When you’ve been travelling for a long time and feel particularly tired, you want to know that when you get to your destination, all will be well for you to have a really relaxing and restful stay. This was the case for us recently when we had a booking at Bradford’s Jury’s Inn. Here is our review of the hotel and the star rating we gave it.
In order to facilitate an early rise for filming in the morning, we (my twinnie and I) were booked in to stay at the Jurys Inn. We hadn’t stayed there before as we usually find great deals for The Premier Inn.
We were told that it would be ten minutes’ or so walk from the train station to get to the hotel, but as we didn’t get there until well after 9:30 pm, we got a taxi there.
There were two receptionists at check in when we got there and check in was fairly brisk. We were told that we could sign up and receive a free hot drink in exchange. As we are not coffee or tea lovers, we opted for a welcoming cold drink instead.
After check-in, we took our keys and made our way to find our room. We were quite surprised to find that, despite how it looks from the outside, it was quite a large hotel with well over the amount of rooms we were used to in a local hotel. Well, let’s just say we aren’t yet used to the Jury’s Inn Brand. I usually try to look around and note fire exits etc. In the end, I just prayed that nothing warranting an escape happened overnight as it was quite a winding twist and turn feat to find the way to our rooms which were next to each other!
On the first appearance, the room seemed clean, decent, and well presented. There was no horrible odour as when we visited Premier Inn Bradford weeks before.
The first look of the rooms at night just before bed
The sleep
Soon, feeling utterly exhausted after the travels, we retired to bed to get some sleep for the early rise. There was no time to play games at all! I think I can attribute falling to sleep quickly to just how exhausted I was. A few hours later, however, I was wide awake as I felt really hot (the window in the room was shut), there was also the noise of what I thought were the bin men but it turned out that it was actually delivery men. I had a peek through the window and could see them below.
I went back to have another go at trying to get some sleep but my efforts were futile. Each time I would get too hot, attempt to get out from under the duvet but found it rather noisy, as if it was still in some sort of plastic casing! To say it was frustrating is an understatement.
When I finally gave up trying to sleep and checked the duvet out, I realised that the fabric it was in, was hardly breathable, which is why I was so hot and bothered. Not only that, but the fabric was something quite similar to plastic and therefore quite noisy when one moves in the bed.
Daylight
We were in for a rude awakening when there was natural daylight! Although the room looked quite fine at night, in daylight it was another story. It wasn’t really horrible but it needed some work in the toilet where the side boards were chipped and the paint was peeling. The grout was also in need of cleaning/replacing.
Surely the extra loo roll needs to be placed someplace else.
Breakfast
We wondered whether there was a conference or something happening when we got downstairs for breakfast! It was really crowded and we could see 2 or 3 staff members trying to clear away and replenish the breakfast supplies that were going down fast. There wasn’t enough of anything hot while we were there so I went to ask whether they did vegetarian sausages. The answer I got was basically, “sorry, but it takes about 15 minutes to prepare it”. We resigned ourselves to croissants and a cold drink, as they also didn’t do hot chocolate. On my way to collect some slices of fruit, I saw a lady ask about vegetarian sausages and was told it would be out in a minute. I didn’t wait around but got a few thin slices of watermelon and left.
I’m not sure what was on, but there were quite a few Asian looking couples with backpacks and big appetites. There was also a coach or two outside when we left after lying about our stay.
Overall impression
Our experience here was average. No need to lie. We got room to stay in and a bed and shower to use for the night, for which we are grateful. As a result of the negatives, however, we give this hotel a rating of 2 out of 5 stars. It borders slightly on a 3.
It’s so important when you are in this industry to realise that every little thing is being scrutinised by paying customers. Hoteliers do really need to take stock of reviews left by folk and make every attempt to put things right.