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Hotels General Discussion

Ben said:
How is that spa redevelopment going?
I know they removed the signage and themed carpet but if you were to peek through the windows from the ath garden .. I’m guessing it looks exactly the same, I doubt they even drained the pool. Just switched the lights off and that’s it.
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Don't think there was ever a plan to redevelop it? Just cost saving.
 
I’m sure in usual Merlin double talk fashion they badged it as redevelopment not money
 
Dave said:
It wasn’t cost saving in the traditional sense. Rumour is the plant works were condemned and the cost of replacing it wasn’t approved by the accountants. So more a lack of capex expenditure.
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Its plausible that the plant for the pool dates back to the hotel opening as it was originally just a swimming pool and then got converted to the spa once the waterpark opened.
 
We actually have got a good deal ( via holiday club ) for a sleep the night before the first firework display, worked out at just over £50 each to sleep, with the delicious (!) breakfast, half the golf and fireworks included.

Very good.

Even non pass holders the rate for 2 adults for the Thursday eve is £138 main hotel, £100 for a pod.

The Friday night the prices are £238 and £155 !!!
 
Sorry to drag the bar topic back up (I didn't get time to reply yesterday). I think 12am would be reasonable for at least one resort bar to stay open until (or until 1am when the hotels are busy/at capacity). Even better, adapt it to how busy it is each night. I don't think anyone would expect them to stay open until 2am. It's also not unusual for a bar to have very few customers late at night. They've made their profit by then. What we're seeing at Towers is cost-cutting without considering guest experience.

The resort side of things needs a fresh pair of eyes to overhaul the whole experience. That's before you even get to things like ATH rooms that last had a refurb 20+ years ago and a now SBNO Spa that has likely been left to rot away.

I like the idea of an entertainment ‘hub’ with an arcade, soft play, bowling, bar/additional entertainment space as mentioned on the previous page.
 
venny said:
They can’t run a bar properly. There’s absolutely no chance they’d be able to run a hotel entertainment complex.
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I basically mean sack off the entertainment in Splash and ATH, move it all into one central location that even has an external exit to avoid waking guests in ATH. Put some nice relaxed music in ATH and do something else with that small corner of Splash.
 
11:30pm! Does this count as an "extension" then? Like when the park is rammed and we're all expected to be grateful that they "extend" until 5pm rather than 4?

jon81uk said:
Its plausible that the plant for the pool dates back to the hotel opening as it was originally just a swimming pool and then got converted to the spa once the waterpark opened.
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I know someone who maintains these things, and apparently most of the plant will need replacing every 15 years. He asked me what I meant by "plant", and assumed I meant various pumps, filtration systems, and compressors (apparently much more complex than I understand). So it may be the second plant that's now packed in.

Either way, they would have fully known it was knackered a very long time ago. Completely unacceptable, like with the rest of the place, that they've just ignored it. And when I look at the Monorail, the removal of Enterprise recently, and the last minute closure of the Skyride, they're still doing it.
 
Update: by the time I left at 10.55pm, the bar was still open (albeit just one shutter open). I didn’t fancy staying any later to find out if the opening time provided was true!
 
Dan12345 said:
Update: by the time I left at 10.55pm, the bar was still open (albeit just one shutter open). I didn’t fancy staying any later to find out if the opening time provided was true!
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Pfft. No dedication to the cause my friend. I would have drank until I dropped, and then still stumbled up to the bar at last orders and ordered a round of multiple drinks for myself.

Mind you, last time they shut early, they did actually let me do that to be fair. I ordered 3 pints at last orders, and they said as long as they could shut the bar on time I could stay and drink at my leisure, or take them back to my room. So I stayed and drank one, went for a leisurely stroll around the ATH garden and the car parks with another, and necked the third when I got back to my room.
 
Matt.GC said:
11:30pm! Does this count as an "extension" then? Like when the park is rammed and we're all expected to be grateful that they "extend" until 5pm rather than 4?


I know someone who maintains these things, and apparently most of the plant will need replacing every 15 years. He asked me what I meant by "plant", and assumed I meant various pumps, filtration systems, and compressors (apparently much more complex than I understand). So it may be the second plant that's now packed in.

Either way, they would have fully known it was knackered a very long time ago. Completely unacceptable, like with the rest of the place, that they've just ignored it. And when I look at the Monorail, the removal of Enterprise recently, and the last minute closure of the Skyride, they're still doing it.
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Nah, this rumour about the plant room isn’t true. The plant room was and is still (most likely) in full working order. It actually had a fair bit of money spent on it not too long before the spa closed. Can’t comment on the actual reason for closure but it certainly wasn’t plant room related.


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The poster advised that work took place in the plant room recently as an explanation that the plant room rumour isn’t true, but they’re unable to say/don’t know the precise reasoning for the Spa closing. We don’t need sniping posts about whether things that people say are not valid or not, it doesn’t contribute to discussion and only serves to start arguments and drag things off topic. Those posts have now been removed as a result.

Believe what they’re saying and continue discussion without the sniping, or don’t and ignore the post - that’s up to you. But let’s keep things on topic. Thanks :).
 
If we were to assume that the explanation for the current state of the hotels is because the management hasn’t walked past all the problems there currently are - terrible food, closed bars, dirty bedrooms - they must have been working from home for a long, long time.
 
jon81uk said:
Have to assume the hotel managers always walk in through the back door of the building as otherwise how do you manage to pass that and not feel disgusted by the state of your workplace. Just demolishing down to the stones would be better than leaving it up!
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To be fair, I'm used to walking past rot every day at work and having to ignore most of it because there's nothing I can do about it. I keep it in my pocket whilst lobbying for investment (or using the whole "health and safety" chestnut where I can). I have a file on it to throw back at the business to ask what they are doing about it, or when customers complain.

So the state of the place is likely down to:

A. It's been crap for so long, it's become expected and normalised, therefore harder to spot with blinkers on.

And/Or

B. The authority of "management" is way over exaggerated, and they have little input or power to do anything about it.

Bianca being a good sort (which she seems to be), was never going to magic up a big truckload of cash to sort the place out. There's always been too much emphasis and hope put on "the management" in my opinion.
 
Matt.GC said:
To be fair, I'm used to walking past rot every day at work and having to ignore most of it because there's nothing I can do about it. I keep it in my pocket whilst lobbying for investment (or using the whole "health and safety" chestnut where I can). I have a file on it to throw back at the business to ask what they are doing about it, or when customers complain.

So the state of the place is likely down to:

A. It's been crap for so long, it's become expected and normalised, therefore harder to spot with blinkers on.

And/Or

B. The authority of "management" is way over exaggerated, and they have little input or power to do anything about it.

Bianca being a good sort (which she seems to be), was never going to magic up a big truckload of cash to sort the place out. There's always been too much emphasis and hope put on "the management" in my opinion.
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The management aren’t actually the management - that’s the issue.
They merely figure out how to spend a very limited opex budget given to them by Hq.
In other words - not enough cash to fix everything crap.
 
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