Project: da vinci

Latest rooms

2011-10-29T00:15:00.005+01:00

Thought you might like a look at 4 of our latest rooms which have been opened at the back of the hotel. The doubles are what we call budget doubles because they are small and designed for the budget traveller who is looking for somewhere to sleep. The en-suite rooms include double beds with large TVs and DVDs as standard.

The rooms are situated at the back of the hotel but, what the hell, you can always shut the curtains if you don't much like the view of the backs of the houses opposite. Anyway, I like the rooms especially room 301 which is stuck somewhere up there in the attic but is the quaintest room of all of them. .....even better when the lift is working because it is on the 3rd floor!!!!

Wooden floors

2011-10-16T13:13:00.003+01:00

I am not sure what attraction guest have for ruining our carpets but after a short time a lot of them are beginning to look the worse for wear. For example the burgundy coloured carpet in room 207 has seen so much spilt coffee that our Vax has overdosed on caffeine and given up he ghost. Similarly in room 205, one of our guests has kindly left the imprint of an iron in a spot which makes it impossible to disguise with bedroom furniture other than a large sized rug which then presents a trip hazard.

In the circumstances, the carpets had to go and we were left with the expense of two new carpets (and the promise of more possible accidents) or else replacing the carpets with wooden floors – a bit cold on the feet in the morning and a bit noisy for the room below when the guest is pacing back and forth in a pair of high heeled shoes .....stop fantasising now please gentlemen.

Actually, the result is quite pleasing and a big thanks to Steve for ensuring that the original floorboard were well and truly screwed down to minimise the possibility of squeaking floorboard – please note I said minimise not eliminate. In the meantime, we still have carpets (in rooms 105, 106, 107, 108 and 206) should you decide you want to tackle them with a cup of coffee , a glass of wine or the hotel iron.

Guests from hell

2011-10-16T12:59:00.002+01:00

We seem to be having a few problems with reviews on Trip Advisor following a visit from the couple from hell and the receiving of two more negative reviews when booking.com took their bookings and didn’t bother telling us. The first thing I have appreciated is that anyone who starts their review with the words "I hate to buck the trend here" most certainly does not.......

Their lack of courtesy, appalling behaviour and rude manners is only compounded by the fact that having received no financial gain from their constant moaning they then take the matter to TripAdvisor. Whilst I am appalled if any of our guests should feel bad about their stay, I am even more appalled to hear stories of what my staff have had to put up with.

To add insult to injury we are then accused of double booking when booking.com send us a couple who they have not even booked into our hotel. Whilst I am sure that I would be aggrieved to find myself without a room on a Friday night, there is no excuse for the rudeness shown to the reception staff who was trying her best to sort out a suitable alternative.

I am not sure where they ended up as I did not see any review of their “more expensive sub-standard accommodation” but I was surprised that TripAdvisor allowed them to rate the quality and cleanliness of the bedroom when they didn’t even stay here!! I am also surprised that TripAdvisor allows them both to submit a review...maybe I should persuade some of my positives to do this as well!!!

Capture the Spirit..............

2011-06-18T18:43:00.009+01:00

Just received the artwork for a forthcoming exhibition by photographer Shanon Kretschmer. The art work looks absolutely fantastic and we can't wait to get it on display. Shannon, who is an Australian photographer, says

"Photography is a dream, a passion, and a wonderfully unique communicator. Automatically igniting eccentric emotions and practically taking the viewer on a kaleidoscopic journey."

His exhibition can be seen at the da Vinci Hotel from Friday 24th June and will run until the Autumn. We hope that you will find time to come and look at his wonderful exhibition and support him by buying some of the excellent works for sale.

New website launched

2011-06-16T20:43:00.003+01:00

The da Vinci Hotel launched its new website after much work for which I take absolutely no credit ...a big thank you to Frank for all his fantastic work. The launch has been a long time coming but we've been thinking for a while that we needed something new and exciting. We also wanted to celebrate our new rooms and provide better access to our blog, to our facebook account and to our twitter account. We hope you like the new website and we promise to keep you updated on everything that's happening in this little corner of the UK.

Twitter

2011-06-04T10:37:00.008+01:00

...and true to our promise/threat, you can now keep in touch with us via the social networking site called twitter. Our address is daVinciArtHotel and you can sign up as one of our 'followers' so we can keep you up to date with all of the mundane goings on in our little corner of the world!!!

Facebook

2011-06-02T14:53:00.002+01:00

On the pretext of dragging ourselves into the 21st century, the hotel now has its own facebook page which you can access at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1087777735. We hope you enjoy our entrance into the technological age...before you know it we'll be setting up on Twitter!!!!

Happy Anniversary

2011-05-30T12:56:00.014+01:00

Monday 30th May 2011 and today is the third anniversary of the opening of the hotel. Our blog dated 30/05/08 gives a flavour of the preparations on the day........

Frank is sanding the kitchen ceiling, Heather is hoovering the carpets, Bob is fitting the front door knob, Micaela is preparing the food, Lesley is looking after the rooms, Mary is still hanging pictures, Trevor is fitting the last few electric points and Lorraine is putting the finishing touches to the curtains. Ady is painting the front and the window cleaners arrive and tell me that their pole isn't long enough.

Strange to think that at the time we were excited at the prospect of opening four rooms when we are now just about to open rooms twenty and twenty one. Also, three years later, we have a lift that works (mostly), two breakfast rooms instead of one and our own facebook page.

Of course, we are still not there just yet. We have plans for a new bar at the front, the garden at the back and decisions to make about the kitchen downstairs and whether to offer evening meals. However, we think that we have achieved quite a lot in three years.

Tonight we shall break open a bottle of champagne and toast everyone (guests and staff) who have made these three years so special. A special thank you to Frank who has done such an excellent job as manager. Thanks also to our housekeepers, receptionists, bar staff and maintenance...also to the artists for showing their work here.

A special thanks to the lift engineer who spends most of his working week with us, the contractor who put our showers in the wrong way around, the council for letting us keep our sign and the guest who asked us to cover all the "naughty bits" on our art work so her child would not be shocked.

Another award for Eastbourne

2011-05-29T11:13:00.007+01:00

Eastbourne’s beaches have been commended for their excellent bathing water quality in the latest edition (May 2011) of the Good Beach Guide from the Marine Conservation Society. Eastbourne also managed to beat neighbouring resorts, including Brighton, Hove, Bexhill and Hastings whose beaches only managed to pick up a basic pass. The latest accolade is in addition to the Quality Coast Award which Eastbourne also holds.

