Ramada Bradford/Leeds, Bingley

For those not so familiar with Yorkshire geography, Bingley is a real place and not just a bowler hatted character from the Bradford and Bingley bank adverts. It's located just to the north west of Bradford, nestled amongst some really pretty hilly scenery. To be fair, I couldn't have told you precisely where it was until I stayed there when visiting a factory in Bradford, about a 15 minute drive away. The hotel is just off a dual carriageway and ...
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===First Impressions===
My first impressions on pulling into the car park were quite positive; the main hotel building really does look like a slightly spooky grand gothic castle complete with a turret. Then I noticed the mish-mash of ill-matched 'wings' added to the hotel building and shuddered. The newest wing wasn't too bad, but to the other side of the old 'heart' of the building, was a monstrosity that immediately reminded ... more

For those not so familiar with Yorkshire geography, Bingley is a real place and not just a bowler hatted character from the Bradford and Bingley bank adverts. It's located just to the north west of Bradford, nestled amongst some really pretty hilly scenery. To be fair, I couldn't have told you precisely where it was until I stayed there when visiting a factory in Bradford, about a 15 minute drive away. The hotel is just off a dual carriageway and was remarkably quiet considering how close the road was.

First Impressions

My first impressions on pulling into the car park were quite positive; the main hotel building really does look like a slightly spooky grand gothic castle complete with a turret. Then I noticed the mish-mash of ill-matched 'wings' added to the hotel building and shuddered. The newest wing wasn't too bad, but to the other side of the old 'heart' of the building, was a monstrosity that immediately reminded me of an old student hall of residence. Setting aside the shudder, I headed in, up a few stone steps, through a grand door and into a wood-panelled lobby with the reception desk off to the side. The lobby had a beautiful wooden staircase reaching up towards a gorgeous high ceiling with a chandelier.

Check-in

The receptionist took my card, checked if I wanted a wake up call, a newspaper, or a booking for dinner. She then pre-authorised my credit card to the tune of £90 (£70 for the room plus an allowance for 'incidentals') and directed me to my room. It sounded straightforward - up the stairs, through the door on the left and along the corridor. I asked if I was in the old part of the hotel and she said 'yes'. And so I set off with a spring in my step, up the stairs with their stately home-style portraits, across the jazzy brightly coloured carpet and through the doors into the old part. It was very impressive with really high ceilings and I was starting to get excited. But after a short walk, the high-ceilinged corridor ran out, I was directed down a small set of stairs and found myself in the much less impressive hall of residence block. Such a shame to raise my hopes and then dash them again. I suppose she was right to say it was the old part, just not the really old part sadly.

The Room

My room was tucked at the end of a corridor and - as I discovered at 6 am the next morning - was a bit too close to the kitchens. The room itself was not offensive though the bathroom had clearly been decorated at a time when rather bolder colours must have been fashionable. The bedroom had a wardrobe just inside the door and the main part of the room had a large bed, a desk, bedside tables, a chair and a large flat screen television. The impression was that it had probably been decorated quite recently and all the furnishings were in good condition. The bathroom was a shocker - dark blue tiles picked out with mustard yellow. I know that removing tiles and re-tiling a bathroom is expensive and time consuming but the effect was like stepping back 30 years when you opened the bathroom door. I checked my suitcase to see if I had some platform soled shoes hidden in there but the timewarp stopped at the bathroom door.
There was a bath with a shower over, a loo and a rather pokey sink and vanity unit. Nicely both the bathroom and bedroom had windows that opened.

Prawn Ding for Dinner

I arrived quite late so I hurried down to the restaurant to get something to eat before it closed. The dining room is just off the panelled lobby and is a large, bright room. It was a Monday evening so perhaps not surprisingly the restaurant was quiet - in fact there was only one other table being used. I was therefore a bit surprised when the waitress led me to a table right next to the other one where I was able to listen to a surprisingly interesting conversation about 'print on demand' greetings cards - clearly the hotel is also popular with staff from the nearby Hallmark cards office.

The menu was quite long with a good choice of dishes at a range of prices. I asked for a diet coke and ordered a side salad to start and a prawn curry to follow. However, somewhere along the line the order got a bit confused and I received both dishes at the same time. As they arrived less than ten minutes after I ordered, I had to conclude that the curry had probably just been 'dinged' in the microwave. However, it was spicy with a good number of prawns although both the salad and the curry garnish were a bit over blessed with raw onions. The bill for dinner was about £15 and I grabbed an apple off the reception desk and headed back to my room to watch television.

Sleep is precious

I slept very well until 6 am when an almighty racket, not unlike having a jack-hammer outside my window, brought me awake with a jolt. Parked right outside my window was a large refrigerated lorry delivering food to the kitchens. If I could have seen the driver I would have given him a real mouthful of abuse but he cleverly kept out of my sight. For five to ten minutes I could do nothing but hang out of the window in frustration until he finally drove away.

Breakfast next morning was a fairly good spread - nothing that special or out of the ordinary, but the food was fine and the coffee was good. I headed back to my room, packed and checked out. The room was £70 for the night including breakfast and I would be relatively happy to go back but not unless I could get a promise for a room in the old wing and definitely not one right next to the kitchen.

 

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