The Ramada Jarvis Hotel (Leicester)

The Ramada Harvis Hotel in Leicester (formerly The Grand) sits in the centre of the city, right in the middle of the main shopping high street. The hotel is approximately ten minutes’ walk from the railway station and is close to many of the city centre bus services. I was brought to the city on business, at a call centre about fifteen minutes’ away, but the hotel is well-placed for any visitor the city. The hotel offers limited, complementary parking ...
...unfamiliar with the area, I asked a couple of local colleagues where the hotel was, and they referred to it only as The Grand. Bear this in mind if you are asking for directions, as the Ramada Jarvis name tag does not seem to have been adopted by the locals yet.

RECEPTION AND ARRIVAL

The main entrance to the hotel opens straight out onto the high street, and is very easy to find. I remember thinking that the hotel would ... more

The Ramada Harvis Hotel in Leicester (formerly The Grand) sits in the centre of the city, right in the middle of the main shopping high street. The hotel is approximately ten minutes’ walk from the railway station and is close to many of the city centre bus services. I was brought to the city on business, at a call centre about fifteen minutes’ away, but the hotel is well-placed for any visitor the city. The hotel offers limited, complementary parking but do check this when you book. As I was unfamiliar with the area, I asked a couple of local colleagues where the hotel was, and they referred to it only as The Grand. Bear this in mind if you are asking for directions, as the Ramada Jarvis name tag does not seem to have been adopted by the locals yet.

RECEPTION AND ARRIVAL

The main entrance to the hotel opens straight out onto the high street, and is very easy to find. I remember thinking that the hotel would not be terribly accessible to anyone in a wheelchair – there were lots of steps and not a lot else. The lobby area is quiet and relaxing – a couple of comfortable looking chairs some gentle music provide a nice atmosphere. As I approached the reception desk, my initial thoughts were of a haunted house. The décor was grand and old-fashioned and there was an eerie silence about the place. I’m not sure whether it was a seasonal thing or not, but there seemed to be very little activity going on, and I was starting to wonder whether I had stumbled on to the set of a horror film.

The receptionist greeted me in a friendly, but quiet fashion and efficiently processed my details. Being rather used to receptionists that bombard me with information about meals, fire alarms and lifts, I was rather taken aback when I was simply handed my room key and left to get on with it. In fact, I was so taken aback that I found that I didn’t have a clue where the lifts were – the reception area was a maze of staircases, walls and notice boards, but I couldn’t see a lift anywhere. Having spoken with the receptionist, I then identified the lift (note the singular), which was tucked away between two notice boards, immediately to the left of the reception desk.

FINDING THE ROOM AND USING IT

My room was on the fourth floor, so having taken a short lift ride, I popped out onto the fourth floor landing and looked for a sign for my room. Following the numbered signs, I wove my way around the corridors of the floor, growing ever more suspicious that this was all some kind of joke. As I moved from one area to another, I noticed constant changes in temperature – it would go from boiling hot to freezing cold in the space of a few seconds – and my haunted house theory continued to develop. I eventually found my room, right at the end of the floor adjacent to some building work that was taking place – there was no carpet or ceiling outside my room and I had to duck under some plastic sheeting to get into the room itself.

As I opened my door, I was initially very pleased with the size of the room. There was a small entrance hall and storage cupboard, which subsequently led into the main bedroom. The room had an enormously high ceiling, which gave a real feeling of space and airiness. Sadly, despite this initial pleasure, the rest of the room was infinitely more disappointing. I instantly noticed that I had been checked into a twin room – I had specifically requested a double and was even more annoyed when I telephoned reception to be told it was this or nothing.

The décor and furniture in the room reminded me of the sort of accommodation you might find in a seaside bed and breakfast. The floor creaked and heaved and was covered in a moth-eaten old carpet that probably contained more DNA types than a sperm bank. The two single beds were small and had those horrible pink headboards that were fashionable about eighty-two years ago. There was an old wooden wardrobe with uneven doors and a large couch that needed disinfecting. A large coffee table sat in front of the sofa. There was a also a small desk and table, which were completely useless because the only telephone point was located behind one of the two beds, so I couldn’t sit at the desk and use my laptop. Even worse, to get to the phone point, I had to wheel out the bed – and believe me, they DON’T clean under the beds. Fortunately, the beds were comfortable and the bed linen was clean and fresh. The room was equipped with all the usual equipment – a kettle, a trouser-press, a small remote-control television and a nasty old phone. The television set-up was rather puzzling – the channels seemed to be out of synch and I could only find BBC1 and Channel 5.

