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…
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…
After a short xmas break I was back on the road again! In the first few weeks of 2017 a short hop from Stansted with easyjet took me to Glasgow for an industry conference and exhibition. Given the conference was at the SEC there is really not a better place than the Crowne Plaza. Situated literally 2 minuets from the doors (or if you can work out the internal network of passages you don’t even have to go outside!) This modern, clean business focused hotel is a great place to stay. Not having stayed at a Crowne Plaza in a while I found the booking process on the website to be fast and efficient and this was continued to the standard of welcome at the hotel. The reception staff knew the…
I don’t often stay in Central London due to the close proximity to home and travel being simple, but due to a late finish and early start in December 2016 I tried out the Z Hotel Victoria. Following on from the very successful “simpler” room format mastered by the likes of Easy Hotels, there is a new breed of Hotel chains like Z Hotels which keep the rooms simple but in theory more cost effective. Pitched between the Easy Hotel and normal hotel chain its meant to bring luxury to simpler rooms. It’s possible to book the rooms with or without a window. Having stayed in windowless rooms before I can honestly say I don’t like them – so on this occasion I stayed away from these options when booking.…
