Ramada Plaza Antwerp

The Ramada in Antwerp is based in a rather striking mirrored building but delivers rather less than the sparkling exterior would suggest. I've stayed there several times and always come away thinking that just a little more effort could make this into a pretty nice hotel but I can't imagine that happening, mostly due to the rather dour attitude of the staff.

==Customer Service? What's that?==
On my most recent visit, I arrived ...
...I quite like about the Ramada - they are clever lamps with glass bases that contain two bulbs to give either soft light through the base of the lamp, or brighter light above.

Wi-Fi is available and works more or less. It dropped in and out of service but no worse than average and at 10 Euros per day, it's certainly not the most I've been charged. I do always feel a bit ripped off by hotel Wi-Fi charges but I didn't feel this was beyond ... more

The Ramada in Antwerp is based in a rather striking mirrored building but delivers rather less than the sparkling exterior would suggest. I've stayed there several times and always come away thinking that just a little more effort could make this into a pretty nice hotel but I can't imagine that happening, mostly due to the rather dour attitude of the staff.

Customer Service? What's that?

On my most recent visit, I arrived by taxi from Brussels airport, squeezed myself and my wheelie-bag through the rotating door, was as always impressed by the nice looking lobby and then brought quickly back down to earth by the utter indifference of the reception staff. I waited for a ridiculously long time whilst the receptionist held a convoluted conversation with an elderly lady in front of me. Despite leaving the desk and popping into the back room several times, she at no point took any effort to acknowledge me or the other customer waiting patiently behind me to check in and no effort to summon another member of staff to help us. Eventually, perhaps more by luck than design, a colleague joined her behind the desk, directed me to the opposite end of the check-in desk without any smile or words of welcome, and proceeded to check me in with near total silence. My credit card was not returned to me but just left on the counter for me to remember to ask for it. No instructions were given on where to go for my room, or information offered about breakfast times or any other facilities. Eventually he gave a grudging acknowledgement of "I see this isn't your first time here" and hurrumphed off to deal with someone else. This was pretty much what I've come to expect from this hotel.

But what about the rooms?

I made my way to my room, knowing it would be rather dreary and identical - or perhaps a mirror image - to the rooms I've had there before. The rooms are a good size but all seem to be decorated the same and in need of a revamp. Bottle-green flecked carpet and spotted curtains, dominate the colour scheme. Two single beds which I knew before I even tried them, would be horribly soft greeted me. A narrow desk/TV stand in unpleasant grey-green melamine or similar irritated me just as much as the last time I was there. There was a small seating area with a coffee table and two wooden chairs, a suitcase stand, some drawers, a wardrobe, mini-bar and so on. The bathroom was decked out in rather garish reddy-brown plastic counter with a bath over the shower and the slowest lighting I've yet come across. No kidding, you can switch the light, go into the bathroom and be sitting on the loo before the light even flickers into life. The shower on this occasion was intensely frustrating - it was completely determined to squirt all its water down the wall at the side of the bath and not over me. I'm a simple shower-user; all I ask is water of an appropriate temperature and power, aimed more or less in my direction. And it helps of course if the plug stays open long enough to drain the water instead of being far too easy to stand on and block. I showered one handed with my other hand hanging on to the shower head to point it more or less at me. I can't complain however about the towels (and people who've read my hotel reviews before will know that I generally DO complain about towels so I guess that's a plus point for the Ramada).

I arrived early afternoon and wanted to work in my hotel room until dinner. Despite being the brightest time of day outside, I needed all the lights on in the room due to the room being over-shadowed by a neighbouring building and due to rather thick net curtains. The lights are actually something I quite like about the Ramada - they are clever lamps with glass bases that contain two bulbs to give either soft light through the base of the lamp, or brighter light above.

Wi-Fi is available and works more or less. It dropped in and out of service but no worse than average and at 10 Euros per day, it's certainly not the most I've been charged. I do always feel a bit ripped off by hotel Wi-Fi charges but I didn't feel this was beyond reasonable. When I stayed a few months back at a Hilton in Barcelona, Wi-Fi was charged at a shocking €27 per day. When you receive the room key, there's a code on the back of the card to give access to the Wi-Fi system which is quite handy - you don't need to remember to ask or to call down to reception when you realise you forgot; goodness only knows how long it would take the half-witted receptionists to respond if you had to call reception.

Time to eat

Breakfast is served in the main hotel restaurant which is down a corridor off the lobby. It's a fairly standard spread with hot and cold food, juice from a machine, lots of bakery products, and you help yourself to a small thermos jug of coffee. We were staying there for a meeting in the hotel and had to have lunch in the same room which was a dreary affair - a waiter ladling out soup and several platters of teensy bread-rolls. I was there for only one lunch but the colleagues who'd been there the day before said the two lunches were almost identical.

Conference Facilities

The meeting room we used was good - I was relieved we were allocated a large, bright room on the ground floor instead of one of the subterranean basement rooms. Coffee service during the breaks was done using a Douwe Egberts coffee machine which seemed a bit lazy. Each break the mugs ran out, although I'm not sure if that was because they didn't lay out enough mugs or if they all got pinched by other hotel users. Each break we had to go hunting for staff to bring more mugs.

Still not sure where it is

I've still not quite worked out where the Ramada Plaza is in relation to the rest of Antwerp. I have friends who live in the centre, near the river, and it takes them 5 to 10 minutes to pick me up when I stay there, so I'd say it's not within comfortable walking distance. It does seem to be near to some pretty major road junctions so if you need to escape, that's probably an advantage.

Time to wave bye-bye

Check out when I left was slightly less grouchy than check-in although yet again, the receptionist didn't hand back my credit card which I think is just plain rude. I've always expected poor service in most Dutch hotels but I'm increasingly learning that the Belgians aren't much better than their neighbours when it comes to dealing courteously with customers.

Other facilities

The hotel has a basement car park, several conference rooms, and a gym with a sauna. There's a large bar off the lobby but I've not drunk there so I can't comment on whether it's any good. I paid a company-negotiated rate of just over €80 per night which included breakfast and represents pretty good value. If you wanted to stay here, I checked with the hotel comparison site www.trivago.co.uk and they are showing room rates from as low as £66 a night. However, given a choice (which I'm not) it wouldn't be a place that I'd pick above any other hotels in the town. It's on roughly the right side of town for the factory I have to visit but can still take 20 minutes. If I were there for pleasure rather than business, I'd not choose the Ramada - I'd be camped out in my friends' spare room. 

...less