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General Hotel Discussion

Asking or ID is always at the discretion and "common sense" of staff.

The levels of bar service match my own experiences first thing this year, after which I decided that was that as far as them getting my custom was concerned.

True bar service is becoming a lost art, and the thing is, these muppets don't get the fact that a lively fun bar brings in stupid amounts of money especially if supplemented with easy bar snacks.

For a company to hell bent on making money, there's some real thickos running the show.
 
A shame to hear about the bar service at Margs on Sunday night. We had great service at Margs when we stayed over for Scarefest, it had improved dramatically on other relatively recent visits (friendly efficient staff with no queues at bar, a good manager, call for last orders etc). What you all encountered on Sunday makes it seem like we had a one off good time.

:)
 
Y He put no effort into making the drink whatsoever - instead of mixing it in a cocktail shaker, he just poured the alcohol and the pre-mix base into a glass, then shoved a stirrer in (the wrong way around, may I add), with a couple of straws, before then just shoving the drink in front of me.
I'm not disagreeing that you didn't get good service, but if it is a pre-mixed cocktail then there is no point using a shaker, that is only needed if there is more than two ingredients, If they poor cocktail mix from a carton in with the spirit then it only needs stirring, same as making a vodka and orange juice. But if they want to look like a quality hotel then they should have bartenders who can make simple cocktails rather than relying on pre-mixes like a Wetherspoons.

On Sunday some people in our group were asked if they were staying over and even if they were driving home that night. My question would be we are in a bar in a hotel at about midnight, surely we would be staying over?

I have staying in other hotels before where they have to ask to see the room ID card after 11pm as the hotel bar is only licensed until 11pm so day guests cannot be served. Hotel guests can be served after the licsened hours as it is effectively a "lock-in" as you are a resident of the hotel. But they should have politely asked day guests to leave instead of demanding.
 
However rather than us all getting asked, only a few got asked. I think it is mainly the way people get asked, certainly not in a polite way and it's as if the staff just don't want you in the bar drinking and having fun. I really do think they would rather everyone sat in their room and went to bed for 10pm and not spend any money. Which seems odd when they have a bar that is open till 2am (at times).

It seems the staff are usually fine in ATH, yet Splash has always had this problem, even on the quietest of days.
 
Is that still the case nowadays? And besides, even if it is, it wouldn't do any harm to actually explain.

There's no way service should be as inconsistent as this at the prices they charge for that hotel, it's disgraceful.
 
Anyone remember when they did table service?

The most annoying thing was long queues at the dragon bar on the Friday and Saturday night due to there not being enough staff and also the speed the staff worked....

I watched the staff in Spirit of St Louis until the early hours whilst propping up the bar. The actual bar men didn't stop all night....but the drinks were served promptly and to the table throughout the stay.

For what is supposed to be a superior hotel, the bar service at towers is crap
 
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I'm glad you mentioned Spirit of St Louis. Towers should take a leaf out of their book on how to successfully run a bar. There's more that Towers could learn from EP, but that's for another topic.
 
After my first stay in the Hotels, I must say, the beds are very comfortable, but with regards to bar service, I didn't get asked for ID once, maybe because I had my Staff ID on me, I found the bar staff in the Dragon Bar to be reasonably quick and friendly, I didn't appreciate the way we were just kicked out of the bar with no prior warning, and then found the service at Mags to be rather slow, they didn't seem interested in serving you and when they did they were a little rude.
 
Didn't take long for a Europa comparison to happen did it. :p

The bar staff are very hit or miss in both hotels. Sometimes they're friendly and quick, other times they're rude and you wonder if the paint will peel off the wall and repaint itself before you get your drinks.

I wonder if it's dependant on the manager that's on duty on the night.
 
I've always found ATH staff on the whole to be better in a range of formats, particularly as every time I've been in Splash this season the staff just seem to have wanted to drop what they're doing and go home as soon as possible (and yes, they probably are thinking that but at least the ATH staff attempt to hide it).

Aside from one bloke serving in the Dragon Bar last weekend, the staff in ATH have been on the ball from each occasion I've either popped my head in there, dined in there or stayed overnight this season.

I do feel the service in Secret Garden is particularly down to the manager on hand more so than others. The meal I had in July proved this to a great extent where you could genuinely feel the manager breathing down the neck of her employees :p
 
Didn't take long for a Europa comparison to happen did it. :p

The bar staff are very hit or miss in both hotels. Sometimes they're friendly and quick, other times they're rude and you wonder if the paint will peel off the wall and repaint itself before you get your drinks.

I wonder if it's dependant on the manager that's on duty on the night.

Well, Europa's Law was bound to be invoked at some point. :p

The manager in Ma's on Sunday night was good, I thought, so why some of the staff took a lifetime to get drinks prepared baffles me slightly.
 
Also....

Cost wise you pay around the same (slightly less at Europa for the room not drinks!) so it's a fair comparison on many levels....

I've not seen the law of europa before, very good!!!
 
Talking of bar staff - I remember someone in the group on Sunday saying how the bartender saw their staff ID and made a joke about how they were all out of a job... Not entirely professional!
 
While generally I dont have a problem with the bar staff, I do have a problem with the queues in the Dragon Bar. They have 2 bars, so why not use them on weekends. They would actually sell more drinks. I didnt end up buying any despite waiting half an hour to see if the queue would go down, before giving up and not bothering. The queue remained to the entrance to the Dragon Bar all night.

Also, it used to be far nicer when they had the shutters partly across it and the extra seating area by the bar. Lacks any atmosphere in there now.
 
I wonder if it's dependant on the manager that's on duty on the night.

I don't know if she still works there but one of the Margs managers is an utter *word not suitable for this area of the forum*. So management could be part of the issue. The manager on duty during our last stay was brilliant and had a bit of fun with us, and the bar staff this night were far better than usual (possibly as a result).

Also as Spirit of St. Louis has been brought up, it is essential that I mention the club sandwich. Oh that beautiful club sandwich!! :p

:)
 
I don't know if she still works there but one of the Margs managers is an utter *word not suitable for this area of the forum*. So management could be part of the issue. The manager on duty during our last stay was brilliant and had a bit of fun with us, and the bar staff this night were far better than usual (possibly as a result).

Also as Spirit of St. Louis has been brought up, it is essential that I mention the club sandwich. Oh that beautiful club sandwich!! :p

:)

They were obviously expecting a busy evening, as they had two Margs managers on shift last Sunday - the same one that was there at Scarefest, and a guy I haven't seen before - the latter one seemed to be taking control of the staff which perhaps impacted things.
 
I know the under 25 rule is in place to cover people rear ends, but staff also need to ask themselves is there any chance of that person being 17 or younger.
 
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