Best Western George of Colchester, Colchester

Ah, the George. Local to me, last October I went in for Sunday lunch with a friend. I should have heard the warning bells ringing when I was served barely-cooked beef and cold cauliflower, but everyone makes mistakes - right? The waitress was not at all apologetic; she merely looked inconvenienced; however she did return with a fresh meal. Hurrah.

The following evening, I was in town with my fiancé and we decided to pop in for a bite ...
...they were just serving from the lounge menu, at which point she held her hand up to us and said impatiently: 'I'll be back in a minute, yeah?!' So my fiancé stood and waited. And waited. She came back from what she was doing, walked straight past us several times, and completely ignored us for a further ten minutes as she chatted to a colleague. At this point we decided to go elsewhere for dinner.

Having already booked two hotel rooms ... more

Ah, the George. Local to me, last October I went in for Sunday lunch with a friend. I should have heard the warning bells ringing when I was served barely-cooked beef and cold cauliflower, but everyone makes mistakes - right? The waitress was not at all apologetic; she merely looked inconvenienced; however she did return with a fresh meal. Hurrah.

The following evening, I was in town with my fiancé and we decided to pop in for a bite to eat anyway. I asked one of the waitresses if they were just serving from the lounge menu, at which point she held her hand up to us and said impatiently: 'I'll be back in a minute, yeah?!' So my fiancé stood and waited. And waited. She came back from what she was doing, walked straight past us several times, and completely ignored us for a further ten minutes as she chatted to a colleague. At this point we decided to go elsewhere for dinner.

Having already booked two hotel rooms for the night before my wedding, and not wanting to throw my happy plans into disarray, I went to stay - silly me! When my friend and I checked in, the girl on the desk was at least courteous but there was no one on hand to help with luggage and so we hauled three cases up several flights of stairs. Charming.

Our room itself was smaller and less-equipped than I had hoped for, however it was at least clean. The location of the hotel is very central to the town, which is extremely convenient. This obviously means it can get quite noisy outside, but that's only to be expected so musn't grumble. Still - you don't expect the inside of the hotel to be quite so loud!

I am aware that The George is a very old hotel, and this in itself gives it character of course - delightful, or something like that! However, the floorboards and the noise they create became a bone of contention for myself and other guests. I rose at 6 to begin preparing for my wedding, and tried to be as quiet as possible so as not to wake my bridesmaid. Soon, though, we began hearing an incredible banging noise from below. This continued on and off for two hours, until my friend went downstairs to see what the problem was. As it transpires, it was two guests attempting to sleep in the hotel room below, becoming increasingly agitated at the creaking floorboards, which was no fault of mine. They then shouted and swore at my friend, creating an unpleasant atmosphere for my wedding day. I eventually went to see them myself and managed to placate them as they resolved they would never stay in the 'creepy, crappy' hotel again!

Following this, we had problems with the shower. It reduced itself to a mere trickle - it took myself and my friend over an hour to have a shower, as it lost all pressure for the entirety of the morning. Not what you need when preparing for the biggest day of your life!

So afterwards, we decided to go downstairs for breakfast. There was a male member of staff down there who looked distinctly unshaven and scruffy, and he was loudly making comments such as: 'I can't be bothered with this today' 'I want to go back to bed' 'I don't need this' etc. What a charmer! He then followed my mother-in-law upstairs saying: 'God, I want to go lie down.'

The lady that served us at breakfast looked a little put out when we asked for pastries and toast, and traipsed off unenthusiastically. She then returned with pastries - no toast, and we had to remind her.

I was actually so unimpressed with my service from this hotel (£90 a night was not justified in any way; I've stayed in better Travelodges!) that I wrote a letter to the manager outlining the above points. And this was ignored. So six weeks later, I wrote another. This time, amazingly, I received a reply. It was along the lines of 'Sorry. We don't intend to do anything about this,' as far as I understood it.

Fabulous! Avoid this place at all costs. 

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