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General Hotel Discussion

Kraken27 said:
And doubtless find the cost added to your check-out room account. It's the Merlin way.
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I don’t think they ever added the cost of extra chocolate before, as far as I’m aware. I’m not really in a position to know about that, though.
AT86 said:
This photo is from Sep 2020. I don’t think they are particularly skimping on the chocolate handouts in this room. Not that it would make sense for them to do so, this will cost the park pennies.

paMNpoI.jpg
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My word; I wonder how long it would take to eat all of that chocolate?
 
The thing is, at least with a 'suite" the room is larger. Most of these other expensive rooms are no bigger or better than standard Arctic/MV rooms... they've just a different theme.

I don't have faith that the upkeep and maintenance will be good enough to warrant the price either.

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djtruefitt said:
I find it bizarre it’s had a refurbishment yet it’s still got an awful fan on the wall and they didn’t take the opportunity to add air conditioning, seeing as you are paying a small fortune for the room!
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Retrofitting air conditioning to a hotel is a nightmare, unless the hotel was built with it in mind but never installed?

Does seem madness that a supposedly high-end hotel opened in 1996 without it tho.
 
Europa-Park didn't even have air conditioning in all its hotels until they retrofitted it to all rooms across Colosseo, El Andaluz and Alcazar around 5 to 10 years ago.
 
WillPS said:
Retrofitting air conditioning to a hotel is a nightmare, unless the hotel was built with it in mind but never installed?

Does seem madness that a supposedly high-end hotel opened in 1996 without it tho.
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Air conditioning wasn't very common anywhere back in the 90s. I expect hotels that had it were rare.
However when Splash was built in the 2000s I think they should have considered it more. But then most private homes don't have aircon in bedrooms either (although it is getting harder to sleep in the summer!)
 
jon81uk said:
Air conditioning wasn't very common anywhere back in the 90s. I expect hotels that had it were rare.
However when Splash was built in the 2000s I think they should have considered it more. But then most private homes don't have aircon in bedrooms either (although it is getting harder to sleep in the summer!)
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Other than Travelodges and Premier Inns, I'm not sure I've stayed at a late-90s purpose built hotel which didn't have air con. Certainly it's been standard in new-build Hiltons and Marriotts for a good bit longer, although I suppose that's probably more to do with aligning to their American-focussed brand standards.
 
I think the baffling thing is they have retrofitted aircon to a lot of ATH rooms so why not the most expensive ones?
 
Dave said:
I think the baffling thing is they have retrofitted aircon to a lot of ATH rooms so why not the most expensive ones?
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They have added aircon to the Moon Voyage and Arctic Explorer rooms as they have been re-vamped. I guess it is logistically easier and more cost effective when you have an entire corridor of rooms to install at once.

This is just one room in a different part of the hotel. Maybe they decided it wasn’t worth it/feasible for just one room.
 
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I’ve never really had a problem with the heat in the rooms in the summer except for the enchanted village. With the hotel rooms, not many people realise you can open the top of the window as well as the bottom! And you can sleep with the window open in the hotel but not the door open in a lodge.

Rather than fitting air conditioning a combined ceiling fan/light would do wonders to move the air in the room.
 
AT86 said:
They have added aircon to the Moon Voyage and Arctic Explorer rooms as they have been re-vamped. I guess it is logistically easier and more cost effective when you have an entire corridor of rooms to install at once.

This is just one room in a different part of the hotel. Maybe they decided it wasn’t worth it/feasible for just one room.
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The aircon they have installed in the moon rooms are individual units so it’s not really an issue installing them on a per room basis.
 
Has anyone booked the enchanted village lodges through booking.com? I’ve just been looking at a 2 night midweek break in the last week of June, and the ATR website is quoting a whopping £467 whereas booking.com is quoting £287!

Thats a huge difference in price!
 
Sorry to bump the thread, but out of interest, why is it that Alton Towers won't let 3 adults stay in a room together?

I only ask because I was talking to my mum about it and she thought it was a "disgraceful" policy; the conversation spurred after looking at Europa's room rates and being surprised that Europa let us all stay in a room together without hesitation.

