Britannia Hotels £999 Wedding Package??

shellsuit

margaretclare wrote: »

After our experience of a 'Christmas break' in a Britannia Hotel last Christmas, we'd never recommend this group of hotels to anybody.

In addition to us, travelling independently, there were 6 coaches-full of mainly elderly/disabled people. A 4-storey hotel with a working lift only to the 2nd floor, and this broke down on Christmas Day leaving NO lifts at all for all those people! They should have known that lifts would be essential, not an optional extra.

Very unhealthy breakfasts, quantity preferred before quality. Not what's expected in the modern world. I asked for yoghurt and was told 'we don't do it'.

I could go on, but I won't.

To be fair, nobody can tell when a lift is going to break down.

vicki+1

shellsuit wrote: »

To be fair, nobody can tell when a lift is going to break down.

Obviously i wasn't there, but if the lift was in a poor state of repair (which i don't know) , then it is obvious it will break down sooner or later. (not that i know the life was not serviced etc), just the way the hotels are being described leads me to think, perhaps ?

margaretclare

shellsuit wrote: »

To be fair, nobody can tell when a lift is going to break down.

Well, there were 2 lifts, one of which did not work for the whole time, the other one which broke down, so no lifts at all for at least half the time. The lift which worked originally only went as far as the 2nd floor. I am sorry, but before making bookings for 6 coach-loads of mainly elderly/disabled people, some thought should have been given to this! Working lifts should, I'd have thought, be a pre-requisite for an occasion like this and with this age-group.

One of the things we always look for before booking any hotel is a lift. We also try to get a walk-in shower if possible.

shellsuit

margaretclare wrote: »

Well, there were 2 lifts, one of which did not work for the whole time, the other one which broke down, so no lifts at all for at least half the time. The lift which worked originally only went as far as the 2nd floor. I am sorry, but before making bookings for 6 coach-loads of mainly elderly/disabled people, some thought should have been given to this! Working lifts should, I'd have thought, be a pre-requisite for an occasion like this and with this age-group.

One of the things we always look for before booking any hotel is a lift. We also try to get a walk-in shower if possible.

Ah, you didn't say there were 2 lifts, so I assumed there was just the one which broke down.

You're right, one of them should have definitely been working. Maybe the other was waiting for a part, or they hadn't bothered getting them serviced, or maybe they were both running at the time you had booked and unfortunately both broke down around the same time?

There really should have been an engineer out within a few hours the same day, so if that didn't happen, it's either the hotels fault, or whoever is contracted to look after the lifts.

Not good at all, but it can and does happen. (OH is a lift engineer you see so I only know how his company works).

SugarSpun

The lifts weren't working in the Adelphi the day we had our wedding reception so my grandmother had to be wheeled to the back entrance, through the kitchen and up in the service lift - and then back around whenever she needed to use the bathroom, this after they first suggested she shuffle up the stairs on her bum - backwards. They said they'd have the lift fixed "within a week or ten days". Luckily she wasn't staying there.

margaretclare

SugarSpun wrote: »

The lifts weren't working in the Adelphi the day we had our wedding reception so my grandmother had to be wheeled to the back entrance, through the kitchen and up in the service lift - and then back around whenever she needed to use the bathroom, this after they first suggested she shuffle up the stairs on her bum - backwards. They said they'd have the lift fixed "within a week or ten days". Luckily she wasn't staying there.

Believe it or not, some people were actually reduced to shuffling upstairs on their bum, that was when they wanted to go to bed. Or having to shuffle downstairs in the mornings and then, if they wanted to go to the room in the daytime, they couldn't. Watching people dragging their cases up and down all those stairs - with extreme difficulty - was not a sight I ever want to see again.

vicki+1

margaretclare wrote: »

Believe it or not, some people were actually reduced to shuffling upstairs on their bum, that was when they wanted to go to bed. Or having to shuffle downstairs in the mornings and then, if they wanted to go to the room in the daytime, they couldn't. Watching people dragging their cases up and down all those stairs - with extreme difficulty - was not a sight I ever want to see again.

Sounds a bit like fawlty towers !

margaretclare

SugarSpun wrote: »

The lifts weren't working in the Adelphi the day we had our wedding reception so my grandmother had to be wheeled to the back entrance, through the kitchen and up in the service lift - and then back around whenever she needed to use the bathroom, this after they first suggested she shuffle up the stairs on her bum - backwards. They said they'd have the lift fixed "within a week or ten days". Luckily she wasn't staying there.

If I had booked a 'wedding package' in any hotel I would have expected there to be toilets on the same floor as the reception. After all, people are going to be eating and drinking....

floss2

This thread is one reason why we booked our wedding at a Barcelo hotel. £2,500 for their "All Wrapped Up" package.

SugarSpun

margaretclare wrote: »

If I had booked a 'wedding package' in any hotel I would have expected there to be toilets on the same floor as the reception. After all, people are going to be eating and drinking....

We were told there were. It was one of many things their wedding coordinator lied to us about before he got our booking and money and disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again