I organised a conference on behalfof the company I work for. The room needed to be big enough for 80 caberet style. We also needed a stage to be set up so the room needed to be large enough for that.
I also needed to have 80 bedrooms for the night and a dinner in the evening.
Basically the delegates were arriving on the Tuesday morning, having a conference in the day, having dinner and then leaving the following morning. Sounds pretty straight forward doesn't it?
Well when we arrived I was introduced to the manager who I had been dealing with. As with all of these things there are a number of changes which happen along the way, I was dealing with all the table plans and everything like that so they didn't have to worry about all the hassle of redoing them when people didn't turn up and changing people onto different tables.
Anyway, at every stage I kept them informed of the changes to the rooming list and detailed them in numerous emails. We had some gifts for the delegates which were to be left in the room with a note from our MD.
There were some people who didn't want to early morning start and were travelling from soome distance so they travelled up the day before. I booked their rooms and advised that these should be charged directly to the person staying there. So basically any charges from the Tuesday night should be settled by the individuals concerned and then anything else would be settled by our company.
At each stage I gave specific instructions on exactly what I needed to happen and what times they needed to happen. What I required in the room and everything like that.
When I arrived on the evening before there were numerous things missing from the room which had to be chased up. I should have got the hint from there
really!
Anyway the morning I was there very early to make sure everything was OK, and it's a good job I was!
A lady came to me and wanted to go through the catering arrangements for the day - every singel one of them was wrong!! Despite sending detailed agendas of what was required these were totally ignored and the timings which were put down were completely made up.
The rooming list was totally incorrect which was basically the first one I had sent through. All the changes I had made and all the emails I had sent were totally ignored, depsite the fact that I have emails from the conference manager assuring me that all the changes had been actioned and all the changes were made. I then had to spend about 2 hours with the reception staff and concierge making sure that the right people were in the right rooms and they had the right names.
At the same time as all this I had all the delegates arriving who had to be signed in. Of course there were the people who had stayed there already and they were in totally different rooms so they had to be sorted out. The whole organisation was a complete shambles.
At the end of the day I spoke again with the conference manager as I was not confident that all the charges would be as expected. He assured me that the only thing which would be on the account would be from Wednesday morning. However when I received the total bill - which exceeded £25k there were numerous charges from the Tuesday.
The cost of the conference was £289 per person for day conference and dinner bed and breakfast. There were also charges for the drinks in the evening.
When I queried the size of the bill to double check, immediately there was nearly £200 worth of charges which disappeared as they could not account for them, - it certainly makes you wonder how much extra cash they make from events like these when they can just write off that money.
To say I was disapppointed would be an understatement. Everything I asked for was ignored, all the promises which were made were not kept to, the whole thing was the most badly organised.
I would never ever ever have another event in this hotel ever and I don't even think I would stay there either. The hotel itself is very non descript and completely overpriced.
On top of all that many of the delegates had to park in neighbouring hotels as their car park was not big enough!
What a mess!!!!
The hotel itself is located at the NECin Birmingham. You can get there by car or you can use the free shuttle bus from the railway or airport. This was the main reason for the choice of the hotel as we had people travelling from all ove rthe country.
The hotel has 3 restaurants and a 24 hour bar. We tried to eat in the Boulevard restuarant however it was an housr wait. Being that it was already 10pm we decided to get a meal at the lounge bar. There was not a lot of choice and it was very overpriced for what it was. It took a long time for the food to get to us also. For 2 main couses and 2 drinks, the bill was £35.
When I came down to breakfast it started at 7am. To me this seemed a little late as this was primarily aimed at the business traveller and there were a lot of people who had to skip brekafast as they were either leaving early to get to a meeting or they had to catch a flight. I arrived at 7am and got a seat fairly easily however whilst i was there a queue soon built up. This lasted until around 9am. The restaurant was no large enough for the amount of people.
The hotel has 794 bedrooms so you would have thought there would have been more of a choice from breakfast and more options.
Other facilities at the hotel include a leisure club which I did not have time to sample but I looked at the swimming pool and it looked good - if only I had had the time.
There was a business suite where you could phtoocopy, fax, link up to the internet and I have to say they were very helpful when I had to make some amendments.
Some of our delegates logged on to their computers from their rooms and this was very expensive. One call for an hour was nearly £40
There are plenty of choices of meeting rooms and the hotel boasts one can hold 2000 people. We used the LIbrary suite. I am not sure I would like to risk using them for an event with that many people. They seemed to struggle with 80!!
Check in was tedious as there was a large queue. I arrived around 7pm and whilst this may appear to be a busy time, I was keeping an eye on it and for most of the time there was a large queue. The concierge was doing his best to alleviate the problem but he seemed to ignore me and was helping out those coming in afterwards. There seemed to be a lot of choosing about who they would help! You had to look the part!
Inside there is a small paper shop where you can buy confectionary and newspapers and magazines. There are also a few gifts in some cabinets which are doted around the reception area.
The bedroom was clean and comfortable. It had all the normal facilities you would expect in this type of hotel. There is tea and coffee, biscuits, iron, ironing board, tv, phone (v expensive) The view from the room was not exactly spectcular but then I don't suppose any of the rooms had great views.
I think the main problem with the hotel is that it is too big and can't cope with all the guests. If you want to have a hotel like that then you need to be fully prepared and they are clearly not. I am still waiting to pay the remainder of the invoice but every time they call and chase and I explain I am waiting on some queiries then they go away and look at it, thenI wait until someone else calls and then they go away and look at it. It's been 6 months since the conference now and they are still waiting for about £15k. Not sure this is the way I would run a business!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I hope you put in a complaint about the mess they have made, sorry for the low rating but you did not really discribe the hotel at all, just your terrible experience of the bad service - lyn x
natalka57 27.02.2007 21:17
Same as below.
laramax 27.02.2007 15:54
You really do have my sympathy as I had a similar problem at another hotel when I organised a conference there and it was an absolute nightmare. Sorry I couldn't give you a higher rating but you didn't really say much about the actual hotel facilities - if you do add more do let me know and I will happily re-rate
Next to the NEC, 1 mile (1.6 km) from the airport and 8 miles (13 km) from the city ... more
centre, the Hilton Birmingham Metropole has undergone a major £20m refurbishment.The refurbishment at this Birmingham Hilton includes a new Executive Lounge and updates...
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Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Modern hotel adjacent to the National Exhibition Centre one mile from the airport and ... more
eight miles from the city centre The Hilton Birmingham Metropole has recently benefited from a 20 million refurbishment programmeThere are 790 Contemporary bedrooms ...
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Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
The Hilton Birmingham Metropole is a modern property adjacent to the National Exhibition ... more
Centre, one mile from the airport and eight miles from Birmingham city centre. The 794 air conditioned guestrooms are decorated in light, warm tones of cream and b...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
The Hilton Birmingham Metropole is a modern property adjacent to the National Exhibition ... more
Centre, one mile from the airport and eight miles from Birmingham city centre. The 794 air conditioned guestrooms are decorated in light, warm tones of cream and b...
Information:
Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Advantages: The lobby and restaraunts just might make you feel like a high flyer. Disadvantages: Gloomy exterior, matched by the anonymous bedrooms. Extortionately expensive, for what it is.
Advantages: The lobby and restaraunts just might make you feel like a high flyer. Disadvantages: Gloomy exterior, matched by the anonymous bedrooms. Extortionately expensive, for what it is.
Feb 27th, 2007
(Mar 5th, 2007)
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