Swallow Saint George Hotel, Harrogate

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Reasonably priced, good location, good range of facilities, friendly staff
Disadvantages:	Decor is tired and old; bathroom could have been cleaner

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I have just stayed here for one night, on business.

LOCATION

The hotel is very easy to find, being on the A61 through Harrogate (the Ripon Road). It is centrally located so you can walk into the touristy bits of Harrogate from here if you want. It is right next to the International Convention Centre, which is where I imagine it gets a lot of business - that's why I went there. Its central location is a good point.

It is a beautiful Edwardian manor house, in nice grounds.

FACILITIES

It has the usual dining room, bar etc, and a leisure suite too. It has a quite a small swimming pool and a gym and weights room, plus a sauna. This is all useful stuff, if you were staying a bit longer than one night, but I didn't try and of it so sorry I can't comment. It did all look clean and there were obviously plenty of towels etc. The prices were reasonable - a one hour massage for £35, for example.

One downside of the hotel's facilities is the car park - it's not really big enough, a very odd shape so getting in an out when the place was full was really stressful, and the car-parking attendant didn't exactly go out of his way to make life easier for you. Because it is in the centre of Harrogate, it would be a problem if you couldn't get in there. I arrived to check in at 4.30pm and honestly thought I wasn't going to get in. eventually I squeezed my quite large car onto a postage stamp at a 37.5 degree angle and was incredibly relieved the following afternoon to find the car park much less busy when I wanted to leave, otherwise I might still be there.

The bar itself and restaurant are OK but the decor is a bit faded. Sometimes the bar staff were not there when you wanted a drink so maybe they were short-staffed on the night I was there.

STAFF

The staff were friendly and cheerful, but the service was not excellent. They were willing amateurs rather than well-strained staff who know what good service is. For example, at dinner the waitress asked me to pass a plate across to her she couldn't reach, rather than walking round the table to get it!. But if you asked for anything they willingly provided it - I had to ask for tea at my breakfast table, as none arrived automatically, but they brought it quickly once I'd asked.

ROOM

The room I was given was a double one, with en-suite bathroom. It was a reasonable size and had a nice view looking out onto the gardens. But really the standard of it was barely adequate in terms of decor and cleanliness. The whole hotel is a bit tired and old to be honest, and my room had an old water stain on the ceiling where there had once been a leak, and the grouting round the bath tiles was in places a bit black and moldy. The carpet was quite old, and everything was quite tired. It was quite a generous size, but I would have been happier in a more modern, cleaner but smaller room.

COST

My room cost £65 for single occupancy in a double room, including breakfast, but you can have dinner bed and breakfast for two people for £90 a night which I think is good value for money.

It is quite a reasonable price, and drinks in the bar were not extortionate - normal pub prices without the premium you often see in hotels.

I personally would rather pay another tenner a night and have them spend the money on doing up the hotel!