Hanover International - Bromsgrove

...the strap line of the Hanover International Chain. “OOOOEEERR”, the mind boggles.

On Sunday 11th January I needed to be in High Wycombe for a mid-afternoon meeting, followed by a 10.30 appointment in Hereford the following day, thus I needed somewhere to stay.

Always price conscious, and particularly this time having to pay for it myself, I scanned the internet, but could find nothing in Hereford that appealed to me; ...
...this, I stumbled across the Hanover International in Bromsgrove, some 1½ hours drive from Hereford; with such a late start this seemed perfectly reasonable. However, having stayed in the Hanover International, Ashbourne in August, albeit for a good price, I still expect my bed-clothes to be unstained, and if supplied with a Jacuzzi bath, for it to work, needless to say I was apprehensive. A quick scan on Ciao established that Trampus had already ... more

This is the strap line of the Hanover International Chain. “OOOOEEERR”, the mind boggles.

On Sunday 11th January I needed to be in High Wycombe for a mid-afternoon meeting, followed by a 10.30 appointment in Hereford the following day, thus I needed somewhere to stay.

Always price conscious, and particularly this time having to pay for it myself, I scanned the internet, but could find nothing in Hereford that appealed to me; the offerings were either mediocre and cheap, or outstanding and bloody expensive, at which point I decided it was time to widen the search.

Doing this, I stumbled across the Hanover International in Bromsgrove, some 1½ hours drive from Hereford; with such a late start this seemed perfectly reasonable. However, having stayed in the Hanover International, Ashbourne in August, albeit for a good price, I still expect my bed-clothes to be unstained, and if supplied with a Jacuzzi bath, for it to work, needless to say I was apprehensive. A quick scan on Ciao established that Trampus had already stayed here; this was good enough for me and for £27 bed and breakfast for a single en-suite through www.superbreak.com, I decided to book.

Unlike most hotel bookings and many third party websites, ‘superbreak’ take payment up front, and therefore if you have to cancel close to the time, then tough, you will lose your money, but as I only booked the day before, this was not something that concerned me.

LOCATION
The hotel is very close to Junction 1 of the M42, and their directions on their website are accurate, if a little vague. By this, I mean that they direct you to drive towards the town centre and then take the Kidderminster road (A448) and the hotel is on your left, as I was more concerned with watching out for the hotel, I didn’t really take much notice of the distance, but I would say it is about 6 miles from the M42, and literally adjacent to the M5; ideally situated for both Bromsgrove and Kidderminster, and relatively close to Worcester and Birmingham City and Airport and events at the NEC and NIA.

The hotel is described as having a distinctly Mediterranean feel and it is not difficult to see why. Reception is situated at the front of a forecourt that houses a bar, café area, childrens play area and leisure centre. The latter was my primary reason for booking the hotel, although being the bright spark that I am, I left my bather at home, and the hotel had nothing larger than a size 12 to sell me, so sorry dear Ciao’er’s, I failed to take advantage of these wondrous facilities (but will give an overview later for those that are interested). Be aware that this hotel does not provide towels in the leisure centre and therefore you will need to take your own.

CHECK-IN
Check in was efficient and perfunctorily polite, but not particularly friendly. I was beginning to feel mighty guilty at only having paid such a small amount for my room, I was required to complete a ‘check-in’ card with my personal details and car registration number, a customary swipe of the credit card was taken to allow me to charge ‘extras’ to my room. On the booking form through superbreak.com, I was offered the opportunity to add special requests, for which I chose a smoking room (sorry to all those I have let down on backtracking on giving up) and a high floor (realising that the hotel was only two floors I wasn’t holding my breath on the latter) – I got the high floor, but not smoking, a change saw me being allocated a smoking ground floor rooms. I was offered an early morning call (which I didn’t receive) and newspaper (not complementary and didn’t arrive – luckily there was one copy left in reception). There is a facility on your TV handset to set Alarm calls, but this didn’t work, so I would advise that if staying here, you bring independent means for waking yourself up.

THE ROOM
I have to say that, following my experience with Hanover’s Ashbourne outlet (Derby), I was pleasantly surprised. The room, whilst not the largest I have stayed in, was adequate for me, offering a king size bed with two pillows (and 2 more in the wardrobe) and bedclothes rather than a quilt. There were more wall lights/lamps than my living room (including bedside lamps, 4 in all), plus, an overhead light. The furniture was all in a dark oak effect and offered ample storage spaces in the shape of cupboards and drawers. There was no safe, charged for or otherwise, I do wish that hotels would start seeing the benefit of offering their customers this facility.

