I'm probably being a bit naughty comparing this hotel with the De VereGrand ( the hotel next door), but after spending a fabulous night costing £165 for evening meal ,bed, and breakfast, which included a room with a sea view, a proper menu to chose from for the evening meal, luxury toiletries in the luxury bathroom, excellent service etc, etc, we stupidly didn't go back there, we decided to give the Metropole a try instead....WHY, oh WHY? We opted for a similar package, ok at £120, it was a little cheaper, but I can honestly say you got at least £100 better service from the Grand. Right forget the Grand, forget the beautiful three course meal served at the table, the free wireless internet access, and let's talk about the Met.
First impressions good, receptionist nice and helpful, got key for room, opened the door to a boiling hot room, facing the back of the hotel looking out onto the loading bay and bins. There was an air conditioning unit that didn't appear to be in working order. Set up my laptop, but quickly put it away again when I realised they were asking £15 to use it. Also the door to the adjoining room was unlocked, and wide open...really secure that! Had to contact reception to get that sorted out, as it wouldn't close without a special key. Eventually, when that was sorted we went down to the bar for pre dinner drinks. Bar attractive enough, though the centre piece was a plasma screen tv (showing Setanta sports). The Grand had a guy playing background music on a piano...so much more relaxing. Went to the bar to order the drinks....they didn't know how to make a Brandy Alexander, and they'd run out of Campari, staff apologetic enough, but we were disappointed to say the least....then to add insult to injury before we'd even taken our last sip, a waiter approached us and asked us whether we were ready to "close the bill"....charming!
Dinner, I had high hopes for that, so imagine how gutted I was to find the evening meal was a cheap carvery.....Harvester style! There was I expecting to be given a menu and to choose a lovely starter, a pan fried seabass for my main, and an sumptous dessert. No chance! There was a mish mash of cold cuts for starters, A Sunday roast, without roast potatoes....they'd run out!!!!! and the deserts were a choice of various individual sized mousses on a sponge base...all the same but different flavours...I tried two and they were both horrible. The wine we ordered came about 15 minutes after we'd ordered it. Really can't think of anything good about my Metropole experience.
Might be ok, if you specify a room with a sea view and book a restuarant elsewhere...but you'd be better off paying a little bit more and staying at the Grand!
Oooh nearly forgot to mention what a rotten night's sleep we both had. The bed had just two floppy pillows, and as we're used to sleeping on two each, we looked in the cupboards for back up, there was an extra blanket! Great, in a steaming hot room. I guess we could have called reception again, but couldn't be bothered as we were so tired. The air conditioning as I said was broken, but they'd kindly left a small desk fan...only the plug point was too far away from the bed and even if it wasn't it was on floor level anyway...great. We resorted to opening the windows...it was a bit noisy due to being near the "industrial" part of the hotel. The bathroom was OK, but not luxury, and obviously at some stage the bath had been cracked as it had been repaired with builders putty.
Quick comparison Grand....air conditioning in room...yes, plus ceiling fan Grand...Luxury L'occitane toiletries Met.....Cheap toiletries Grand....bath robes and towels Met...just towels
I could go on for ages, but I think you've got the drift!
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Aug 10th, 2008
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