Cheaper at the Grand

2011-05-29T10:58:00.001+01:00

Under the freedom of information act, Sussex Police tell us that the bill for keeping a suspect in a cell is £359 for the first eight hours and £205 for every eight hours after that.....a suite at the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne costs just £350 and that includes full English breakfast, health club membership and VAT at the standard rate!!

What about the da Vinci?

2011-05-15T13:01:00.011+01:00

I note that the Lonely Planet Guide has decided to replace the da Vinci Hotel with the Big Sleep in its latest (2011) publication. Describing the Big Sleep as BN21's "coolest kip", it describes the hotel's "gobsmacking rooms with big-print wallpaper, retro furnishings and curtains that look as though they might have been grazing on Beachy Head a few hours prior". Of course, I have to point out that Trip Advisor's reviewers are not entirely in agreement with the sentiments of author David Else but we are all entitled to our opinions.

My opinion is that if you want to buy a copy of the guide then you save yourself a few pennies and buy the 2009 version!!!

Banksey in Polegate

2011-04-26T13:37:00.003+01:00

Considerable excitement locally that world famous graffiti artist, Banksey, might have visited Polegate and left a stencil of a young man in a cowboy hat on a road sign at Polegate crossroads. Personally, I am not convinced that Banksey would travel all this way to graffiti a road sign in Polegate but I suppose that it gives the locals something to talk about.

Old Eastbourne

2011-04-24T17:02:00.005+01:00

Just found a fascinating website which details the history of Eastbourne complete with interesting photographs. My favourite is the Cavendish hotel before they added that monstrous concrete addition to the right hand side. You can view the website at http://www.eastbournelive.org.uk/6.html.

Environmentally unfriendly

2011-04-15T20:18:00.001+01:00

In a desperate attempt to further reduce our own carbon footprint, we have spent considerable sums of money replacing our older style toilets with the new dual flush variety. These latest toilets use a lot less water – 6 litres of water compared with 9 litres of water for the conventional version. Unfortunately Dyno Rod, who have been doing a roaring trade as a result of our decision, tells us that 6 litres is not enough to flush away the waste thus causing blockages throughout the pipes. We have had to adjust all of our new toilets accordingly and resite our waste pipes to overcome the problem. We have even been advised to stop using the more expensive toilet paper because it does nor disintegrate as quickly. Our attempt at being more environmentally friendly has cost us just under £4000 and we are now using as much water as we were before. Worse still our guests are now being denied the luxury of Andrex quilted toilet paper....a bum deal all around!!!

Brighton Rock

2011-04-08T01:03:00.006+01:00

Interesting to note that the new film release of Brighton Rock was actually filmed in Eastbourne rather than Brighton. You only have to compare the sea front at Brighton to the sea front at Brighton to appreciate exactly why. Compare our three tier promenade. renowned floral gardens and blue domed bandstand with their tatty shops, NCP car park and burnt down pier to appreciate why more and more visitors are coming to spend their holiday time in Eastbourne.

A trailer for the film featuring many views of Eastbourne can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoGHiBsrJKk

Feedback from customers

2011-03-14T11:27:00.000Z

Just found an interesting website which compiles comments from various review websites. Information can be found at www.hotelscombined.com. The hotel fares well with positive comments about helpful and polite staff, convenient location, large rooms, comfortable beds and good food. A few negative comments about bathrooms but these have all now been upgraded.

Meanwhile Frank has been doing his own analysis of the feedback statistics and it seems that we get the best ratings from couples and single men. Our worst ratings are invariably from single women....heaven only knows why we are not delivering for this group but it is an interesting statistic and one which we will need to investigate.

It never rains but pours

2011-01-03T15:08:00.002Z

Just when you think that things couldn’t get worse...they get worse. The hotel is closed over Christmas to refurbish the last rooms when both water tanks flood the new rooms upstairs. The water damage is extensive including ceilings, floors and furniture. The new rooms are put on hold while we return these to their original splendour. Our financial planning goes to the wall and the new rooms will just have to wait. As they say, it never rains but pours....and certainly it pours a lot here.

STOP PRESS Both water tanks are mended and the top rooms are open for business.

Mapplethorpe Exhibition

2010-09-24T21:00:00.001+01:00

Just got back from the opening of the Mapplethorpe exhibition at the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne. The entrance is swamped with warnings about the sexually explicit nature of some of the photographs which should certainly get a few of our local gentlefolk reaching for their pen to write to the Eastbourne Herald newspaper.

In the circumstances, I was a bit disappointed to find very little which might be remotely described as erotic.....perhaps I should write to the Eastbourne Herald to complain.......

The exhibition runs from the 25th September through to the 21st November 2010 at the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne.

Priceless.....

2010-09-06T20:29:00.006+01:00

Who would believe that buying five television sets (32 inch Samsung TVs for the technically minded) could cause such a problem. First the credit card we used bounced and, while we are sitting here awaiting delivery, nobody bothers to tell us.

So we submit a second order (using a different credit card) which bounces because the company cannot believe that anyone would want to buy FIVE television sets….certainly no one bothered to appreciate that the first line of my address has the name of a hotel in it!

Finally after I have convinced everyone that I really do want five TVs the shop gets cold feet because it is my name on the credit card and not that of the hotel manager…… I now know why the MasterCard advert says ‘”there are some things that money can’t buy” …..

……five Samsung television sets!!!!!

Positive Reviews

2010-08-25T16:22:00.010+01:00

Definitely in a good mood today as I read three positive reviews on Laterooms then then find another positive review written on TripAdvisor.

The Laterooms reviews talk of the friendly staff, amazing rooms and excellent breakfast although one guest said they had to wait too long on the first morning….the staff got a real telling off over that I can tell you!!!

The TripAdvisor Review said they felt as though they were “staying with friends” and suggested that “customer service here is not just a phrase in passing, but in the culture of the hotel” ….. what a nice comment and what an aspiration for all of us.

PS My good mood was further lifted when I read a review for one of our competitor hotels titled ‘A Big Disappointment’ describing the place as more cheap than chic . The reviewer goes on to describe the room as tiny, the curtains as terrible, the breakfast as simple and the look as jaded.