There was a desk area for business work, sporting 2 telephone/modem points, both of which I am very disappointed to say didn’t work (this is a problem I am unfortunately not unfamiliar with). I telephoned reception who offered me the opportunity to use the conference rooms to connect to the internet, but the last thing I need to do when I travelling alone is advertise the fact that I am carrying a laptop. The main phone connector (situated on the bedside cabinet) led to a telephone socket behind the bed – the bed was ridiculously easy to move, but this was when I discovered that the socket was literally hanging off the wall, and the connection had been seriously ‘bodged’ and I am sure would cause great interest to the local health and safety exec. Finally, after about 20 minutes of fiddling, I managed to get my connector in; thankfully it is about 15 metres long (why do they always tangle?) and has a double socket, allowing me to connect both the phone and computer. Once finally connected I had a connection speed of 28.8K the first time, and 32.8K the second – when are these hotels going to wise up and start offering broadband networks? It would certainly increase the number of business travellers for the first ones to ‘bite the bullet’.

Telephone charges are quoted as being 35p per unit, when I queried at reception, she advised me that this was the equivalent of putting 10p in a phone box and did not allow not very long, (she is evidently out of touch as the minimum charge these days in BT payphones is 20p). Upon checking the computer, she established that I had not in fact been charged for my call, although I am sure that will be rectified by the morning. I know hotels charge astronomical rates for calls, but I wish they would be up front about it.

In total, my 2 local rate internet calls came to £1.69 including VAT, one which was in the morning and was about 4 times more expensive than the one the night before. For some unknown reason my first call lasting 7 or so minutes was not charged for, would have stayed on longer if I had know.

Tea and coffee making facilities were provided, (tucked away in a drawer), offering a selection of teas, a couple of Belgium biscuits, hot chocolate and freeze dried coffee of no brand known to me, which was absolutely rank. A hairdryer with diffuser was supplied and there was an information brochure containing details of restaurant opening hours, local topics of interest, a desk area and chair, a trouser press and a single coffee table and chair.

There was a remote controlled colour TV offering the bog standard terrestrial channels (1-4 only, 5 wasn’t working), Radio 1, 2 and 3, Sky News, all Sky Sports channels and Sky One. There was also a number of Pay for movie channels and to be fair there was an interesting selection from Calendar girls and some raunchy ‘X’ rated films – all of which could be ordered through your remote control. At £7.50 per day, per channel, there was nothing that appealed to me that desperately, so gave this one a miss.

The TV also offered the opportunity to check your expenditure on your account, to be honest I wish I hadn’t bothered; a quick scan indicated that I owed £949,672.79. I queried it with reception who assured me that I only owed £17, but whilst I do have a rather generous credit limit on my credit card, I don’t quite think it would quite cover that listed on the TV screen. There were 2 mirrors, one of which was ¾ length; very useful if you need to check you are looking your best.

The room, as is only to be expected from a 4 star outlet, was en-suite, with bath, independent Mira power shower, toilet and sink, shaver point, and a small selection of toiletries were also supplied. A shower curtain and anti-slip mat were provided for safety. The only thing I would say about the bathroom was that the toilet was ridiculously difficult to flush. A bath and hand towel were also supplied, the former of which nearly went around me twice, god help if you had a twiggy like figure, it would have swamped you, although not something I am complaining about with my ample frame.

The windows had curtains and Venetian blinds making the room nice and cosy, and both thermostatically controlled radiators were on, making it exceptionally hot. The windows were wooden double glazing, and despite being on the ground floor, I did not feel threatened opening either window, due to my room overlooking the courtyard and also there being a large number of bushes directly outside.

The room looked like it had recently been refurbished; the documentation in the rooms sported the name of the Pine Lodge, Bromsgrove, making me suspect that the outlet has changed hands in the not too distant past.

The hotel also has notices around the place advising clients that it is currently refurbishing all its public areas and apologised in advance for any inconvenience. In fairness, I did not notice any disruption for this, although it could be that the decorators do not work on Sundays.

The brochure does indicate that ‘many’ rooms have a mini-bar, mine didn’t (life really isn’t fair).

There is a ‘chip-shop’ facility that will deliver food to your room up until 11pm daily, offering traditional type food, pizzas and drinks.

LEISURE FACILITIES
As I said earlier, I managed to forget my swimming costume so couldn’t sample the offerings. However, I suspect it is the leisure facilities that give the hotel its 4 star status.

On offer was a 12(ish) metre swimming pool, with Jacuzzi which looked extremely inviting; there was also a gymnasium, sauna, steam room, solarium (extra charge), and hair and beauty salon by appointment. The facilities are open 7am to 10pm Mondays to Saturdays and 8am to 9.30pm Sundays.

No life-guards are on duty at the pool, and therefore children under 16 need to be supervised, this is not uncommon and still makes me gripe, as if there was any risk of anyone being in trouble, it would undoubtedly be Tasha (my 14 year old daughter) who, a highly proficient swimmer and lifesaver, would be saving me.

FOOD
My favourite part of visiting any hotel is sampling and (where necessary), praising or criticising their cuisine. There is a restaurant at the hotel which has been awarded the 2 rosettes by the English tourist board for quality, however, the three course menu (un-priced) was definitely not to my taste, and after 300 miles driving I was starting to panic. A quick check at the bar established, by a very frosty woman who obviously did not want to serve me that I could purchase bar meals.

