Thistle Bristol Grand Hotel, Bristol

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Very nice service
Disadvantages:	Very NOT nice prices

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I’ve just come back from my 6th stay at a Thistle Hotel this year. This is because I have a mad passion for travelling up and down the country staying in various hotels that belong to the Thistle chain; quite fascinating once you get into the swing of things. I love the same old set out of the rooms and same old extortionist prices that always seem to equal horrible tasting food.

Not convincing? Ok, well the truth is the company I work for (ICL) has negotiated some kind of contract with Thistle hotels (unfortunately), which means that if I ever go away on a business trip then my first choice should be a Thistle Hotel as we’ll get accommodation cheaper than a normal individual off the street. This still ends up costing an absolute fortune at times though.

I’ve stayed in the London Queensway, London Bayswater, Bristol, and Birmingham and have typically found the same service up and down the country and the hotels are pretty much identical! The service and rooms up and down the country are all a mirror image of each other. Initially I found this bizarre but now I’m used to the same spiel I get and automatically answer “no” to “Would you like a wake up call?” and “Ok then” to “Would you like a complimentary paper?”

This time I stayed a Thistle Hotel in Bristol Temple Meads. I didn’t see much of Bristol but the city centre, which is where the hotel is located, is very pretty and parts of it have a village atmosphere with its little personal shops as opposed to the big bustling commercial streams of department stores.

I arrived in the evening and entered what was a pretty grand looking foyer leading up to the reception desk. The whole hotel has a cream and beige look complete with pine furniture and green carpets, this is one of the nicer Thistles I’ve stayed in.
I checked in at lightning speed as the bright red lipstick woman whizzed through the whole procedure (with an “enjoy your stay” of course) and I made my way to the 2 lifts. By the way, this is a 4 star hotel and I half expected a porter to rush up to me and carry my bags for me. Fortunately I didn’t wait around (how embarrassing would that be) and made my way to the 2 lifts I could see. One was out of order and being desperate for the loo and very hungry I wished the other one would hurry up!

I got to the second floor and started hunting for my room walking as fast I could with a growling stomach, a heavy laptop bag and wobbly trolley case that had been misbehaving all the way here. I started getting excited as I walked past some rooms labelled “Premier Executive” and wasn’t so hungry any more. This quickly passed as I discovered my room was NOT an executive room…typical!

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice my room was (but still not worth it for £110 a night) : all pine furniture with a nice white bathroom that with towels that didn’t smell bleachy as I usually find. Thistle has a tendency to lean towards the heritage room rather than the contemporary and this time was no different. For those that don’t know a ‘heritage’ room is basically filed with old looking furniture like big oak or pine desks, old looking wardrobes and, to be frank, old looking everything! The contemporary room, you’ve guessed it, has a more modern feel to it and is my preference. For those of you that hate heritage rooms then I would steer clear of Thistle and stay at a Premier Lodge instead.

Being so hungry (and lazy) I couldn’t be bothered going down to the restaurant so ordered room service. I have to say Thistle have an impressive room service menu and about a third of the menu can be ordered 24/7 which means if you’re one for midnight feasts then you’ll find this quite handy! What is NOT impressive is the prices. This is no bargain hotel and food prices cost in the region of £15 for a chicken dish whilst a sandwich can set you back a fiver! I know I should stop being so miserly but on top of this rip off price, you will get charged for room service and a final VAT charge will be placed on your entire bill when you check out so not cheap is it! Continental breakfast will cost £10 and this includes things like a pot of tea, croissants, white toast, yoghurt and weetabix. The breakfast is quite nice but still not worth it for £10 a head.

Actually a lot of the prices in Thistle are pretty steep and the prices alone would definitely put me off staying here. For example a local/national call costs 37p per unit and a fax will cost £2.00.

Good points about Thistle I hear you wonder? Well there’s one, everything is done in a very timely fashion and Thistle have never given me reason to complain. I’m always awoken by the patient room service bloke politely banging on my door waiting (or rather dying) to deliver my breakfast whilst I slowly clamber out of bed and greet him in my checked pyjamas with sleepy eyes and very fresh bed hair…very attractive indeed. Other than this I wouldn’t recommend this hotel to those holidaying on a budget and this is a definite no no for students.

Overall, this is a good business accommodation if you’re staying in the heart of Bristol as it is within walking distance within a lot of companies and also the shopping centre. If you’re not going to claim the whole cost back on company expenses then I suggest you either get a small loan from the bank or save your savings a lot of hassle and stay somewhere a bit cheaper!