The Hotels: A Journey

[Dave]

Aren't all three down to bad management???
They charge loads for rooms...so organise recruitment better, sort out staff transport, train the staff better, give them quality, maintained equipment.
Easy as a,b,c when you charge well over the odds.
If Travelodge can repeatedly do it for half the price...

I’m in no way defending the issues and I think it’s clear my opinions of the resort are not high but comparing AT to Travelodge is useless for one simple reason. On the whole Travelodge are in population centres, so folk live nearby and can be employed by the hotel easily, they often don’t even need a car to get to work.

AT is always hit by the fact the closest town is 15min away and busses are limited.

Now that’s fixable, there are other accommodations that are in the countryside and they survive, you need to pay the requisite wage to tempt folk, but it does mean directly comparing the resort with Travelodge is misguided.

A better comparison would be some of the centreparcs.

 

[rob666]

Merlin have the resources to arrange a staff bus to Stoke and back surely.
Staffing problem solved.

 

[AT86]

According the the bumf on the recruitment website they have more than doubled the number of buses this year versus last and kept the prices the same for the past three years.

https://www.altontowers.com/media/xlco5ouf/service-information.pdf?

Looks like there are buses to/from Leek, Cheadle, Uttoxeter, Cannock, Stafford, Stoke station and Hanley.

https://www.altontowers.com/media/5jcdwh32/2023-summer-bus-arrival-and-departure-times.pdf?

 

[GaryH]

Cleaning has been an issue for years in the hotels. I don’t know the cause but my guess is to employ less cleaners to save money and give them more rooms to clean in the same amount of time. We seem to make excuses for it because it’s Alton but if we paid the same money and checked into a hotel like the Savoy and saw the dirt like that we would be complaining.

It’s sad that people expect high prices and poor standards when visiting a UK theme park these days.

 

[AT86]

Who is making excuses for it?

 

[rob666]

The Savoy starts at £640 a night.
Bit more than the Towers.

 

[Lewis232]

Especially when they insist on a 10am check out, when most other hotels do 11am or 12noon and manage to clean all the rooms.

To be fair to Alton Towers I used to work for a major hotel chain years ago with an 11am checkout and housekeeping are the first people to start work at 6am. Whilst they have to spend a couple of hours sorting out the fresh laundry and get their workstations ready first they'll usually be cleaning rooms from about 8am as a significant percentage of guests will check out in the early hours to get their flights, train, conference, etc. so on an average day there will be a good chunk of rooms already cleaned prior to last check out at 11am. Then there are guests staying for multiple days with do not disturb signs, plus check in is quite spread out over the afternoon / evening so rooms can still be being cleaned late afternoon if there is staff sickness, etc. At Alton I would imagine hardly anyone is checking out at 6am and that a lot of people only stay for a night or two so in reality most chain hotels have a good 8-10 hour window to clean not all of their rooms whereas Alton only have a 5 hour window to clean most or all of their rooms.

Still no excuse not to run a hoover over the carpet though.

 

[venny]

Cutting the hotel ERT will have been a driver in less people checking out earlier. Anyone taking advantage of that ERT would have had to check out before 9am to take full advantage.

 

[pluk]

Whenever it is mentioned how comparatively highly priced the hotels are over the likes of nearby premiere inns despite the lack of any corresponding quality the response is 'you are paying for the location'. If thats the case spending some of that money to overcome the issues of their location shouldn't be a problem at all!

 

[Dave]

Merlin have the resources to arrange a staff bus to Stoke and back surely.
Staffing problem solved.

They do, I said that in my post, my point was simply that comparing AT to a city centre travelodge is pointless.

Compare it to a country estate boutique hotel or a centre parks for sure.

 

[rob666]

As large numbers of ex Towers hotel users now use such places for accommodation when doing the Towers, I felt the comment was fair...far from a pointless comparison.

 

[AstroDan]

As for the video that is finally out, I can’t imagine this is the sort of exposure AT really want but they need to get their act together soon, I was willing to give the new director a bit of time to find their feet but they have had long enough now.

You've got to give it till next season.

That's when we can start to judge whether a real quality shift is likely.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

 

[Slugjc]

Aren't all three down to bad management???
They charge loads for rooms...so organise recruitment better, sort out staff transport, train the staff better, give them quality, maintained equipment.
Easy as a,b,c when you charge well over the odds.
If Travelodge can repeatedly do it for half the price...

Your are correct. It is bad management. Some are the fault of the higher ups. I would argue Some are down to pressures in the market and as a society

I don't think it's as easy as a,b,c. It is for those of us not sat in front of balance sheet or even a rota.

A Travelodge doesn't run restraunts, bars, a water park, a theme park. And several hotels on one site. I've certainly never seen a saxophone player in reception of one.

Away from a city centre at weekends. Will any of them get anywhere near the footfall of AT during peak times? Certainly not 7 days a week.

Apart from reception staff and cleaners. Who else is in and around a Travelodge staff wise during a day?

Then we have Brexit. Ever since that fateful day in 2016. The entertainment and hotel industries have been complaining about the recruitment. Simply no longer the work force out there. We could put poor recruitment down as bad management, what if there is simply no one applying for that role? "Put the wages up?" That would lead to merlin having to up the wages iof everyone. Looking at the current financial climate, not going to happen anytime soon. No doubt if I lived in ST post code, cleaning a hotel is not one of roles I would go for at the towers.