PPS I am now reading about the dirty pants on the balcony of room 108 at the Travelodge….and the reviewer has even been kind enough to include a picture for us all to see. …I am off to check my balconies!!!!

TripAdvisor reviews at www.tripadvisor.com

Art @ the da Vinci

2010-08-03T12:46:00.012+01:00

The da Vinci Hotel offers an excellent venue for local artists with ongoing exhibitions in the spacious downstairs rooms. Recent shows have included work by a community group of disabled artists as well as the annual Open House exhibition.
The latest exhibition is provided by FrockArt which is a group of Sussex based women artists who regularly exhibit together. The works is exhibited over 4 rooms and includes paintings, prints, photography and textiles.
The exhibition is open between 10.00am and 5.00pm each day and runs until the 30th October. Members of the artist group will regularly be in residence to talk to visitors...we look forward to seeing you here.

Don't get ripped off

2010-08-02T15:17:00.001+01:00

One of my favourite songs from the musical ‘Les Miserables’ is titled ‘Master of the House’ which offers an extensive list of how to rip off your paying guests....

Charge 'em for the lice. Extra for the mice
Two percent for looking in the mirror twice
Here a little slice. There a little cut
Three percent for sleeping with the window shut
When it comes to fixing prices
There are a lot of tricks he knows
How it all increases. All those bits and pieces
Jesus! It's amazing how it grows!

I am ashamed to say that, when it comes to fixing prices, a few of the Eastbourne hotels have managed to perfect the art of extracting additional money from their guests using a variety of ploys. For your information, I am happy to offer a few of the most common money generating schemes as follows:

Room only rate
I appreciate that some guests might not want breakfast but the tendency to offer room only rates is often a ploy to get you to fork out outrageous amounts of money for poor quality breakfasts. We include a full English breakfast as part of the advertised rate and do not believe that breakfast should be offered at an additional cost.

Early booking in
I find it hard to believe that some hotels expect you to pay extra money for the opportunity of getting into you room before 2.00pm....what justification can they offer for such practice. If you tell us that you are arriving early then we will always try to accommodate your wishes – and at no extra charge.

Late booking out
Our guests appreciate that rooms need to be serviced before the next occupants arrive but charging you extra to stay beyond 10.00am is a bit steep. If you want to leave late and we can accomodate that within the housekeepers hours then we will do so – and at no extra charge to you.

Parking permits
A recent traveller review for a local hotel thought that the £2 cost for a parking permit was rather reasonable...there are other reports of guests being charged up to £5. These permits cost hoteliers £0.50 to purchase and our philosophy is to give all of our guests complementary parking permits for the duration of their stay.

Little extras
Some hotels like to charge you extra for those little extras ....such as soap and shampoo. We don’t expect our guests to provide these essentials and we certainly don’t intend to fill our foyer with machines that dispense such items. We are happy to provide soap, shampoo, toilet paper etc, .... to our guest with our compliments.

Sea view
You can see the sea from all of our front rooms if you lean out of the window as far as possible and look to your right. Of course we don’t charge extra for our ‘sea view’ and certainly do not extort additional money from our guests on arrival. The price we agree is the price you pay...and that includes taxes!

Please let me know of any other money spinners which you find out about and I will be happy to include them on my list.

PS The musical piece titled ‘Master of the House’ can be at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFPsEwV38Q0

Five new rooms

2010-07-24T18:52:00.005+01:00

Summer is upon us again and time to spend our money and open a few more rooms. Five more rooms at the back of the house which Farakh is calling his budget rooms. I am not sure about the budget rooms judging by the money so far expended ...and that doesn't include the wallpaper at £55 per roll.
The new rooms are being rewired and replastered. We are having to start again with the bathrooms including all new fixtures. Then it is the walls and the floors plus the furniture and the curtains ...bank balance permitting Anyway, we promise to keep you posted on their progress - so watch this space.

PS The picture above is one of the old rooms. The beds had to be taken to the tip. The woodchip took ages to remove and the colour scheme (mostly magnolia and peach) just had to go

Every hotel should have one....

2010-01-26T14:23:00.019Z

I have suddenly realised that one of the strengths of the daVinci are the staff themselves and, in particular, the manager whose contribution to the hotel is rarely acknowledged.

Frank (aka Farakh to his family) has held the role of manager since the opening of the hotel and is responsible for the day to day running of the establishment. He looks after the booking system, updates our availability, manages the hotel finances and was responsible for designing the hotel website.

In the morning he is up early serving the guest breakfasts and is so particular about quality that he rarely lets anyone else cook. Interestingly enough, the only complaints that we have ever had about breakfasts were on the days when Frank was not in charge....I suppose I should be grateful that he takes so few holidays!

As if this is not enough evidence of his varied talents, Frank is the person responsible for the designs in our rooms at the top of the hotel.

Every hotel should have a Frank and I am pleased that we have and they have not!!!

Beachy Head Lighthouse

2010-01-23T12:16:00.003Z

Trinity House intends to switch off the Beachy Head lighthouse because modern navigation equipment has made lighthouses less important for negotiating the coast.

The lighthouse is the second lighthouse in the area and was brought into service in 1902 when the original Belle Toute lighthouse was decommissioned because of cliff erosion.

The Beachy Head lighthouse was staffed by three lighthouse keepers until 1983 when it became fully automated. The iconic red-and-white striped tower is 43 metres high and situated 165 metres from the base of the cliffs.

The new lighthouse was built under the direction of Sir Thomas Matthews, the Trinity House Engineer-in-Chief and took two years to complete. The lighthouse was constructed from 3,660 tons of Cornish granite.

The original Belle Toute lighthouse still remains although not in its original position. In 1999 due to continuing erosion threatening the future of the building the lighthouse was lifted up on runners and dragged 17 metres inland to safer ground.

2010-01-01T11:04:00.004Z

Another year at an end and I have decided to draw up my own honours list dedicated to all of those people who have managed to make my life a misery during the course of 2009.

In no particular order............

The skip company who thought it acceptable to take additional money from the hotel credit card long after we had settled our bill.

The building company who installed new showers on the top floor of the hotel and put half of them in the wrong way around.

Our contracted lift company for telling us about the faults with our lift but fail to do anything about them.

