AstroDan
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I agree. Social decline and broken windows theory all playing their part.
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Hotels General Discussion
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pluk
TS Member
The saying in retail was always s... breeds s...
If people see a mess they are happy to make a mess, if something is neat, clean and tidy people don't usually want to be the first to change that.
NuttySquirrel
TS Member
Send in the Cleaner! Now!!
Poisson
TS Member
Evening meal in SGR: Quite nice
Breakfast this morning in SGR: Inedible. I'll eat most things but it was DIRE.
The hotels urgently need an adults only area where you can't hear the god awful entertainment with a bar that serves real cocktails and isn't full of squawking spawn.
After last night's food we abandoned any hopes of having a drink to head back to the room as it was an unpleasant atmosphere in Dragon Bar and the service would probably mean we'd be still waiting there now.
Breakfast this morning in SGR: Inedible. I'll eat most things but it was DIRE.
The hotels urgently need an adults only area where you can't hear the god awful entertainment with a bar that serves real cocktails and isn't full of squawking spawn.
After last night's food we abandoned any hopes of having a drink to head back to the room as it was an unpleasant atmosphere in Dragon Bar and the service would probably mean we'd be still waiting there now.
pluk
TS Member
When staying i the pods we did pop in the dragon bar early evening for a quick drink. It was very busy with people clearly on some sort of conference, but to be fair to the bar staff try were rattling through the orders and I was served within a couple of minutes.
The racket from the singer though! Why so loud? It's 17:15 and people want to sit and chat, but the music was deafening and inescapable as if it was 22:45 at a wedding. Would be a lovely place to sit with a gentle singer at a piano, as it is its torture.
The racket from the singer though! Why so loud? It's 17:15 and people want to sit and chat, but the music was deafening and inescapable as if it was 22:45 at a wedding. Would be a lovely place to sit with a gentle singer at a piano, as it is its torture.
Craig
TS Administrator
Yup we found the same in Dragon Bar. Despite being busy, they were getting to people fairly quickly in the grand scheme of things. The noise level is one of the big things that we mentioned last night when chatting about the place (once we'd ended up wandering up two floors to reception so we could hear each other speak!). @Ian I believe suggested the likes of the old Emperor's room that would be ideal to open, even just for seating. It'll allow people to sit and chill out, away from the high noise level in the atrium and be able to hold a conversation.
As it stands at the moment, if it's raining you're pretty stuck as sitting outdoors isn't really possible. Then as we found last night the limited seating really stops even smallish groups from sitting together, and you end up being split over 2 different areas.
I actually don't mind the singers at the moment, they're fine for a bit of background music. But blaring into your ears when you're trying to unwind a little is a bit much!
pluk
TS Member
Yes, the singer was actually pretty good, just not set up appropriately. I think it might have been the same woman singing earlier in the day at the Mardi Bar, where it was well suited to be belted out in the open air and I thought was excellent.
Another aspect the Teepee would be excellent for if they put it to use as a resort wide asset.
Craig
TS Administrator
Yup, same singer! The setup they have for Mardi Gras is a really good example of how it should work. If you want to watch the performance "full on", then there's seating in front of the stage. Still want to listen in but would like to hold a conversation, the pontoon is setup to allow for that.
The ship setup seems overkill really. Speakers all the way around above the stage, blaring out behind the ship when you can't even see the performers in the first place. Even just having the volume down a tad would help, it's all just a bit much!
jon81uk
TS Member
It’s a bar, would you expect a pub to have bins? People should be tidying up, talking to staff and not bringing that sort of stuff with them.
Craig
TS Administrator
I think Gary's comment is more a general opinion of things around the country rather than specific to the bars - but let's try and keep on topic to just the hotels if we could please!
I've just driven back up from Towers, a good 3 hours drive so I won't do a long post just yet! But yes, because some were just leaving stuff laying around all over, the problems just got worse as others ended up doing the same. In 17 years of visiting Alton Towers, I've had some very lacklustre stays at the resort. But, I've never seen the bar in such a shocking state as it was last night. I've been in nightclubs at kicking out time where the floor was tidier than it was in Ma Garrita's, and that's a serious comparison, not an exaggeration for comedic effect. Walking in at around 10pm finding spillages, napkins, glasses, bottles, crisp packets, pizza boxes, plates with food on and more strewn all over the place on both the floor and tables was a disgusting sight. If it weren't for the bar being the only place you can order takeaway pizza after 10pm, I think we would've walked straight back out again. Staff were clearly not coping whatsoever, and there was zero visible security presence to even attempt to help out and back them up. As a result, you could tell they'd all but given up on even attempting the most basic of standards.
