staying at Radisson Royal York Brighton Hotel this past weekend for NC Summit was a mixed experience. Baring in mind this place is a 4 star hotel I did find many things to be less than desirable. Upon arrival the hotel staff seemed to ill prepared and unorganised to accommodate 12 people checking in at the same time. This is of course forgivable due to some legal requirements that hotel are forced to follow. So a light bad impression at the start of proceedings but not something I would have held against them if everything else was faultless.

The bar and lounge were nice enough, and certainly made for a good communal area and meeting point. The room on first impression was superb, felt massive and well detached from the world, with great furnishings. I did have a case of room envy when I saw a colleagues room that evening but on the whole I was happy. The problems arose when I first used the bathroom, which was spotlessly clean, so bonus points there. As I jumped into the bath-shower mix and turned on the tap, in pulling my hand away the tap came clean off in my hand. With a little bit of a fiddle I got the damn thing back on, loosely! Undaunted but slightly bewildered, I jumped out and headed to the sink to brush the old teeth. It was here that I noticed that the water was gushing through the basin and onto the floor. I mean seriously, the tap being loose is one thing but the sink not be plumbed in properly is a total disgrace. This set me off to complain down at reception and they assured me someone would look at it.

I went off merrily to the summit I was due to attend in the hotel all day, and thought very little more of the problems of the Royal York broken bathroom syndrome. Sitting in the summit, I decided to pour myself a coffee from the thermos flask; this was exactly what I needed to kick start my day, I thought. Then much to my disgust this was not at all coffee, but merely a nescafe, instant wannabe coffee. This is a 4 star hotel for god sake, you think they could filter a damn coffee! When I got this instant shit, the next morning for breakfast in the restaurant area, I was even more pissed off. At least upon complaining I was brought a decent filter coffee which was most enjoyable. Shame that can’t be said about the tea I had to resort to for the Summit in the absence of half decent coffee. The tea was plain awful, it wasn’t the bags, or the milk or even the mugs, nope! it was something much simpler than that; It was the water, which came out of the thermos flask, which obviously previously had coffee in it. Such a rookie mistake. Never Ever Ever mix water and coffee in thermos flask; have a dedicated one for each. That way the “coffee” taste is never absorbed by the water for tea.

But now back to my room. I asked at reception if it had been fixed, they said yes. So off I went to inspect the changes and enjoy a few minutes away from the summit. To my dismay the sink was leaking like the whole in the titanic and I turned the shower handle, only to find it in my hand when I turned it back.

Off I went downstairs and demanded a new room at reception. They accommodated my request, but no offer of would you like help with your bags or an apology. They looked more pissed off than anything, that I even dared to ask, perhaps they thought that the Radisson name would shelter them from people complaining; well that shit isn’t going to wash with me. On seeing my new room, I felt duped, it was much smaller. At least it worked, I thought to myself. A colleague who had just checked out said their room was amazing, when I returned to reception, so I asked to see that as I wasn’t totally happy with this new room, who would be when they feel like they have just downgraded to pay the same price. The guy at reception responded well to my request and showed me the room, he failed to tell me that the room was already booked and there was no way I could stay in there. Seriously, at this point, I wondered if I was being recorded! We went on then to look at a few other room, which this time where not booked. None were as impressive as my first room and that of my colleague, so I stuck with the room I had just moved to.

One thing I failed to mention above is the point at which when we were being shown around the room, the rest of the delegation were waiting outside the conference room as receptionist had the only keys for the room. When someone came to get them off him, he gave up all keys, so we could no longer get into any other rooms until the bunch of keys were returned. Why they didn’t separate them is a mystery to me.

I feel like I have ranted far too much so far, but I just want to talk about the breakfast service. Why offer all the ingredients of an English breakfast but make it impossible to order from the table. Instead self service on the meat and a separate order for eggs. This was itself was a little annoying, but I really felt like I was in Faulty Towers, when Calvin was served his scrambled eggs. He’d just eaten a pastry of some sort and had a number of flaky crumbs on his plate. When his eggs came, the women serving them, just slide them off the small plate she carried them of, straight onto the crumbs. Hilarious! at the same time, my girlfriends plate was snapped from under her nose while she ate the final pieces of cake. She managed to retain the plate fore a few more minutes by clinging onto it for dear life. Both Calvin and Emma remarked their tea was awful. At the point nothing surprised me.

Overall, a lovely looking hotel, with many different sized rooms, some which worked and some which didn’t. But the service for 4 stars wasn’t worth paying for. Two weeks before I stayed in a cheaper 3 star hotel in Brighton, which I can’t fault.

Come on Radisson Royal York Hotel Brighton, it is the small things that make all the difference.