Hotel hell [The Great Escape Uncut]

Hotel hell

Posted on May 18, 2007 12:28 PM
1 comment

My Great Escape excitement has been slashed in half after the arrival at my hotel. I think I would have been better off at the flooded alternative.

The entire first floor is being ripped to shreds by builders and their bum cracks. I don't have anything against builders (or bum cracks for that matter) but when there's an endless supply of them stomping about above my room, power drills whizzing and expletives flying, it's not a good combination...

I arrived at 11.45am... check in is at 12.00 and low and ruddy-behold, the person before me hasn't checked out yet. "Can you please come back in an hour?" the lady behind the desk asks me. "Just leave your bags in reception".

Great - a shed-load of recording equipment and I have to leave it with the work men and incompetent staff. I'm not the complaining type so I agree to return in 45 minutes. I have conferences to attend you know...

Luckily, the delegate check in process at the Queens Hotel was a swift and painless affair. The staff were cheerful, the lolly pop street team were beaming and the delegates looked perky (I'm sure that will be short-lived). I was also given enough reading material to last me a fortnight, let alone three days. If there's one thing promoters do well, it’s flyer production. Saving the forests however, I'm not so sure...

I've just had my first flick through the gig line-up... this is going to be a long three days. If I see the organisers I'll buy them a beer, hell... I'll buy them a keg! So much new talent, so many venues - but who to choose? And should I bother planning ahead? Is the beauty of this event going to be stumbling upon gems I wouldn't otherwise see.

Fun comes later, for now I have a delegate deadline to meet. And an awful room to forget. It STILL hadn't been cleaned when I arrived back there an hour-and-a-half later so I had to get dressed while the cleaning lady worked around me. There's nothing that makes your stomach turn like a glimpse of the unchanged bed sheets of the person before you. The loo is blocked too... and there seems to be a 'damp' problem in the bathroom. Carpet in a bathroom? It's one of the weirdest things about the English way of life. The germs of a thousand guests? You betcha.

And yes, I will name and shame. Watch this space.