In the last year or so I've become a bit of a convert to the IHG chain of hotels. A number of reasons really - but I find them to be good value and a bit more consistent than my previous chain of choice with Accor. Due to location of meetings though I stepped away from the usual Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn express and stayed in the Crowne Plaza in Basingstoke. The hotel is situated just off a main road quite close to the city centre. As always I arrived quite late in the evening - so didn't really have time to explore the neighbourhood around the hotel. Parking was ample for the car and was free (which makes a change from a few of my recent stays!) On…
Set in the rolling hills just outside of Blackburn is the wonderful Stanley House Hotel & Spa. With a mix of the modern rooms (that I stayed in) and the bedrooms in the grade 2 listed Manor House - this hotel really does have everything for everyone. Attached to it can be found a great spa for all your pampering needs as well! I was here on business so didn't manage to make use of the spa facilities but from the reviews I've found it's got a good reputation. My room was situated in the new block of 18 rooms that have been built. First off - it's a huge room with a huge bath and bed! I know that I did have the disabled room (I don't know…
There are a few Mercure Hotels in Bristol, but by far my favourite of the bunch is the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel. Set close to the shops and a number of fine restaurants the Grand has recently been refurbished and mixes some quirky and designer styling with a very practical and comfortable offering. First impressions on walking into the hotel foyer is that this is something a bit different to other Mercure hotels. With nice designed lighting (love good lighting in a hotel!) some beautiful art work and then a non standard reception desk - it's all pointers to something a little better! This continues in abundance into the rooms. A really mixed of styles are found the rooms. With classic style bathrooms but with great flooring the rooms have…
So we are all very used to the Premier Inn brand. Solid rooms, comfortable beds and you know what you are going to get. Now their sister brand "Hub by Premier Inn" are starting to crop up in a number of locations. With 7 in London and 2 in Edinburgh these are aimed at the city centre traveller who won't be spending as much time in the room - more out and about the city. However this shouldn't distract at all from what is a great hotel... Just off the main Royal Mile (and ironically situated next to a Premier Inn itself) you'll find the hotel. It's a 15 minuet walk to Waverley station and about the same to places like the Castle etc... This of course depends how much…
15 year's ago doing my job you would have had a atlas in the car - and probably an AA book of hotels. Now I'm usually in a destination and just program the car or my phone to my next meeting and can in the worst case book my hotel sat outside it on my phone via Apps. Now of course I always try and plan better than that - but just sometimes those events come together meaning that's needed!! These are some of my favourite app's that I use for my daily life in business. I'm missing the obvious one's like What's App and things like Air BnB, Google Maps, Uber, Trip Advisor etc that everyone uses. It's more perhaps the slightly less used one's that I hope people…
