Scott said:
TheMan said:
However, what I will not do, is sit here and not be highly critical of circumstances surrounding a place that I have loved for many years. I have loved and visited this place, for longer than some of you have been alive
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I'm sorry this may irk some of you, but I'm not that bothered to be honest, as my number one priority is not pussy footing around, but ensuring the standards at our premier theme park, remain more "premier" and less "premier inn".
I can understand a lot of you have contacts in the resort I don't have, so perhaps that colours how you will discuss matters - that's fair, and decent, I don't have that restriction, and praise and critique as I see fit.
I don't really follow...
On this forum we can all be ferociously critical alongside being fantastically full of praise. We all visit this site because of a common interest and we all want that interest to succeed and be the best it can be! Just because you have loved it longer than some doesn't necessarily mean that you care any more or any less.
I equally don't quite see how your consumer tirades, however well-meaning they may be, are "ensuring standards" any moreso than moaning from anybody else. The tone of your post comes across rather 'holier than thou' as if you have some sort of clout that can change things at the parks and in the hotels.
I'll agree the prices are wrong (right now) but I can see them levelling out soon and am prepared to admit I am wrong if it doesn't happen. From a purely room basis though, they look amazing and exactly what the hotel needs. I still have to remind yourself that you might be a hotel 'expert' but you are not an 'expert' on Alton Towers hotels, having admitted to never setting foot in either one.
If you want to take my posts as Holier than thou, I couldn't really care less truth be told. Bit beyond that by now. Ensuring standards may have been the wrong choice of phrase, I think you know what I mean by now, it's not like it isn't in the context of a greater meaning post now is it? We can all play the facetious game, I chose not to.
This is no different to the SW7 threads where members are convinced there will be "NO washing machine" etc. You don't find me jumping over you with "how do you know" posts like others do, do you? Why? Because I respect the things that you do know that is why. Also, if my mates worked at Alton Towers, or I ran this site etc, you wouldn't find me being this open as I say, it's expected. That doesn't mean to say they are exempt from criticism from you, but to suggest it is anything like people without a more vested interest in the park personally speak, I find totally at odds with the posts I read.
I am not criticising the site for this, or members, it is how it should be! However I think that having watched Towers develop from very little into today, and supporting it across all those years, I will have strong opinions and have experienced a far wider time line that you have, like it or not.
Equally I have said multiple times, I accept having not set foot in the hotels, I based my points entirely on reading the opinions and thoughts of others. I have said no different, however a price like this is easy to judge. You do not need to be an expert in "Alton Towers Hotel" to understand good service, appropriate pricing, and relevance to your product & target market. That's ludicrous. It will have its nuances, and subtleties as all places do - it was argued that service is somehow different wherever you go in the world - in terms of locality, customs, quirks of each place yes, but the fundamentals of price/service are universal in language and it doesn't take a genius to work out, that Alton Towers at 400 quid a night are no where near it.
I have great experience in hospitality, I don't proclaim to be a "hotel expert", I do however possess common sense.
Experience, and dedication to trades or places over many years, instills within you a passion if you care, if you think you get annoyed with stuff that happens to Alton now, give it another 10/20 years then you will understand - that is not a slight or slur upon anyone, it is just how life is, and the more you experience it, the easier it becomes to spot these issues a mile off.
I love this place, and I do not want to see if become a bastian of high cost and poor relative service. These rooms even if they lower the price, are up against the UK's very best and most prestigious hotels, earlier we are talking "great value compared to Travel Lodge" - now we are saying, more expensive the London's premier 5 star historical hotels!!! Moon Room theme or not, the prices should be half that! There is no "Disney" premium, there is no special service, and there is hence no motivation to pay way over the odds to stay - even if it is my favourite place in the UK to visit.
This post is full of passion for a place I love, not "holier than thou" attitudes. I understand, text can come across wrong, especially when I get into all out text mode! However, it is not to belittle anyone else here or their opinions, that is not my style and I hope that has cleared up any misunderstandings and we can avoid any further use of more personal sentiments...