I'm not defending the site in anyway shape of form. I think every aspect of the park is over priced. Puts me off visiting as much as I would like. Even if the the hotels were spotless. I would still rest my weary head elsewhere.

I just think we need to consider the other forces in play here. My hope is that video will give the higher ups a much needed kick in the back side to improve things. I doubt that, the only kick the arse given out will be to the poor overworked sods on duty that day.

 

[Kraken27]

You've got to give it till next season.

That's when we can start to judge whether a real quality shift is likely.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

But look at the likes of EuropaPark - not run by a huge conglomerate like Merlin. Compared to Merlin, Mack is small-fry, but they run what is probably the best theme park in Europe & manufacture rides too.

Have been in Hotel Colosseo in the buffet restaurant in the evening & Roland Mack (so one of the absolute top people in the company) has been wandering round, looking at standards, sampling the buffet etc. I'll put good money on it that you won't see Bianca sampling the fare in the AT Hotel restaurants.

And yes, I have seen outsourcing in IT where a certain service level was agreed at the point of outsourcing, but the customers complained so much the contract was ripped up & re-negotiated - fast. It can be done.

 

[Rob]

I think the frustration is that it shouldn't take any time lag at all for them to get on top of cleanliness in hotel rooms. A change in cleaning procedures should be fairly easy to implement, even if they do have limited resources.

Crumbs on the floor from the previous nights guests is grim.

Clearly improvements when it comes to food etc. is going to take longer, and for that we should wait until next year.

 

[Dave]

You've got to give it till next season.

That's when we can start to judge whether a real quality shift is likely.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

I haven’t given up but it doesn’t take a year to get dust cleaned.

Edit: Rob beat me to it!

 

[jon81uk]

Your are correct. It is bad management. Some are the fault of the higher ups. I would argue Some are down to pressures in the market and as a society

I don't think it's as easy as a,b,c. It is for those of us not sat in front of balance sheet or even a rota.

A Travelodge doesn't run restraunts, bars, a water park, a theme park. And several hotels on one site. I've certainly never seen a saxophone player in reception of one.

Away from a city centre at weekends. Will any of them get anywhere near the footfall of AT during peak times? Certainly not 7 days a week.

Apart from reception staff and cleaners. Who else is in and around a Travelodge staff wise during a day?

But a lot of Travelodge and Premier Inn also have a high proportion of guests staying single nights but manage to clean the rooms with a 12noon checkout time, if ATH can't do it with at least an extra two hours (as many guests will be out before 9am to get into the theme park) then it is bad management.
And some do run restaurants and bars too, although many have a seperate pub next door, I've had breakfast within a Premier Inn many times.
There aren't many guests around in ATH during the daytime either, most are inside the theme park, water park or spa.
ATH has been open for 27 years, they've had plenty of time to work out operations. They could do deep cleans during the quiet school term weekdays so then in the summer holidays its easier for the regular cleaning to keep up. But it just seems there is no forward planning.

 

[pluk]

We could put poor recruitment down as bad management, what if there is simply no one applying for that role? "Put the wages up?" That would lead to merlin having to up the wages iof everyone. Looking at the current financial climate, not going to happen anytime soon.

What was the groups operating profit last year? Yes they could put the wages up for the hard to fill roles, and no they wouldn't have to put the wages up for everyone if they do.
Doing less desirable, dirty, physically harder work should come with a premium even though historically it hasn't due to a plentiful unskilled workforce 'happy' to do those jobs with no alternatives available.

 

[Slugjc]

What was the groups operating profit last year? Yes they could put the wages up for the hard to fill roles, and no they wouldn't have to put the wages up for everyone if they do.
Doing less desirable, dirty, physically harder work should come with a premium even though historically it hasn't due to a plentiful unskilled workforce 'happy' to do those jobs with no alternatives available.

Living in britain. We should all know that profit, never goes into the pockets of those working at bottom. Only at the top and the investors and you are right, should be on more than min wage (I wonder if some even make that in some hotels around the country?) I would still argue that if you put one part up the others areas need the same % increase. Power to the people.

But a lot of Travelodge and Premier Inn also have a high proportion of guests staying single nights but manage to clean the rooms with a 12noon checkout time, if ATH can't do it with at least an extra two hours (as many guests will be out before 9am to get into the theme park) then it is bad management.
And some do run restaurants and bars too, although many have a seperate pub next door, I've had breakfast within a Premier Inn many times.
There aren't many guests around in ATH during the daytime either, most are inside the theme park, water park or spa.
ATH has been open for 27 years, they've had plenty of time to work out operations. They could do deep cleans during the quiet school term weekdays so then in the summer holidays its easier for the regular cleaning to keep up. But it just seems there is no forward planning.

A premier Inn may be able to cope better. Especially in towns and cities as there is a workforce within easy reach.

That's just one hotel. AT has 3 large hotels plus stargazing, treetop and woodlands to deal with daily. In an area of country that is difficult to get to (even with the magic buses.)

This isn't an easy fix. But it shouldn't be this broken to start with.

 

[jon81uk]

That's just one hotel. AT has 3 large hotels plus stargazing, treetop and woodlands to deal with daily. In an area of country that is difficult to get to (even with the magic buses.)

This isn't an easy fix. But it shouldn't be this broken to start with.

Again, they've been operating hotels for 27 years, they shouldn't have allowed it to get this broken. Pay a decent wage, provide staff transport or even staff accommodation if needed. Don't build more if you can't operate what you have.