I have never seen housekeeping have to come into a bar with a large black bin bag and a litter picker to attempt to clear up the swathes of rubbish on a floor before until last night. It was absolutely unbelievable.
I've just driven back up from Towers, a good 3 hours drive so I won't do a long post just yet! But yes, because some were just leaving stuff laying around all over, the problems just got worse as others ended up doing the same. In 17 years of visiting Alton Towers, I've had some very lacklustre stays at the resort. But, I've never seen the bar in such a shocking state as it was last night. I've been in nightclubs at kicking out time where the floor was tidier than it was in Ma Garrita's, and that's a serious comparison, not an exaggeration for comedic effect. Walking in at around 10pm finding spillages, napkins, glasses, bottles, crisp packets, pizza boxes, plates with food on and more strewn all over the place on both the floor and tables was a disgusting sight. If it weren't for the bar being the only place you can order takeaway pizza after 10pm, I think we would've walked straight back out again. Staff were clearly not coping whatsoever, and there was zero visible security presence to even attempt to help out and back them up. As a result, you could tell they'd all but given up on even attempting the most basic of standards.
I have never seen housekeeping have to come into a bar with a large black bin bag and a litter picker to attempt to clear up the swathes of rubbish on a floor before until last night. It was absolutely unbelievable.
Ian
TS Team
Margs was a truly shocking experience. As Craig has said, the biggest concern was the lack of any security or senior support for the teams there, who were clearly quite intimidated and overwhelmed by the situation.
The hotels are largely ran by a young team at night. That’s not a slight on them, but when the average age of staff in a bar appears around 25, and you’re dealing for large groups of people in their 30s and up, it’s always going to need a certain personality to be able to handle these things effectively. It’s on these occasions like a Saturday night where you would expect some extra support for them. Instead, if you walk into a restaurant at breakfast, or even one of the bars mid-day, you’ll see plenty of more senior, experienced staff members.
I think Craig or Dan pointed out how you used to always have someone from security at the door and another just generally patrolling the bar area. It doesn’t need to feel overbearing or oppressive, but just enough to make you feel like there’s control in place should anything happen. There was a real aire about the bar last night that something might kick off at any moment. Not a nice evening I have to say, and we only stayed as long as we did to receive our pizza order.
While queuing for the bar (a timed 25 minute wait) a lady in front of us said what a dump the place was, describing it as a “shithole”. The chap in front of her then turned to us all and said he and his family were stopping that night free of charge as compensation for a poor experience they’d had last year. He said himself that his experience this time was no better if not worse. These sort of nights are damaging to the resort and brand. It’s a shame really, as while the park is still far from perfect it’s certainly been moving in the right direction. Hotel operations should in theory be the easy part! It’s a tried and tested sector, with far less of the unique challenges that the theme park faces. The basics of bed, board and bath apply wether you’re running a several hundred room theme park hotel, an independent boutique, or a 30 room A road lay-by stop off. How it continues to decline so rapidly and fail to come up to the basic standards that you’d find in a £45 Travelodge room, while charging triple or quadruple the price is simply baffling. The longer this goes on, the more I become convinced that the best thing for the resort would be to appoint a management company and outsource the operation of both hotels. It’s been nearly 20 years since Splash opened, but they still can’t seem to get the basics right (of course it was never this bad from day 1, but the general trajectory has been a downward one over the years).
On the entertainment, yep, as Craig has said I find it mind boggling that Emperors sits empty while the atrium overflows with people. It really wouldn’t take very much to turn it into a more lounge-type setting. It doesn’t need to be “adults only”, but it would provide somewhere a little more relaxed to spend the evening and still hear yourself think. I find it near impossible to hold a conversation anywhere but sitting in the upper levels. I think you will likely find that families would still gravitate towards the atrium for the entertainment, so it would be a more self-sustaining environment without needing to specifically exclude children. Emporers has interconnecting doors to the atrium and Dragon Bar. Prop them open, throw in some seating, maybe turn on a little background lounge music, lights turned down a little and job’s a goodun.
The hotels are largely ran by a young team at night. That’s not a slight on them, but when the average age of staff in a bar appears around 25, and you’re dealing for large groups of people in their 30s and up, it’s always going to need a certain personality to be able to handle these things effectively. It’s on these occasions like a Saturday night where you would expect some extra support for them. Instead, if you walk into a restaurant at breakfast, or even one of the bars mid-day, you’ll see plenty of more senior, experienced staff members.