British Gas for failing to send us a bill then trying to recoup the money by threatening to take us to court.

‘JustTravelling1’ who asked us to ensure that art work was suitable for viewing by young children and had no pictures with 'naughty bits'.

‘PJS999’ who managed to write a negative review about us on TripAdvisor in spite of the fact they never stayed at the hotel.

The neighbour who lets their dog crap all over the beautiful square outside the hotel because they can’t be bothered to clean up.

The local council for introducing parking restrictions and not even giving us a day off on Bank Holidays ...what a rip off!

The Planning Committee for hassling me mercilessly about the hotel sign and then approving it unconditionally.

The Performing Rights Society who are now trying to extort money from us because we have television sets in all of our bedrooms.

...and finally.

A big thank you to all our guests who made 2009 such a memorable year and our very best wishes for 2010 when we look forward to seeing you again.

Paul and everyone at the da Vinci Hotel

SOS - Save our Sign 2

2009-11-27T12:57:00.000Z

Surprise, surprise....our sign is approved unconditionally at the council meeting on the 20 November 2009. The Conservation Officer raises no concerns and the Conservation Area Advisory Group raised no objections to the application.

The delegation report recommends approval and concludes “The sign is considered to be appropriate in scale, form and position for this listed building, and given its commercial nature, it could be described as restrained”

Restrained......!!!!

SOS - Save Our Sign

2009-10-25T10:50:00.002Z

The saga of our hotel sign continues and it has now been over a year since the council decided to object to our hotel signage....this is regardless of the fact that the sign is exactly the same size as the original and in exactly the same place as the one that advertised our predecessor.

The Planning Enforcement Officer suggested that council would prefer 18 individual letters to be drilled into our front wall so that passers by might catch a glimpse of the sills (and the drainpipe) which lies underneath.

The Conservation Officer preferred two small signs in order to identify the hotel as two buildings – so ‘da Vinci’ on one side and ‘eastbourne’ on the other....I dismissed his suggestion as aesthetically unacceptable.

Then the new Conservation Officer suggested we remove the word ‘eastbourne’ since it was obvious that it was Eastbourne....I am surprised to learn that we are now being discouraged from using the town’s name in our signage.

We received a curt letter from the Planning Support Services requesting further information including detailed scale drawings, three copies of an Ordnance Survey plan, a Design and Access statement and a Waste Management Plan – you could not make this up.

So I have decided enough is enough and resubmitted plans based on the exact same sign that we already have in place. It seems that the worse that can happen is that the whole lot is rejected and by the time I have exhausted a few appeals, I shall have enough money to buy a new sign.

Reception desk

2009-10-24T16:01:00.006+01:00

We were a bit surprised to find that our lack of a reception desk was something that our guests might miss. I have spent many an hour queuing at desks and find the wait frustrating and unnecessary.

Our preference is to welcome our guests by inviting them to sit them down in the lounge. Then we can register them in the comfort of our own chairs and serve them tea/coffee as needed. We also save money by not having staff standing all day behind a desk doing very little.

Departure is just as easy since we print all our bills out beforehand .... so no hanging around while we locate your bill then print it off. Seems obvious to us but maybe we’ll check to see what our guests want.

PS Just worked out that the cost of employing a receptionist would add approximately £5.00 per room per night to the bill

Slow train to Eastbourne

2009-10-15T16:53:00.001+01:00

Isn’t it about time that Eastbourne had a better rail service?

While visitors to Brighton are favoured with additional trains and additional capacity, we are provided with a branch line service with trains so full that they remind me of the underground during rush hour.

And while they are treated to a non-stop journey, we are calling at just about everywhere including Berwick, Balcombe and Wivelsfield where the platforms are not even long enough to accommodate the train.

For travellers, the train journey to Eastbourne is fraught enough as we worry over whether we are sitting in the right part of the train lest I end up in Bognor Regis, Littlehampton or Seaford.

Southern claims to listen to its customers and aims to “create a different kind of train company: one that delivers by thinking like the passengers it serves”.

Well think again I say.

Naughty Bits

2009-09-27T18:28:00.017+01:00

Unfortunately, you cannot please all the people all the time as our recent experience with one of our guests reminded us. The guest arrived early, complained about the room, complained that the windows didn’t open, complained that the windows didn’t shut, complained about the heat, complained about the noise, complained about the walls and complained about the breakfast. To cap it all they asked for a wake up call and then had the audacity to complain that they had said 8.15.

We realised that things might not be easy when we received an email asking for “As quiet a room as possible also, away from any loud music or noisy occupants”....what sort of establishment do they think we are running here? Furthermore, the email continued “Please ensure that any art in the "room is suitable for viewing by young children (i.e. no pictures with 'naughty bits', however artistic)”.

To cap it all, they then decide to write a negative review on TripAdvisor saying that “our heart isn’t really in the hotel business”. We wrote to TripAdvisor to point out that the review did not meet their posting criteria and they suggested that the best we could do was offer a management response which we did. It took a long time for Trip Advisor to post our response.

Our guest did not take kindly to our response and has informed me that I shall be hearing from their solicitors....to date I have heard nothing.

...all that jazz

2009-08-23T20:06:00.002+01:00

Our guests have been complimenting us on the music played in the breakfast room and in the public lounges. We have discovered that jazz is particularly popular especially the music of Norah Jones, Katie Melua, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Miles Davies and Nina Simone. ...so if that is your type of music then you are going to enjoy breakfast!!

Talking of music, I was thinking of which artists you probably won’t hear being played at the da Vinci...and here is my top 10 list..... presented in alphabetical order rather than a hierarchical list. I have included a www.youtube.com reference just in case you fancy a stroll down memory lane and want to hear any of them just one more time.

