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The Hotels: A Journey

Mattie boy said:
Whether this will become the normal across all parks and sites yet this morning in splash the machines have been removed and hot drinks are now available like this at alton...

Mind you the machines did taste rank !

Source MAP group.
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I’m not sure what’s worse, the fact they think so little of customers, you can’t get a decent coffee with breakfast, or the fact letting people into breakfast with no shoes and a pyjama poncho is somehow socially acceptable in modern Britain.

Tripadvisor is the only solution.

Hit them, hit them hard
 
DiogoJ42 said:
This does not fill me with excitement for my first stay on site in 8 years, next week.

I'd be happy if the management would just visit the park and see how dire things are.
(And I don't mean on duty, I mean as a punter, paying out of their own pocket, eating only what's on sale.)
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You think that would change their minds?

They employ mainly kids, you just need to spend 5 minutes seeing the farcical titles of these people.

It’s the same malaise, bad management and low standards across the board. None of them have paid for these services, or experienced them through others eyes. To think people from Cheadle may have stopped in Bell Rock, is comical to say the least.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
This does not fill me with excitement for my first stay on site in 8 years, next week.
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8 years! Oh prepared to be very disappointed.

The park was pretty much a bin 8 years ago like it is now, it had already hit rock bottom, despite the odd glimmer of redemption here and there. But the accommodation was 5 star back then compared to how it is these days, and it took a good few years for the Merlin Magic to reach the hotels.

Other than the food, the accommodation side of things has declined faster than anything else. It's like they were busy downgrading everything, but forgot about the hotels, so went in there like a freight train to give them them the resort wide special treatment.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Merlin/Alton Towers don't pay Aramark to operate out of their locations, it's the other way around. Aramark pay Merlin for "exclusive access" and rent the units, as per the terms of their service level agreement.

You are Aramark's customer, not Merlin or Towers.
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But for the hotel stays the guest pays Alton Towers for the hotel stay and then the hotel must be paying Aramark to provide breakfast. We don't directly pay Aramark for breakfast.
 
Ash said:
Tripadvisor is the only solution.

Hit them, hit them hard
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If you look at Tripadvisor you’ll see people have been hitting them hard for some time now. Most reviews of secret garden and Flambos are 1 or 2 star. The poor chap doing the responses has his work cut out but sadly it’s just standard cut and paste responses.

It’s been like this for over a year now. I would be very interested to know if internally they do review the trip advisor reviews or do they just rely on their KPI terminals dotted around the hotels and theme park.
 
Matt.GC said:
8 years! Oh prepared to be very disappointed.

The park was pretty much a bin 8 years ago like it is now, it had already hit rock bottom, despite the odd glimmer of redemption here and there. But the accommodation was 5 star back then compared to how it is these days, and it took a good few years for the Merlin Magic to reach the hotels.

Other than the food, the accommodation side of things has declined faster than anything else. It's like they were busy downgrading everything, but forgot about the hotels, so went in there like a freight train to give them them the resort wide special treatment.
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The hotels were an utter joke even back then, as far as I am concerned. The only reason I ever stay there is the lack of choice. As a non-driving, non-local, they have me by the short hairs. And they know it.
 
GaryH said:
would be very interested to know if internally they do review the trip advisor reviews or do they just rely on their KPI terminals dotted around the hotels and theme park.
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I would imagine they rely on whichever of the two gives them the "right" answer.

They already get hit hard on TripAdvisor. I think people's reliance on thinking that online reviews carry huge weight is grossly exaggerated. It probably hits small businesses hard, but people are well aware that Karen's have a tendency to 1 Star somewhere for the most insignificant of reasons.

Whilst they're making money, they'll carry on doing what they do. Until they're not anymore, and the solution then is always further cuts.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
This does not fill me with excitement for my first stay on site in 8 years, next week.

I'd be happy if the management would just visit the park and see how dire things are.
(And I don't mean on duty, I mean as a punter, paying out of their own pocket, eating only what's on sale.)
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I feel this - i’m 20 and have been staying at splash every year since a baby, minus a few years over covid where we stayed elsewhere. didn’t get to go last year but was there twice in 2022 and it went downhill and reading reviews it’s not got better. we are there in 3 weeks and i’m so scared childhood me is gonna be devastated 🥴
what time does the bar shut does anyone know? might need to drown my sorrows😩
 
Matt.GC said:
I would imagine they rely on whichever of the two gives them the "right" answer.

They already get hit hard on TripAdvisor. I think people's reliance on thinking that online reviews carry huge weight is grossly exaggerated. It probably hits small businesses hard, but people are well aware that Karen's have a tendency to 1 Star somewhere for the most insignificant of reasons.

Whilst they're making money, they'll carry on doing what they do. Until they're not anymore, and the solution then is always further cuts.
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Whilst this is true, i was bored at work and looking at recent reviews and they allll have so many common factors in them. Surely this is definitely bad for business? The biggest park in the UK yet there are still many people going for the first time and with how big the internet is, many will be turning up with these horrid expectations in their minds
 
abbymcc1888 said:
I feel this - i’m 20 and have been staying at splash every year since a baby, minus a few years over covid where we stayed elsewhere. didn’t get to go last year but was there twice in 2022 and it went downhill and reading reviews it’s not got better. we are there in 3 weeks and i’m so scared childhood me is gonna be devastated 🥴
what time does the bar shut does anyone know? might need to drown my sorrows😩
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You can see the hotel bar and restaurant opening times in the app under the ‘info’ section- they are subject to change depending on dates, but right now Ma Garrita’s is showing as 11.30pm closing.
 
GaryH said:
Early now! Same as the dragon bar, 11pm. Everyone has to go to bed then and be good!
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Carry out it is😁

GaryH said:
If you look at Tripadvisor you’ll see people have been hitting them hard for some time now. Most reviews of secret garden and Flambos are 1 or 2 star. The poor chap doing the responses has his work cut out but sadly it’s just standard cut and paste responses.

It’s been like this for over a year now. I would be very interested to know if internally they do review the trip advisor reviews or do they just rely on their KPI terminals dotted around the hotels and theme park.
Click to expand...
Will, Guest Excellence Team must dread work every morning 😬
 
Breakfast in Secret Garden this morning. Sausages inedible. Scrambled Egg grey. Bacon is ok. Pancakes rock hard. Overall 2/10. So no improvement on my last stay 2 years ago, probably worse. The coffee is better but mugs smell like a wet dogs been lying on them.
 
Vik said:
Breakfast in Secret Garden this morning. Sausages inedible. Scrambled Egg grey. Bacon is ok. Pancakes rock hard. Overall 2/10. So no improvement on my last stay 2 years ago, probably worse. The coffee is better but mugs smell like a wet dogs been lying on them.
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Interesting isn't it. We had a breakfast at thorpe this week it was not bad, then a chessington one which wasn't good...

Not surprised to see there has been no change at towers.

How can it vary from one place to another if its the same food ?!
 
Because consistency to a standard is very difficult to achieve in large organisations.
It is easy to get it right on a given day, but every day is hard...staff shortages, supplier issues, and all the rest make things harder.
 
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