I think Craig or Dan pointed out how you used to always have someone from security at the door and another just generally patrolling the bar area. It doesn’t need to feel overbearing or oppressive, but just enough to make you feel like there’s control in place should anything happen. There was a real aire about the bar last night that something might kick off at any moment. Not a nice evening I have to say, and we only stayed as long as we did to receive our pizza order.
While queuing for the bar (a timed 25 minute wait) a lady in front of us said what a dump the place was, describing it as a “shithole”. The chap in front of her then turned to us all and said he and his family were stopping that night free of charge as compensation for a poor experience they’d had last year. He said himself that his experience this time was no better if not worse. These sort of nights are damaging to the resort and brand. It’s a shame really, as while the park is still far from perfect it’s certainly been moving in the right direction. Hotel operations should in theory be the easy part! It’s a tried and tested sector, with far less of the unique challenges that the theme park faces. The basics of bed, board and bath apply wether you’re running a several hundred room theme park hotel, an independent boutique, or a 30 room A road lay-by stop off. How it continues to decline so rapidly and fail to come up to the basic standards that you’d find in a £45 Travelodge room, while charging triple or quadruple the price is simply baffling. The longer this goes on, the more I become convinced that the best thing for the resort would be to appoint a management company and outsource the operation of both hotels. It’s been nearly 20 years since Splash opened, but they still can’t seem to get the basics right (of course it was never this bad from day 1, but the general trajectory has been a downward one over the years).
On the entertainment, yep, as Craig has said I find it mind boggling that Emperors sits empty while the atrium overflows with people. It really wouldn’t take very much to turn it into a more lounge-type setting. It doesn’t need to be “adults only”, but it would provide somewhere a little more relaxed to spend the evening and still hear yourself think. I find it near impossible to hold a conversation anywhere but sitting in the upper levels. I think you will likely find that families would still gravitate towards the atrium for the entertainment, so it would be a more self-sustaining environment without needing to specifically exclude children. Emporers has interconnecting doors to the atrium and Dragon Bar. Prop them open, throw in some seating, maybe turn on a little background lounge music, lights turned down a little and job’s a goodun.
AstroDan
TS Team
We thought a 3 1/2 hour meal at Sir Algenon's was bad a few years ago.
We thought slow service was already bad.
We thought the cuts to entertainment were bad.
But in truth - we hadn't seen anything until we rocked into Ma Garritas last night at 10pm.
It was like a war zone.
The Hotels: A deep seated culture of mediocrity? now seems to kind. Perhaps The Hotels: A deep seated culture of filth? - would be more appropriate.
It was hugely tempting to post directly onto our socials last night with "Do you enjoy an evening drink at Ma Garritas" together with the photos, but frankly it's probably best kept off. Some of the evidence:
I will save the walkaround videos for my own use, rather than on a public forum but, whilst guests do indeed have a responsibility - every table was filled with litter, cups, plates, pizza packages. Empty tables looked worse than the school all after reception class have eaten. There was mess all over the floor in all parts of the bar. There was a 20 minute drinks queue. The music was intolerably noisy. There was crap all over the bar itself. There were entirely inadequate numbers of staff. Chairs and tables just moved to wherever anybody wanted, with no semblance of order.
It was, to be blunt, god awful. And breakfast wasn't much better.
We thought slow service was already bad.
We thought the cuts to entertainment were bad.
But in truth - we hadn't seen anything until we rocked into Ma Garritas last night at 10pm.
It was like a war zone.
The Hotels: A deep seated culture of mediocrity? now seems to kind. Perhaps The Hotels: A deep seated culture of filth? - would be more appropriate.
It was hugely tempting to post directly onto our socials last night with "Do you enjoy an evening drink at Ma Garritas" together with the photos, but frankly it's probably best kept off. Some of the evidence:
I will save the walkaround videos for my own use, rather than on a public forum but, whilst guests do indeed have a responsibility - every table was filled with litter, cups, plates, pizza packages. Empty tables looked worse than the school all after reception class have eaten. There was mess all over the floor in all parts of the bar. There was a 20 minute drinks queue. The music was intolerably noisy. There was crap all over the bar itself. There were entirely inadequate numbers of staff. Chairs and tables just moved to wherever anybody wanted, with no semblance of order.
It was, to be blunt, god awful. And breakfast wasn't much better.
Thameslink Rail
TS Member
Given the ludicrous hotel prices and lack of staff my two questions are how much money are they making and where is that money going?
pluk
TS Member
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