‘Boom bang a bang’ by Lulu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZIzhluEOX4

‘Can’t take my eyes of you’ by Andy Williams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWtLK7XP-Bk

‘Don’t go changing’ by Barry White
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrRPA25UBGg

‘Don’t sleep in the subway’ by Petula Clark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRtjDSuyvMA

‘God only knows’ by the Beach Boys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC_UILNwWrc

‘I write the songs’ by Barry Manilow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-fev20voMc

‘Just an old fashion girl’ by Eartha Kitt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ2x8V8guUA

‘The Look of Love’ by Dusty Springfield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a28kY1-s-Vc

‘Sweet Talking Guy’ by The Chiffons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtcz6CxOzjw

‘Those were the days’ by Mary Hopkin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siLcSl2nmqA

‘24 Hours from Tulsa’ by Gene Pitney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLRRdE6jUdY

Now available in 14 different colours

2009-08-22T14:36:00.002+01:00

Sometimes I surprise myself when I tell guests that we have only been open for just over a year. In particular I am amazed at just how much we have done since we took over this derelict grade 2 listed building. We have a spacious art gallery downstairs and 14 art themed rooms upstairs. Our art gallery has exhibitions by Gilliam Bates, Catherine Birchwood, Lucy Bourne, Sheila Bourne, Ben Eggleston and Paul Jordan.

Upstairs we now have all of the rooms at the front open with just ten more to go before we complete the set. The ensuite bed rooms have all been refurbished and redecorated to a very high standard and everyone is unique in terms of its colour and theme...eat your heart out Holiday Inn!. Frank has been out shopping again so we can now boast that all of our rooms have flat screen colour TVs as well as DVDs. Complementary toiletries and tea/coffee making facilities as well as an iron and an ironing board are also provided.

Our builder is just finishing off the rendering on the basement and we are beginning to get the back gardens sorted out. Our next major job is the back of the hotel which should cause no inconvenience as 12 out of 14 rooms are at the front and we only have two (single) room s at the rear of the hotel presently open. When the back has been rendered and repainted we will start on the back rooms and open some superior single rooms...but that will have to wait till 2010 so watch this space.

Feedback and reviews

2009-08-22T13:33:00.003+01:00

We welcome and appreciate the feedback which we get from our guests and, for the most part, it is positive or else constructive. The most recent comments from our guest book say “Thanks for the friendliness, relaxed atmosphere and for your help”, “Had a very enjoyable stay. Will come back again especially for breakfast”, “Excellent food, service, ambience – will definitely be back” and “Perfect in every way”.

We like to feel that if our service is not good enough that our guests will let us know so that we can do something about it. In fact we would much prefer then telling us than reading about it on one of the many review websites that feature our hotel. Unfortunately, we do seem to have upset one couple recently with our breakfast which caused them to write to TripAdvisor and then repeat their complaint on Booking.com.

As hoteliers, we have no right of reply so I will use this blog to apologise if, as you say, your breakfast was “ all swimming in oil/fat ”, your poached egg was not “ sufficiently cooked” and the lift was out of order. We endeavour to do anything and everything we can to make amends where things are not to guest’s complete satisfaction....but if they prefer to air their complaint in a public forum then we accept that this is your choice.

The Hotel Lift ...again

2009-08-17T13:16:00.006+01:00

Our hotel lift is still causing us major embarrassment by misbehaving in front of our guests. In particular, it likes to take a rest between floors or else enjoys taking our guests to the third floor regardless of which floor they has requested. We have now resorted to insisting that guests are accompanied in the lift for their convenience and our sanity.

Fortunately, this has not caused us too many difficulties with our guests who are clearly less exercised by the temperamental nature of the provision than I am. So far, we have only had to institute evacuation procedures on two occasions and, fortunately for us, our staff are all now trained on how to get people out of the lift in the event that it gets stuck.

In the meantime we are now employing a second lift company to see if they can resolve the problem as the first one seems to have given up on us. My problem is that I have become something of a lift bore as I now find myself an expert on how lifts operate and how they use flags to tell them where they are...the problem is that mine seems to have no clue sometimes!!!

STOP PRESS
Having spent two more days on the lift, I am now assured by the lift company that all is back in working order. Certainly the lift is now inclined to take you to the requested floor and has stopped resting between floors ...but we are not celebrating just yet. In the event that this time the repairs last more than a week then we shall have to consider a proper opening ceremony - time to get the ribbon and the scissors out again!!!

The top floor continuued

2009-06-26T19:47:00.002+01:00

We managed to open the four rooms on the top floor just in time for the end of tennis week but we think that they were worth waiting for and our guests seem to agree. So now we have 14 rooms and we think that is enough for now – the bank manager agrees

We ordered the furniture and decided which artists would be represented. We even persuaded Kate Sayers, a very much respected local artist, to take over one of the rooms (the green one) to continue our theme of highlighting the work of local professional artists.

Here are the pictures showing the finished rooms ...we hope you like them?

The top floor

2009-06-10T18:59:00.005+01:00

Our next big project is the top floor which will bring our total to 14 rooms (with only 10 more to go). The rooms on the top floor were originally laid out as six rooms and our first task was to remove the connecting walls to return them to their original layout.

Two bathrooms had to be removed and two doorways blocked off so that we might realise our vision of restoring the rooms to their former size. The remaining bathrooms had to be enlarged and refurbished and the whole floor had to be rewired and refloored.

Here are some pictures showing the work in progress – as you can see, we have been even bolder in our choice of colours!!!!

The Hotel Lift

2009-04-10T18:51:00.002+01:00

A local hotel has a sign outside which says ‘Lift to all floors’ and it seems that having a hotel lift is something of a status symbol amongst hoteliers. So you can understand how excited I was to have a lift and even more excited when the lift company managed to get it working.

However, the excitement did not last too long as we soon realised that our lift had something of a temperamental streak and often enjoyed having a rest between floors or else taking our guests to the third floor regardless of which floor they has requested.

The problem is that the third floor is not open and I am sure a few of our guests must have received a shock to be delivered to the top of the building and deposited onto a floor that looked more like a building site than a hotel.

Our lift company has told us that for £30000, we can have a new lift but we might as well wait until we open the third floor then our guests will just think they pressed the wrong button and we can spend the £30000 on opening the last rooms at the back of the hotel.

SOS - Save our Sign

2009-02-28T17:50:00.003Z

February must be a quiet month for the council as they have decided to object to our hotel signage. The fact that the sign is exactly the same size as the old one and in exactly the same place as the old one does not seem to count under Council rules.

The Planning Enforcement Officer seemed entirely reasonable in suggesting that it wasn’t the size or the font that was the problem but rather that council would prefer 18 individual letters to be drilled into our front wall so that we might catch a glimpse of the sills (and the drainpipe) which lies underneath.