In comparison to the bedroom, the en-suite bathroom was a relatively pleasant surprise. It was large, airy and well-fitted, with a strong power shower and clean fixtures and fittings. Given the room’s size, I was quite surprised to find no bath – the shower had a strange set-like fixture that didn’t appear to serve any purpose, and I couldn’t help thinking that they would have been better off ripping it out and putting a proper shower cubicle in. There was a large window to the bathroom that let in plenty of light and fresh air, although in the evening, the lighting in the room was still dull and oppressive.

The bedroom did not have air-conditioning, but there were three large sash windows that could be opened to let in plenty of air. As I was at the back of the hotel, there was no noise disturbance from the main high street although there were various units on the roof, which made plenty of noise up until the early hours. Fortunately, the weather was relatively cool and I was able to sleep with the windows closed.

EATING AND DRINKING

The restaurant in the hotel catered for a wide range of tastes and despite some relatively slow service, I was very pleased with the standard of the food. I opted for a vegetable stroganoff and some stuffed mushrooms ( I was in a vegetarian mood) and was certainly not disappointed. As a lone visitor, I found the dining-room to be rather unfriendly and imposing, and if staying again, I would probably have opted for room service. The room service menu was much shorter and less comprehensive. It was also displayed on a little plastic card that wasn’t instantly obvious as a room service menu. The downstairs bar was very traditional – eating alone was enough for me though and I decided that drinking alone would have been too much to handle.

WAKEY WAKEY

It was a good job that I didn’t want a lay in the following morning. I was awoken just after 7 a.m. by a combination of noises. There was a strange noise that sounded like somebody having very noisy sex (I think it was the air-conditioner on the roof). There was also a lot of banging and clattering coming from just outside my room, where the workmen had decided to put in an early start. I stumbled from my bedroom into the bathroom and whipped back the curtains, to be greeted by a trio of laughing and joking workmen, stood on the scaffolding immediately outside my window. As we all clocked each other, the moment was almost surreal as I hurriedly closed the curtains again and turned around, as though I was dreaming. The noise grew steadily worse, and after I had got dressed I left my room to go and get some breakfast. By this point, the work was in full flow, and the area outside my door was a confused mess of scaffolding, dust and plastic sheeting. I was completely amazed at the hotel’s disregard for its residents. I can only presume that most of the rooms were unaffected by the noise.

I quickly identified the problem with having only one lift in the building, as I waited for ten minutes for the lift to arrive. Eventually giving up, I descended down the main stair case, which eventually took me through another maze of corridors (including a trip past a hideous, almost ghoulish exhibition of wedding dresses) and into the reception area. Not wishing to have my breakfast in the Munsters dining-room, I opted instead to go to McDonalds.

VALUE FOR MONEY

I paid £79 for one night’s accommodation, without breakfast – this was a corporate discount rate. The room certainly wasn’t worth this – let alone the advertised rates of accommodation. Rooms at the hotel start at £75 and go up as high as £150. There are considerable discounts available to weekend visitors, but check the terms and conditions as many of the offers are dependant on a minimum number of nights and persons.

FINAL VERDICT

As I tour the UK, taking in one hotel after another, it still amazes me how poor the standards of accommodation are in many locations, with exorbitant room rates. The Ramada Jarvis was an eerie hotel – I’m sure it was haunted – and it had a depressed, worn atmosphere. The room rates do not reflect the standards of the rooms and although the restaurant food was very good, I would struggle to recommend this hotel to guests. I’m not sure what the work men next to my room were actually doing, but I would suggest to the owners that a complete refit is in order, if they want to secure further custom from me – or my company.

Not recommended
 

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