This transpired to be a small selection of sandwiches, fish and chips, pastas and curries, at £14 for a chicken tikka massalla with rice; I was pretty appalled before I started.

I was even less impressed when it arrived, I had to ask for salt and pepper, the rice was barely cooked, and the tikka massalla was akin to a vindaloo from my local takeaway than a massalla, generally appalling, my face still resembled having spent ½ hour on the sun-bed an hour later.

Half a pint of Stella was £1.55 which I guess is just about acceptable for a hotel, there was also a couple of bitters, Castlemaine XXXX and bottled lagers on offer for those not enjoying the stronger things in life. There were of course the standard offerings of just about every spirit and mixer imaginable. The price list was situated on the end of the bar, as required by law, but was in such small text, that it did not encourage residents to read it. Two ladies alongside me were charged £9.40 for two large glasses of red wine, so unless you have an unlimited budget, you are not going to get a hangover here. The tap water in the room looked decidedly undrinkable, and a bottle of still water set me back an additional £1.20. A large Gordon’s Gin and Tonic (for medicinal purposes of course), set me back £7.20. The bar man was quite pleasant, and had obviously mellowed by the end of the night, as he was quite chatty, explaining that he had gone 2 days without any sleep because he had been travelling back from France.

The bar is open outside normal licensing hours, however, no cash will be taken after 11pm, and you will be required to charge drinks to your room.

Breakfast, if not included in your rate, will set you back £9.95 for full English, and £8.95 for continental, there is an additional £1.50 tray charge for partaking of this in your room. It is served between 7 and 9.30am on weekdays (an hour later at weekends and consisted of:

• A huge selection of fresh fruits, although the grapefruit syrup was unsweetened, and although I do enjoy mine sharp, this was a little over the top.
• Croissants and other sweet pastries
• Cereals, the usual culprits such as Alpen, Crunchy nut cornflakes
• Juices, Orange, grapefruit and tomato
• A full English – that I eventually managed to wriggle out of the waitress consisted of eggs, sausage, black pudding, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon and hash browns – the bacon was cold, the mushrooms awful and the beans and hash browns too hot, although the plate was the hottest part of it. (this was plated rather than buffet)

The seating area for breakfast provided tables more suitable to an individual elderly lady having a cream tea, and certainly would have struggled to seat 3, I can only assume that this is a side effect of the refurbishment programme unless anyone can tell me differently.

PRICES
The rack rate quoted in reception for both single and double rooms in barely discernable writing is £115 for room only, with breakfast at £8.95 or £9.95, although to be fair, I paid £27 through superbreak.com (incorporating a £5 Sunday night discount) and for the facilities on offer, and the quality of the rooms, I did feel that this was more than fair.

I do realise that these hotels have to make their money somehow, although I have to say that being alone, it is difficult for me to travel outside the hotels for food and drink, and therefore I would rather pay more for the room and less for food and drinks.

OTHER FACILITIES
The hotel has 250 parking spaces, with a number for the disabled, and being low floors and having a lift would probably be suitable for those with in wheelchairs, although I would check first before booking. There are 9 conference rooms housing up to 200 people, and I suspect that if the price was right, this would be a rather neat and convenient location to hold corporate events.

SUMMARY
Would I stay there again?

Interesting question, I got an excellent deal, and am substantially more impressed with this outlet than I was with their one in Derby (Ashbourne near Alton Towers), however, I did feel that the staff were looking down their nose at me because of what I paid. The food was way overpriced and undercooked, and I certainly shouldn’t have to request salt and pepper which should be ready long before the food.

I can truly say that there is no way, unlike when I stayed at the Crowne Plaza, Manchester, that I would not be prepared to pay rack rates if there was no special rates available. For attending a corporate event, personally I think the location and outlet would be ideal.

As for star rating, I am totally torn. For the price I paid, the room, and the facilities available at the hotel, they should get a five, for the evening meal, bar prices, mmmmm, no comment. As someone who can sometimes spend all week away in a hotel, it is the little things in life that twist the balance for me, and things such as incorrect billing, forgetting the early morning call, the alarm not working on the TV, it would be a three, therefore will err on the side of caution and give them a 4.

For more details contact:

Hanover International
Bromsgrove
Kidderminster Road
Bromsgrove

www.hanover-international.com
Tel: 01527 576600 or
Central reservations on: 0870 241 7106

Although from my own experiences, I would heartily recommend booking via third party websites, in particularly www.superbreak.com, although don’t forget that you will be required to pay up front, and will lose your money if for any reason you have to cancel within 21 days.

Hanover International also claims to have a range of special offers obtainable from: www.great-surprises.co.uk or 0845 601 5443.

The Hanover International Chain has 15 UK outlets in all (2 of which are conference and training centres), covering England between Yorkshire in the North and Bristol and Basingstoke in the South, there is one outlet in Wales (Cardiff) and nothing in Scotland.
ENJOY

Sue - 2004 

...less