Dave said:
Closed season as Chris said was £50 for bed and breakfast with water park. Uttoxeter Travelodge was recently £39 and that's a dive of a hotel even for TL and has no breakfast. The hotels are over priced in season though.
With a few exceptions (some bar staff, not all) service is great, there just lacking in the small special touches to make it extra special.
I agree by and large with what you say about value there Dave, but that wasn't per room was it? 4 sharing is my guess? Also many of the problems expressed seem frequent and completely out of place in an establishment such as Alton market themselves as.
Be honest, do they even come close to a EuropaPark hotel, remotely? Yes, at EP they have more visitors, but they don't have more financial clout over all, not even close. Alton is also the UKs premier park/resort (whatever), and should be the beacon of standards of excellence. Anything less, is paying complete disrespect to the privilege of owning/managing such an establishment.
Where is the pride?? Who runs the darn place?? If I heard of my staff treating people in less than 4/5 star fashion, retraining would be done! Even when I was only a supervisor in a very posh bar, working with the UK chef of the year, I still took great pride working there - now this was a BASS PUB that had been turned into something special by management and great HR. It was still a bass pub, but earnt the right to stand as a flagship by its own merits and the hard work of staff.
When you went and visited other pubs, even though we got paid the same as all other Six Continents Retail (or, Incompetence Retail as we nicknamed it) staff, you had a real sense of pride wearing the shirt and tie and working in this unique environment.
I met everyone from some of the UKs most notorious people, to premier league football managers, all sorts at this place... and
it was just another bass pub, but one that went the extra mile
So no, there are not any excuses for this, anything less than excellence is not appropriate for ATH, nothing less should be accepted as normal. And as I say, the problems multiple people are talking about here, are niggles to you because you love the place and company, and you work out economical ways to share the cost. That's great, it makes it worth that kind of money and feels like decent value - but it is a false representation of the real standard.
Come on guys, is this really the standard you are willing to accept in our premier showcase theme park?
There is no shame in standing up and saying - "actually no, these should not be the standards of this price/location/reputation/representation" - because they shouldn't.
At ATH, excellence should come as standard, and if it does not, the questions should be answered - be they budget related, training related, or management related!
I was trained by an Irish man. To the Irish, the job of a Bar Man is that to be respected, honoured, and valued. I didn't care too much for my boss, but my word did that bloke ever train me well!!