The Conservation Officer who called around next had a different idea and thought it might be nice to have two small signs in order to identify the hotel as two buildings – so ‘da Vinci’ on one side and ‘eastbourne’ on the other....I dismissed his suggestion as aesthetically unacceptable and wondered whether other (seafront) hotels had been asked to split their hotel signage in a similar way.

The Planning Enforcement Officer called again and made some useful suggestions which we were happy to pursue pending a visit from the new Conservation Officer who suggested that the word ‘eastbourne’ in our sign was unnecessary....I am surprised to learn that we are now being discouraged from using the town’s name in our signage.

Anyway, we were subsequently told to shrink the size of all the letters to fit between two ledges in such a manner that the sign is now so small and insignificant that it will hardly be seen from the pavement let alone the road. It is evident that this is a battle we are not going to win so we duly submitted our application to the council.

STOP PRESS
It would seem that our application has fallen at the first hurdle as I now have a letter from the Planning Support Services requesting further information or they will send our application back to us. The letter suggests that want to see detailed scale drawings, three copies of an Ordnance Survey plan, a Design and Access statement and a Waste Management Plan....at least we didn't have to complete a Flood Risk Assessment like another establishment was required to complete!!!

The room at the back

2008-10-26T10:45:00.002Z

The last bit of our building project is the back room....for want of a better description. The intention was to open a conservatory especially when we found the original glass ceiling (complete with some glass) in the original roof space.

Unfortunately, the building inspector had other ideas and we were told that we could not have a glass roof on the conservatory but had to have a slate roof instead. A conservatory with a slate roof is a new concept to me but I just do as I am told.

Anyway, our conservatory (with the slate roof) is proceeding at a pace and, as I write, I am waiting on the carpet to be laid and the light fittings to be finished. I am sure it will look spectacular as we have some excellent art and some interesting chandeliers.

The room will double up as a second dining room (for when we open the other bedrooms) and as a bar/lounge (because it is situated next door to the bar). We are still arguing over the furniture but what is new!

In the meantime I have to stop calling it a conservatory. The back room sounds a bit dismissive and the summer room does not fit the bill so if you have any good ideas then please let us know.

I’ll post some pictures as soon as it is completed.

Showers and sausages

2008-10-02T10:28:00.002+01:00

Ten rooms open and we’re on schedule in terms of our building work with the conservatory as the only building work still outstanding....although this seems to be taking a lot longer than the three weeks promised! In the meantime, the good news is that we are now in the number one position on the tripadvisor website at http://www.tripadvisor.com.

Comments include: “ Superbly located for all amenities, business and pleasure as well as the tennis!”, “The hotel has been tastefully decorated and the staff are very friendly.”, “The art display is fantastic and the previous reviews about the standard of breakfast are very well deserved.“, “The bed was huge and the most comfortable we've slept in.” and “The weather was good too."...although I take no credit for the latter.

Naturally, our feedback is not all positive and we have had a few adverse comments about our showers and our sausages. We have to put our hands up to the showers and say that they are not up our usual high standard. We have started a programme of replacing but at £1600 each it is a lot of outlay. Regarding the sausages, we are trialling a different supplier so watch this space.

Another two rooms

2008-08-24T22:48:00.001+01:00

The final two rooms are now open for business completing the ten rooms which were planned for this financial year. On Friday 22 August we finally opened the Mary Beaney room and the John Miller room to the general public.

Room 207 is a superior double/twin room featuring the local artist Mary Beaney who works as our art director and whose excellent art work can be seen in our breakfast room. The room includes a large superking size bed (which can also be converted into a twin) and two leather tub chairs. The colour scheme (magenta) reflects her most recent work which has been included in the room.

Room 205 is a double ensuite room featuring the artist John Miller. His paintings (but not his name) had become known worldwide as a result of the mass production and distribution of cheap posters, prints and cards with reproductions of his distinctive beach paintings. The room is painted blue and has already received many favourable comments.

These rooms complete the second phase of our project and we now intend to take a break and try to recuperate some monies to open rooms on the third floor during 2009 – watch this space.

John Miller

Two more rooms

2008-08-14T15:00:00.000+01:00

Wednesday 13 August sees two more rooms opened at the da Vinci. Room 105 is a superior double room featuring the artist Joan Miro. This is the first room to include a fully refurbished bathroom so we now have a template for the rest of the rooms. Our first guests were most impressed with the decor, the comfortable bed and the tasteful furniture. The view from the window is nice too and you don’t need a pair of binoculars to see the sea.

Room 107 is an executive double/twin room featuring the local artist Elda Abramson - see www.elda-abramson.com. The room includes a comfortable superking size bed (which can also be converted into a twin) as well as a sofa which converts to a sofabed. We persuaded Elda to part with some of her finest paintings which adorn the wall and complement the feature wall which is coloured ‘funky orange’ ....take my word for it that the whole lot works very well together.

An apology from Buckingham Palace

2008-07-26T19:24:00.006+01:00

I have just received a letter from Buckingham Palace....thanking me for the invite to the opening of the da Vinci and apologising for not responding earlier due to the high volume of correspondence.

The letter continues "Her Majesty was interested to read about your new concept da Vinci Art Hotel, and was grateful for your kind invitation to attend the opening on 30th May".

How nice.

The letter concludes by hoping that the opening was a successful and enjoyable occassion and wishing me "every success with the future of your business".

Of course, no one believes me when I tell them but I have the letter to prove it.

Number 51 on the list

2008-07-01T19:30:00.003+01:00

I cannot believe that a month has passed since the opening of our first rooms at the da Vinci. The time has just flown past and I am embarrassed that I have not had the decency to update the blog and keep you informed about what is going on.

The art hotel idea has gone down very well and got us a lot of publicity. ....we even appeared in a travel article in the Sunday Times on June 15th. A two page spread followed in the ETC magazine and we had an excellent write up in the local art guide.

We have had our first review on laterooms.com and positive comments on booking.com but what is going on at tripadvisor? We are position number 51 (out of 51) in the hotel section while we await our first review....and there are some rough old dives above us on the list!!!!

In the meantime, Frank has swung into the routine of breakfasts at 8.00 and the comments about his full English are most complementary. Upstairs, work continues on our next four rooms which will be spectacular when they are finished - so watch this space.

That’s all for now but I have plenty more to talk about ....as soon as I have cleared the content with my lawyer !

