Hotel Bannatyne, Darlington

This is a 60 room hotel close to Darlington Town Centre and owned by Duncan Bannatyne - one of the Dragons from the "Dragon's Den" TV Show. It is based on a 1820's house with recent, tasteful extensions. On arrival my first impression was a bit of a thumbs down as car parking was congested but I managed after a couple of minutes. Things improved from there; you ring the front door bell in a gracious period entrance and a person comes and ...
...did!

The hotel has its own restaurant "Maxines" - in the spirit of a proper visit I ate there and can report that I had the "Early Bird" menu at £9.95 for three courses. Very good indeed - my only point would be the table we had was right next to the bar area which took the edge of things slightly, it was pretty noisy. In the morning lots of choice for breakfast and the "full English" was fine by me.
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This is a 60 room hotel close to Darlington Town Centre and owned by Duncan Bannatyne - one of the Dragons from the "Dragon's Den" TV Show. It is based on a 1820's house with recent, tasteful extensions. On arrival my first impression was a bit of a thumbs down as car parking was congested but I managed after a couple of minutes. Things improved from there; you ring the front door bell in a gracious period entrance and a person comes and opens it (as opposed to a squawking voice saying "push the door"!).

Reception is in a room off the hall and is a desk on the corner of a room with soft chairs and newspaper. The staff have clearly been given all the right sort of training to make the right noises and stay calm when services required are rattled off - ironing board, paper, internet connections (yes to all). I was slightly surprised to be taken round the corner with me carrying my three bags and be pointed off down a corridor "go the end and turn left…." That seemed a little out of step with the attempt at a really smart entrance.

The room is fine, double bed, large bathroom and all in very good order. TV and coffee making too, so that ticked all the right boxes. The bed was comfortable and the surroundings very peaceful so my ground floor rear room was ideal. The chair was a little firm for long use but that's a pretty minor gripe. Then I went for a bath and the cold tap didn't work! So a shower on night 1 and lets see if they can get it fixed for tomorrow (and the shower screen lets water all over the floor (other guests agreed)). Answer on the repair - yes they did!

The hotel has its own restaurant "Maxines" - in the spirit of a proper visit I ate there and can report that I had the "Early Bird" menu at £9.95 for three courses. Very good indeed - my only point would be the table we had was right next to the bar area which took the edge of things slightly, it was pretty noisy. In the morning lots of choice for breakfast and the "full English" was fine by me.

Mr Bannatyne also has chain of Fitness Clubs (also called "Bannatynes"). As a guest at the hotel you get free membership of the Darlington branch, which about a 10-minute walk away - my visit to Darlington was in a wet, cold January so I contented myself with only checking the restaurant - a fellow guest commented favourably over the Fitness Centre.

My "Club Double" room was listed at £80, which compared to where I live in Southern England stacks up as remarkable value; presumably somewhere in the same area that is "OK" would be really cheap! Overall I saw this as a pretty good attempt to do "smart" at very reasonable price. 4* overall and a place I can recommend to visitors  

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