the down at heel Adelphi.

The Formule 1 is situated almost opposite the Albert Dock on busy Wapping - thankfully set far enough back from the road to escape the noise of the traffic. It has a small car-park which it shares with the adjoining Ibis Hotel. If you've never stayed in a Formule 1 hotel, it's at this point you begin to realise why the rooms are so cheap.

We booked our room by telephone; on-line bookings are also possible. You simply reserve a room; no deposit is needed, no payment, no credit card details. It sounds great, doesn't it? What they don't tell you is that you can't take your room until 5.00pm and that if you arrive before then on a weekend there'll be no receptionist. Furthermore, you can't get in until someone comes out because the door has an electronic number pad and since you haven't yet checked in, you don't have the number. But since you weren't told all this you start to panic because you don't know there's no receptionist until five because you can't get in for the non-English speaking cleaners to tell you all this. Ever feel like you're going round in circles?

Having sneaked in when someone was leaving I found an English speaker who told me to come back at five; I was not a happy person. I had planned the afternoon - pop out to do a little shopping, buy a scarf to go with the evenings outfit, come back, get ready and go out for the evening. This was going to ruin my plans. However, nothing could be done.
We returned at the appointed hour - the receptionist (I say receptionist - more like a surly youth with a shaved head and wearing a bomber jacket that made him look more like a security guard) was on shift; he refused to believe that we hadn't been told about the 5.00pm check in. It was only the fact that Liverpool were playing at home that day (making hotel rooms in the city the equivalent of gold-dust) that made us take up the room; if there had been any other options I would have been ensconced in another hotel performing executing my preparations for the evening ahead. There was one further incident before we headed to our room: the price of the room was actually £29.95 and we paid in cash. However, the receptionist had no change and assumed that we would not mind losing the five pence. Well, if you're reading this, Formule 1, I do mind. I really mind. Imagine how much money this young man is raking in if he pockets five pence every time someone checks in - OK, I know it's not a huge amount but it's the principle isn't it?

We asked how to find our room, our genial host pointed vaguely and we decided to try and find it ourselves! Now, there appears to be some colour coding thing going on here but we weren't able to work it out. We did find our room number, however and using our keycard, let ourselves in to find a warm, clean and comfortable little room that totally opposed the shabby corridors with mucky marks on the walls and curious smell. Admittedly it was small but it did comfortably hold a small double bed, a clothes hanging nook, a washbasin and sizeable vanity unit and a television set. We even had a view of the lawn! Everything was clean and in working order; nothing was shabby or damaged or chipped. In fact, it seems that everything in the room is made from one solid piece of wood or plastic, etc so that it can't be broken. For example, the mattress is one a solid block, not a frame or a divan. I guess that way the chamber-maids don't have to spend time scrabbling under the beds when cleaning. There were no tiles in the wash area - the sink and vanity unit were constructed from one piece of moulded plastic - makes sense- no tiles make it much easier to clean.

The hotel has only triple rooms, no singles or doubles- at this rate though it hardly matters. Each room has a double bed below with a single bunk above it at a right angle. No rooms have private bathrooms. These are situated at the end of each corridor. Unfortunately, so was our room. Let me try to explain. As far as I could tell, the hotel has the central staircase at its core and the showers and toilets are situated by the stairs on each landing with the corridors of rooms radiating off the hub. Presumably this meant a less significant cost for plumbing when the hotel was built since all the goings-on will be in one condensed area. Again, it makes perfect sense. But for the poor guest whose room is next to the showers (me!) you have everyone tripping past you all day and night, chatting to people outside your room and calling out "I'm just going to have a wee, I'll be along in a minute" when they come back in the early hours. It would be kinder on the guests if there were toilets and shower rooms at each end of the corridor rather than have the thunder of feet all night long. This, of course, is the worst case scenario - we had had enough to drink to ensure that not even the pipers of the Dagenham Girls Band cold have stirred us. Other guests might not sleep so heavily.

The toilets and showers are "self-cleaning" - wouldn't you love one of those at home! This is what happens - assuming the toilet or shower is vacant you go in, perform your ablutions and leave. The door then locks automatically and a red light above the door is illuminated. What happens now is a mystery to me; all I know some type of cleaning goes on which involves lots of steam and hot water. It appears to work. I never found any toilet or shower to be unsatisfactory. In fact, the only problem I can report is the lack of something suitable to hang up ones towel and clothing; there is a hook, it's just not great.

As you would expect there is no room service here and there isn't a café or restaurant although there are vending machines on the landing (crisps, chocolate and soft drinks) and you do receive a voucher at check-in entitling you to a discount at the Ibis Hotel's restaurant next door.

And that really is the Formule 1. If I haven't painted a good picture then I have really undersold it. It is undoubted value for money in a city with few budget options and once you know how it works it's not as bad as it sounds. We had a very comfortable nights sleep in a clean room, never had to wait for a toilet or shower to become vacant and bagged ourselves a good location.

In spite of the fact that there are triple rooms I would not recommend this hotel to families with very young children - unless you can manage to assist a child to shower in a tiny unit!
There are some rooms on the first floor for people with physical disabilites and these have suitably equipped toilets and showers in that corridor.

Rooms at the Formule 1 can't be booked more than three months in advance which means that we'll be out of the country when the rooms for October become available. However my mother has been left with instructions to book me a room when they're available. The event? The wonderful Icicle Works are only getting together for a 25th Anniversary Tour! See you down the front!

www.hotelformule1.com

25 Wapping
Baltic Triangle
L1 8 DR

Tel +44 1517092040

Please note - I have rated the "quality of food and drink" and "the qualities of facilities" as average for the simple reason that I had to give an answer - in actual fact both should be "not aplicable"
 

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