Twenty years ago, I would have been happy with the B&B I'm writing from. The room's clean and recently decorated, the bed's comfortable and the traffic noise from outside is bearable. But, alas, times have moved on and these days people want more - indeed that's exactly why we opened
Well House Manor for our business guests... later extended to business guests of other local businesses, and now as a generally available hotel.
So - what are the issues that have changed?
Firstly, I prefer en-suite. Now I knew this was
not when I booked it, but I still expected a wash basin in the room. Tough, there isn't one. And - worse - the single shared loo doesn't have a washbasin either; the only wash and water available is in the single shared
bathroom shower room.
Secondly, I like a bit of space. This room's a single. And it's a single because that's all that could fit between the door and the wall. There's no room for a bedside table, so in order to put something aside, it's down to the floor or up and across to the little "dresser/desk" which is very suitable for smaller people.
Thirdly, I welcome a welcome tray and, yes there is one (queue for water at the shower room). And I would love to be able to plug it in. I'm able to do so, provided that I unplug either my laptop or the TV, but the kettle must remain and boil on the floor because the built-in cable isn't long enough to reach up to the dresser.
Fourthly, the description of the location is "Oxford". Postal address, maybe but it turns out that it's on a very long street and is beyond even the ring road. Bit of an issue as I left my car where I'm working and walked here due to the traffic issues of the City. An enquiry of where there's a nearby place to eat tells me to go to Summertown - that's a mile and a half, and advises me to get the bus if I don't want to walk.
Fifthly, the welcome was "a la seaside landlady". Not "did you have a good journey", but "I'm glad you got here [at last] because we're going out". And that was at around 18:30, when I had booked for arrival between 18:00 and 19:00.
In the 1990s, this would have been fine - the sort of place where First Alternative delegates used to stay when I was training for them in Harwell. But times have moved on, everyone (or nearly everyone) has upped their game and although it's clean (and does offer WiFi) it's fallen behind - and behind to the degree of being "sorry - I wouldn't stay again".
The price I'm paying? The same as I paid for a hotel about half a mile from Paddington station last week, which overlooked a London Square and was just round the corner to Bayswater. And that was en-suite. Mind you - the London place is exceedingly good value!
(written 2013-05-17, updated 2013-05-18)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
M401 - Well House Manor - Seeing how others do it [17] Differing tastes - (2004-08-17)
[514] Crazy Day-sies - (2005-12-02)
[619] If its Sunday, it must be the Norland - (2006-02-23)
[693] The on line booking experience - (2006-04-21)
[699] Extremes costs of getting on line - (2006-04-25)
[714] Room for Octopuses - (2006-05-08)
[736] New Tape Librarian - (2006-05-28)
[966] CSL, KISS and RTFM - (2006-12-05)
[1011] Well House Manor and Beechfield House, Hotels, Melksham - (2006-12-29)
[1026] The Wheatsheaf 2, The Bell 0 - (2007-01-09)
[1091] The Psyche is all wrong. - (2007-02-24)
[1205] Arrival and Departure experiences - another hotel - (2007-05-26)
[1287] Work and play at Well House Manor - Football and Shell Shortcuts - (2007-08-02)
[1301] Plastic or China - (2007-08-12)
[1333] Kasteel Elsloo - Michelin rated hotel. - (2007-09-05)
[1347] Wireless Internet Access at hotels - an update and some pitfalls - (2007-09-12)
[1354] Match the Bedroom to the Hotel - (2007-09-17)
[1356] Crystal Ball - How long do I need to be online? - (2007-09-18)
[1374] Maidenhead Coffee Challenge - (2007-10-02)
[1406] Away or home - which do I prefer? - (2007-10-25)
[1413] The little gestures that can really count - (2007-10-27)
[1454] From Sunday to Monday, from Melksham to the Balkans - (2007-12-03)
[1458] The wrong way to put up prices - (2007-12-05)
[1525] Just one thing let the service down - but that is my memory - (2008-01-31)
[1547] New bathing idea for hotels from Hotelympia - (2008-02-20)
[1597] Comparing hotels - as a guest and from the proprietors view - (2008-04-01)
[1672] The Composting Cone Challenge - (2008-06-10)
[1758] Lindors Hotel, near St. Briavels, Wye Valley - (2008-08-18)
[1915] Quietly putting prices up - (2008-12-02)
[2007] Launch of Melksham Food and Drink Festival - (2009-01-24)
[2105] Hire Car, from Atlanta Airport - (2009-03-27)
[2127] Call in the professionals! - (2009-04-12)
[2308] A new place in pictures - (2009-07-28)
[2311] Floor to ceiling - (2009-07-30)
[2413] Sanity checking the price, and selling up to increase income - (2009-09-21)
[2441] Not your cup of tea? - (2009-10-08)
[2502] Monday night, Tuesday night - (2009-11-13)
[2885] Twenty Questions - (2010-07-24)
[2911] Feeding the Grockles - (2010-08-09)
[3054] Longhope Hotel - (2010-11-16)
[3333] Honesty and a friendly welcome goes a long way - (2011-06-25)
[3368] Well House Manor hotel, Melksham - recommended to you by our customers - (2011-07-23)
[3754] Eyes Wide Open - (2012-06-06)
[3776] Some traps it's so easy to fall into in designing your web site - (2012-06-23)
[3794] Should hotel staff sit on the toilet in the customer bedrooms? - (2012-07-02)
[3900] The Xxxxx Guest House in Xxxxxxxxxxx - my stay reviewed - (2012-10-20)
[3963] National TV - Melksham - 9th January 2013, Pre-alert. - (2012-12-27)
[3970] Comparing four VERY different places to stay - (2013-01-11)
[3975] Being an amateur hotel inspector helps me run a professional hotel - (2013-01-14)
[4058] The highs and lows of customer service - Cheltenham - (2013-04-03)
[4081] Pushing down the advertised price, pushing up the total price charged. - (2013-05-08)
[4093] More things to make sure that we do NOT do ... - (2013-05-18)
[4109] What might you find at a tiny bed and breakfast? - (2013-06-03)
[4177] Setting and publishing your hours to suit your customer base - (2013-09-18)
[4245] It always happens to me when I'm in Borehamwood! - (2014-03-06)
[4255] Making a personal gain from a more expensive business hotel stay - (2014-04-02)
[4321] Are administration / review charges on hotel guests acceptable? - (2014-11-20)
[4348] Taking my life in my hands in Swansea - (2014-12-11)
[4373] A long and disappointing evening - (2014-12-30)
[4443] Seventh stay away this year - and it's still only February! - (2015-02-25)
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Django - first steps - UpdatedPython Properties - how and whyIdentity in PythonA reminder of why we opened Well House Manor for our customersTest Driven Development in Python - Customer Comes FirstQuick and easy - showing Python data hander output via a browserSome tips and techniques for huge data handling in PythonPython network programming - new FTP and socket level examplesCacheing class for Python - using a local SQLite database as a key/value store