PS The tripadvisor address is http://www.tripadvisor.com

Opened at last

2008-05-30T23:50:00.007+01:00

Friday morning and the hotel swings into it’s final preparation for the opening. Frank is sanding the kitchen ceiling, Heather is hoovering the carpets, Bob is fitting the front door knob, Micaela is preparing the food, Lesley is looking after the rooms, Mary is still hanging pictures, Trevor is fitting the last few electric points and Lorraine is putting the finishing touches to the curtains. Ady is painting the front and the window cleaners arrive and tell me that their pole isn't long enough.

Meanwhile the local florists are making a fortune as bouquet after bouquet arrives from well-wishers across the UK. The attention has been immense and we were delighted to receive the Mayor and Mayoress of Eastbourne as well as numerous people involved in the tourist industry including the travel writer from the Times who stayed for two nights with us.

Our first guests arrive and we escort then to their rooms. They love the colour scheme, they admire the paintings and they adore the minimalist style ....unfortunately , the furniture is still being assembled which is why the style is minimalist!!!

At 4.00pm on Friday 30 May, the da Vinci hotel is declared open. May we take this opportunity to thank everyone responsible for helping us to open as well as the hundreds of visitors to the exhibition and the sixteen guests who stayed in our rooms on our opening night.

We hope you will visit us again sometime soon.

The da Vinci art exhibition is open every Saturday and Sunday throughout June and July from 11.00am to 5.00pm when the artists will be in attendance. Visits at other times are more than welcome by arrangement.

Hotel bookings can be made via our website at www.davinci.uk.com or by email to contact@davinci.uk.com or by telephone on 01323 727173

The final countdown 1

2008-05-30T02:30:00.000+01:00

One day to go and the self assembly furniture is mostly assembled although some of those cupboard doors are definitely fitted back to front - how can that happen? The plugs are on the wall, the spotlights are on the ceiling and the bedding is on the beds and I am just beginning to think we might open on time when the rain returns and washes away the paint that had just been applied to the outside pillars.

Inside the hotel, the kitchen has undergone an amazing transformation with a new fireproofed ceiling which has still to be sanded and painted. The recurring damp patch in the breakfast room has been resolved and Lorraine is putting the finishing touched to the curtains in the kandinsky room. In the meantime, I am hanging paintings on every expanse of white wall and wondering when it will end.

The answer is at 2am when the last curtain track is fixed to the wall in the Klimt room and we breathe a sigh of relief that our guests will not be exposing themselves to the bypassers in Howard Square. Tomorrow is a busy day with not enough hours before 4pm and the arrival of the Mayor and the opening of the da Vinci Hotel - Eastbourne's first (and only) art hotel. The journey continues....

The final countdown 2

2008-05-25T10:26:00.002+01:00

Less than a week to the official opening and are still no sign that we will be ready for opening. The scaffolding is still up at the front and the roof in the kitchen looks a long way from completion. Meanwhile, the guest list for the opening seems to be growing by the minute and we have just found out that the Mayor will be making an appearance

Along with the response we also get a two page compilation of how to behave....
• The Mayor arrives at the time scheduled and it is usual for him/her to be received at the entrance of the venue by the host
• If people are seated it is usual for the host to arrange for the Mayor to be announced upon entering the venue
• When addressing a male Mayor the mode of address is “Mr Mayor”. When speaking directly to a female Mayor the mode of address is “Madam Mayor”.
• Speaking about or referring to the Mayor the usual form is “The Worshipful the Mayor”
• Please reserve a parking space for the Mayoral car as near to the reception entrance as possible.
• Please indicate arrival point (i.e. main entrance) and supply map of venue/local area.

etc, etc, etc.

Another special guest on the evening is Jim Davis who is the travel writer with the Times newspaper. Jim is visiting Eastbourne to write an article about the town and council thought it might be an idea for him to stay in one of our Eastbourne’s prestige hotels ....unfortunately they were all full so he is staying with us!!!

Time for some more self assembly .....

The final countdown 3

2008-05-22T16:24:00.001+01:00

Just over a week to the official opening and are we ready ....I should be so lucky. Four rooms are painted but it seems to be taking an eternity to self assemble wardrobes, drawers, tables and bedside lockers. Even my expertise as a mathematician does not allow me to decide which way those legs should go. In the end, I go with my intuition and find all the drawers are upside down.

In the meantime, we find ourselves in something of a room crisis as more people ask to stay over than we can accommodate here ...or at the Gladwyn which is already full. Foolishly, I decide to try to open two more single rooms in order to accommodate Tim and Norman. The ploy looks doomed to failure when we remove the old bedside lights and half the wall comes with it.

Tim and Norman are two of our regular and long standing guests who I would also classify as friends ....although I am not sure they will when they see the state of the rooms. They have both been guests at the Gladwyn for as long as I can remember and serve as a useful barometer for the changes we have instituted over time. I hope they like the new place.

Fortunately for us the Gladwyn continues to thrive under the new management of Trevor and Gary who seem to be getting more rave reviews on TripAdvisor and LateRooms than we ever did. Trevor’s breakfasts are well received and Gary is doing a grand job looking after the guests and making sure that the rooms are clean and tidy.

Time for some more self assembly .....

20 days to go !!!

2008-05-11T21:44:00.000+01:00

20 days to opening and the (four) rooms, beds, carpets, furniture and paintings are nearly ready ....so this is one deadline we might even make. In the meantime, we would like to invite you and your friends to our latest art exhibition entitled “Unwrapped” .

This second exhibition is intended to celebrate the official opening of the da Vinci Hotel as Eastbourne’s premier ART hotel. The exhibition is open to the public from 11.00am each day from Saturday 31st May 2008.

We very much look forward to seeing you.

PS. My numbering system is quite simple really....the staircase on the number 9 side leads to the odd numbered rooms and the staircase on the number 10 side leads to the even numbered rooms.

21 days to go !!

2008-05-10T17:14:00.000+01:00

The opening date is set for the 30th of May. The original plan was to get eight rooms ready by then but it seems like we will be opening with four as the rest will not be ready. Eventually after much discussion (arguments) we have decided the themes and the colours for the rooms and the number system.

It may sound a bit odd but Paul has come with this brilliant idea of numbering all the rooms on the number 10 side of building as even numbers i.e. 102, 104, 106, 108 ... and all the rooms on the number 9 side as odd numbers i.e. 101, 103, 105, 107, ...but I cannot work out which are odds and which are evens!!!