For some idea, we recently booked a Standard Room Plus at Europa Park's Hotel Castillo Alcazar from 26th-30th April 2022, and the base rate for this room (our was more due to us adding park tickets, and I believe we also went for the more flexible rate) was the equivalent of £983, and Castillo Alcazar was not the cheapest hotel on offer at Europa Park for our dates.

By comparison, going to Alton Towers with the same booking stats nets me a minimum price of £1,856 at the CBeebies Land Hotel, with my only alternative being an Enchanted Village Treehouse at £4,703. When I changed our group info to have me as a 15 year old child instead of an adult... the price went down two fold, with £1,096 at the Alton Towers Hotel being the cheapest available. Admittedly, no standard rooms were available, but making you book two rooms for 3 adults does significantly drive the price up anyway.

Is there a reason for this? Is it something to do with the size/weight capacity of the bunk beds and pullout bed not being able to handle a full-size adult or something?
 
Matt N said:
Sorry to bump the thread, but out of interest, why is it that Alton Towers won't let 3 adults stay in a room together?

I only ask because I was talking to my mum about it and she thought it was a "disgraceful" policy; the conversation spurred after looking at Europa's room rates and being surprised that Europa let us all stay in a room together without hesitation.

For some idea, we recently booked a Standard Room Plus at Europa Park's Hotel Castillo Alcazar from 26th-30th April 2022, and the base rate for this room (our was more due to us adding park tickets, and I believe we also went for the more flexible rate) was the equivalent of £983, and Castillo Alcazar was not the cheapest hotel on offer at Europa Park for our dates.

By comparison, going to Alton Towers with the same booking stats nets me a minimum price of £1,856 at the CBeebies Land Hotel, with my only alternative being an Enchanted Village Treehouse at £4,703. When I changed our group info to have me as a 15 year old child instead of an adult... the price went down two fold, with £1,096 at the Alton Towers Hotel being the cheapest available. Admittedly, no standard rooms were available, but making you book two rooms for 3 adults does significantly drive the price up anyway.

Is there a reason for this? Is it something to do with the size/weight capacity of the bunk beds and pullout bed not being able to handle a full-size adult or something?
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Premier Inn is the same; Max 2 adults per room. It's not just Towers.
 
Matt N said:
Sorry to bump the thread, but out of interest, why is it that Alton Towers won't let 3 adults stay in a room together?

I only ask because I was talking to my mum about it and she thought it was a "disgraceful" policy; the conversation spurred after looking at Europa's room rates and being surprised that Europa let us all stay in a room together without hesitation.

For some idea, we recently booked a Standard Room Plus at Europa Park's Hotel Castillo Alcazar from 26th-30th April 2022, and the base rate for this room (our was more due to us adding park tickets, and I believe we also went for the more flexible rate) was the equivalent of £983, and Castillo Alcazar was not the cheapest hotel on offer at Europa Park for our dates.

By comparison, going to Alton Towers with the same booking stats nets me a minimum price of £1,856 at the CBeebies Land Hotel, with my only alternative being an Enchanted Village Treehouse at £4,703. When I changed our group info to have me as a 15 year old child instead of an adult... the price went down two fold, with £1,096 at the Alton Towers Hotel being the cheapest available. Admittedly, no standard rooms were available, but making you book two rooms for 3 adults does significantly drive the price up anyway.

Is there a reason for this? Is it something to do with the size/weight capacity of the bunk beds and pullout bed not being able to handle a full-size adult or something?
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As much as I agree with you Matt, I might well be to do with the size of the rooms? If I'm correct I think a lot of the Alton Towers hotels rooms have bunk beds for the kids which would likely be a bit small for adults and that might well be the thinking.
 
I wasn't complaining about the policy, and I understand why it might be there (it was my mum who made the "disgraceful" comment, not me). I was only curious as to why it exists.

I guess Alton Towers isn't aimed at large adult groups to the same extent as Europa Park is; families are the core demographic, so why should they put themselves out there specifically to accommodate what is ultimately a very minor demographic within the grand scheme of things?
 
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Alton Towers Hotel does have rooms which consist of a double, a single and a pull out which can all be used by an adult and did before they changed the policy.

Worst case scenario just book it for 2 adults and a child. No one would ever know and you check in on a screen most of the time anyway now.
 
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