Budget hotels discussion

cactustwirly said:

The last time I dined in one it was not cheap, but the food was fairly expensive.

Their competitors like Mitchell's and Butlers do a much better job at pub food. It may be a bit more expensive but at least it is freshly cooked and a varied menu

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Freshly cooked? Or freshly micowaved from frozen?

michaelh said:

Freshly cooked? Or freshly micowaved from frozen?

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Most pubs use foodservice food but the quality of it does vary. I found the Whitbread chains to be Wetherspoons quality at much higher prices, and they were invariably understaffed so bar queues were long.

johntea said:

I find sticking the 'Do Not Disturb' hanger on the door from the moment I check in to the moment I check out does the trick in keeping the cleaners from potentially deciding to come in and if I saw that as another customer I would assume I had been given the incorrect room too!

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Some places in the USA will have secuitiy come and check the room instead if the Do Not Disturb (re-worded as room occupied) is left on for multiple days. This is following a shooting in Las Vegas and also people setting up meth labs in rooms.
Not sure if any UK hotels have that sort of policy, but at those US hotels having the sign up doesn't mean no one is going to walk in, just its more likely to be security at 3pm rather than a cleaner at 9am.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Yesterday at 17:39 ==

michaelh said:

Freshly cooked? Or freshly micowaved from frozen?

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Most of the pub restaurants are grill places, so the majority of the menu will be grilled (burgers, steak etc) or deep-fried (chips, breaded chicken etc) with some sous-vide stuff like ribs which might be microwaved. Wetherspoons probably do a little more like curry which is microwaved.

Had two nice nights away with my wife this past weekend - Hampton by Hilton in Stockton on Saturday (£101.15 brekkie included) and HIE in Boro on Sunday (£59.00 brekkie included)
(Hampton is a higher quality but would need to be at the price).
Thoroughly enjoyable - like have a long walk bimbling about and just walking into whatever food place takes our fancy

jon81uk said:

Some places in the USA will have secuitiy come and check the room instead if the Do Not Disturb (re-worded as room occupied) is left on for multiple days. This is following a shooting in Las Vegas and also people setting up meth labs in rooms.
Not sure if any UK hotels have that sort of policy, but at those US hotels having the sign up doesn't mean no one is going to walk in, just its more likely to be security at 3pm rather than a cleaner at 9am.

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Certainly a lot of the chain hotels have a policy that regardless of do not disturb signs or any other requests, they'll clean rooms at least say once a week. Not so much because of the risk of the room being used as a sniper vantage point or to cook crystal, but because they don't want the room getting so dirty it requires a specialist clean, and to check nothing is damaged.

I have had two stints of spending two months staying full time in the same hotel and I spoke to the cleaner and agreed a once a week clean. I prefer just having my own undisturbed space which I keep clean, but understand the hotel's need for a policy on it.

BuhSnarf said:

I might do after all this press information, but if I'm honest I've stayed in hundreds of hotel rooms and never had anyone walk in so it's never been a thought for me. I doubt anyone would really want to walk in to my room whilst I'm in the shower.

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Its happened a couple of times to me while I was in the shower, keen cleaners wanting in. When I hear the cleaners starting in the corridor I half expect them to enter.

I've twice been given keys for an occupied room. At a Travelodge in Aberdeen I walked in on a couple sat on bed and eating their dinner. It could have been worse. At a definitely not budget hotel in Leicestershire we were met by a very angry Scotsman. Ironic as we were there from Scotland too.