The Diary Room

[a_person]

Ah, you think I have a career as hotel critic waiting?
I usually stay in B&B's only as you get much more personal service, and there is one 4 star B&B in Halland near Lewes that can still easily beat the Oxford Belfry!

Probably - just a general career in writing reviews. You should become a critic for one of these papers! Get to try out loads and we get to read your review!

[Beate]

Hotels are huge and unpersonal, rooms can look bland. B&Bs often only have a few rooms which are decorated very individually. I prefer to check out the website first because a) if it is done well and contains all the information I want, then it it likely that service will be good too, and b) I can usually see a picture of the room and decide whether I like the decor. Some can be awfully frilly! If I find a one page website that does not even give me the cancellation policy, I avoid.

The one in Halland, even though you don't want to know about it, has an excellent website which allows you to check availability, 3 beautiful rooms, the best breakfast I have had in ages, a lovely garden for guest's use and two adorable dogs. The room comes with complimentary water and a mini fridge, is quiet and has very comfy beds. The owner is friendly and fulfills extra wishes. You also can p*y by credit or debit card which many small B&B's don't allow. It also means you don't have to send a deposit by cheque through the post which I can't stand, and it has ample parking, which the OH is precious about.

I have had some funny experiences in my time though. We stayed in a B&B in Tintern, Wales once, and what the owners had failed to mention is that they go out every day and you have no access to your room as they don't give you a key! So when we got home early one day the place was empty and we had to ring them (actually had to drive another mile to where there was phone reception) and were told they would be back in half an hour. I thought that was beyond stupid and would never stay there again. If you want to alienate your guests, that is a surefire way!

Usually though, if you choose carefully, you get excellent service. I remember a B&B in Moreton-in-Marsh where the beautiful room looked over fields with cows grazing and the owner gave us some jam and marmelade on depature as we had sung its praises during the stay. Another B&B in Thirsk, Yorkshire, had the complete James Herriot works on the bedside table, allowed me unlimited use of their personal computer for internet (!), and when there was a brief problem with the water one evening, they knocked on the door and gave us some bottles of water which they had raced out to b*y.

[Ms Thrifty]

Re Beate's accommodation tips: I am always happy to have positive recommendations for places to stay (and am sure others are, too) as I go away a lot. All I meant about Halland was that I wouldn't be able to benefit from the knowlege, alas.

Your choice of accommodation depends on how you want to spend your time: I aim to be out walking all day on at least one day (if it's just a weekend), so I want a comfortable bed, decent shower and kettle, but any further comforts would be wasted on me. On other days I would still expect to be out sightseeing. The advantage of hotels to me is that you don't have to talk to anyone for longer than you wish - once you have checked in, that should be that. Nice and hospitable as B & B owners usually are, I have often found myself stuck with an incredibly chatty one, whereas OH has melted away and left me to my fate. They mean well but I don't want to hear them telling me all about the area and attractions - I have done my research and want to get out and see these things for myself.

Hotels are also better if you get up early as I do. Hotels are used to this and are there for the convenience of guests, whereas a B & B is someone's home and I worry about disturbing the owners/other guests. I have had some bad experiences when trying to creep out early, in the dark - you can end up bumping into things and making a lot of noise. At least hotel corridors are well-lit all night. And if the worst comes to the worst and you cause accidental damage (I don't make a habit of this but had a dreadful incident with plumbing in a B & B last year), you are not wrecking someone's home. Hotels generally also serve breakfast until later; in a B & B, if I go out and walk for a couple of hours first thing, I either have to miss breakfast or run straight to the table in my boots and shovel down something in haste - not relaxing!

[a_person]

I was just reading this:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090925/tod ... 0a197.html

I'm petrified of spiders!

[anakin]

Am also a fan of hotels, but agree that both have their plus and minus points. I once stayed in a hotel in Manchester for work and as I sat down to read my file for the next day, all the electricity went out - it was pitch black, all I had was my mobile to give me a bit of light!. I think it was a Jury's actually. Anyway, I called reception and though they didn't seem overly concerned they said they'd send someone up. I waited with the door open... 20 minutes later still no one had come!!! I rang again to complain and obviously spoke to someone more senior as they apologised profusely and ran upstairs (literally). It was just a fuse, but what appaling service!!! And they didn't even reduce the rate! Shocking! Had a good moan though!

[Beate]

That's the trouble with big hotels. No one feels responsible when something goes wrong, and you can't ever pre-select the very room you want, you can try to be re-allocated later on, but that's not the same. If I had the choice I would always go for a B&B, after careful selection of course.

[anakin]

See one the reasons I'm not keen on B&B's is dogs. Am really not a fan and they often have them or alternatively they allow them (too lazy to check they don't) and it'll be the one time I stay that the one that doesn't has made an exeption. Also I prefer the anonymity... but with that comes impersonal, but I'm prepared to deal with that :)

Happily when we went on honeymoon, one of the hotels we stayed at was a Hyatt where we had a breakfast inclusive rate. I was delighted to learn that that included room service! If only all hotels did that!!!

[Beate]

One woman's nightmare is another one's dream! The OH and I adore dogs, the very fact that the B&B in Halland had two of them made us chose it! They were adorable, but most owners make sure they are kept away if you don't like them. We played with them in the garden though! You would never get that in a hotel! Marvellous. What annoys me about a lot of hotels is that breakfast is not included and you have to b*y it separately for a ridiculous rate. You would probably get it cheaper in the cafe down the road but if you don't know the area beforehand you go for the safe (and expensive) option.

[Ms Thrifty]

So true about "one man's meat" etc: I would hate to have dogs around (love them but allergic after kennels job) and hotels don't; also, I've usually had a breakfast-inclusive rate and been annoyed about p*ying for it all these years when on the whole I don't get to eat it, as on one day of the stay I'm always out hours before they start serving and not back until evening. But I enjoy it on the 2nd day, with papers if lucky - another advantage over B & Bs, where I've never yet seen a paper, let alone a free copy per guest.

As for hotels being impersonal and the guest being anonymous, those are their major plus points for me - I prize my privacy, personal space and free time and hotels enable me to preserve those. I have always had jobs working with the public, which I love (I know you can have some bad experiences but I wouldn't want to be without the contact), but working with hundreds or thousands of people, all day, every day, means that I want to spend my own time on my own, doing my own thing and not engaging with others.

[destresserai]

So frustrated.......

Why do companies care Jack S*** about loyalty to their customers?

Just had a run-in with Sky. Needed to speak with customer services and could only get through to an off-shore call centre who couldn't understand a word I was saying and was only interested in reading to me a computerised conversation that had nothing to do with my query. Suddenly when I said enough was enough and I wanted to discuss cancelling my subscription, I was put through to a UK based department who wanted to bend over backwards to keep me.

Perhaps they should have offered me all these deals for my loyalty i.e. I have been a customer for 15+ years before rather than as an after-thought.

It was the same with my car insurance - I got my renewal and when I phoned to say I could get it cheaper elsewhere they were suddenly able to knock £200 off my renewal quote. Why none of the details and specificiations had changed?

So frustrating and annoying.