Room 106 is the Monet room and is painted in Azure taken from the colour of sky in Monet's paintings. Room 108 is the Kandinsky room and is painted in Moroccan Red from Kandinsky's abstract paintings. On the second floor we have the Rothko room, painted Glowing Amber, and the Klimt room, being painted Deep Emerald.

The following pictures show (1) the back conservatory - which will probably not ready on the opening date, (2) the first landing painted in our signature colour, (3) the wall colour in the Kandinsky room and (4) the wall colour in the Monet room

What a load of rubbish

2008-04-17T19:55:00.011+01:00

Our work on the hotel continues to generate an amount of rubbish including that from the dislodged wall at the back of the hotel. It is a pity that most of the rubbish ends up in the back garden and, in spite of our desperate attempts to recycle, we have found ourselves having to hire a succession of skips at £250 a go.

Unfortunately, our attempts at refuse disposal are clearly not quick enough for one of our neighbours who decided to report us to the Environmental Health service...although on what grounds I am still not quite sure. Anyway, in a desperate attempt to remain good neighbours, we decided to hire an even bigger skip and were quoted a fee of £460.

Kingspan Waste Recycling tells me on their website (at www.kingspanwaste.co.uk) that their “company strategy is to provide a 'no hassle' reliable service to all our customers”. Whilst I am happy to overlook the three occasions when they promised to turn up but did not bother, the extra £515 which they are now trying to charge me because my rubbish was too heavy is the last straw.

Eastbourne Art Festival

2008-03-31T12:53:00.000+01:00

The exhibition continued over the following three weekends as part of the Eastbourne Art Festival and even we have to admit to being somewhat taken aback by the number of visitors who passed through our door. The visitors book confirms that most were very impressed by what they saw and a few of the many comments are detailed below:

“An exciting project – wishing you every success”, “Great exhibition and fantastic building – good luck with the hotel”, “Just what we need in Eastbourne. Brilliant”, “An art hotel – what a great idea” and “It’s great to have such an event in Eastbourne + the hotel sounds exciting”

Certainly the feedback (written and verbal) convinced us that our vision of an art hotel was entirely appropriate and my only concern now is how you manage to operate an art gallery in a hotel...or is it a hotel in an art gallery. Something to think of in the future because now the main priority is getting some rooms open and some income coming in.

What a difference a day makes

2008-03-14T10:00:00.002Z

March 14th 2008 represents something of a milestone in terms of the project as this is the date when the hotel hosts its first art exhibition. The exhibition of work by various local artists is intended to be spread across our four public rooms but with one week to go I am beginning to think that Frank was correct when he said we would not be ready in time.

Our bedrooms have been put on hold as we focus all of our attention , all of our staff and all of our money in preparing the rooms for the big day. Four rooms to strip, prepare, wallpaper and repaint as well as picture rails in the middle rooms, two public toilets, a kitchen and the bar.... and no sign that the scaffolding is going to come down in time. The artists take the news better than I did.

With twenty four hours to go, the carpets are all down but we are still putting paint on the walls and desperately trying to remove it from the floor. On the morning of the exhibition we discover that the sofas are the wrong colour and the dining chairs do not assemble. The kitchen is in a state and the two public toilets are still being painted....and just when you think that nothing else could possibly go wrong .... nothing else goes wrong!!!

The exhibition opened promptly at 4.00pm for the viewing by artists, guests, friends, relatives and neighbours – we hope you enjoy these pictures.

Things can only get better

2008-02-20T23:13:00.003Z

They say that time speeds up when you are enjoying yourself but let me tell you that it goes pretty fast when you are not. A few weeks ago the public areas in the hotel looked quite presentable but now the place looks like a building site and I wonder whether I should start insisting that we all wear hard hats.

Frank assures me that the additional work will all be worthwhile in the long run but I am not sure we have enough of a long run if we are to open on time.

The work continues and, to date, we have:

• stripped the wallpaper and most of the walls
• stripped the wallpaper and replastered the hallway
• refurbished the bar area and installed new lighting
• gutted the kitchen and replaced the floor and walls
• gutted the back room and strengthened the rear wall
• rewired the whole of the ground floor ….thank you Trevor
• got the central heating working (but only in the basement)
• sorted out the hot water supply (but not to the top floor)
• installed four toilets to serve the public areas
• removed four toilets
• installed a state of the art fire alarm system
• cabled in the new CCTV system
• removed the old fire system and the unsightly trunking
• replastered the walls on each of the landings
• condemned two bathrooms (but not due to open in phase 1)
• nearly finished restoring the sash windows
• replaced the TV aerial and wired the rooms at the front of the hotel

The hotel continues to throw up lots of surprises such as the glass roof above the false ceiling in the back room which had to go as it was in danger of falling on top of our guests.

Then the newly installed toilets had to be removed when we discovered the condition of the floorboards underneath. Leaking water seems to be a regular occurrence and just as you sort one leak out then up pops another.

As if that isn’t enough for this update, one of our neighbours decided to report us to the Environmental Health department for putting our rubbish in the back garden and my solicitor wrote to remind me that I had not yet paid the stamp duty and could I forward £26000 at my earliest possible convenience.

Surely, things can only get better?

What happened to the New Year

2008-01-26T20:51:00.000Z

I cannot believe that it is nearly the end of January and the clock is ticking away the minutes until our opening in March. The repainting at the front of the hotel is now proceeding rather slowly and I am wondering why the scaffolders are not demanding the scaffolding as we have had it for so long.

The situation at the rear of the hotel goes from bad to worse as we now discover that the room at the back used to a conservatory ....in fact the old glass is still still visible under the leaking roof. More expense as we now have to remove the old and broken glass and then replace the leaking roof.

Then we have the sagging floor, rotten windows, damp rooms, leaking showers, missing floorboards, faulty guttering and a heating system which defies everybodies efforts to get it up and running. The kitchen isn't arriving till late February and our contractors have now all gone on holiday.

In the meantime, our TV aerial has given up the ghost and the quote for replacing the aerial and running cables to all rooms came to £3000 + VAT. To add insult to injury, we also received a letter from TV licensing informing us that we were liable to prosecution and a fine of up to £1000 for not having a TV license.

Surprisingly, we are all still determined to meet the opening deadline and we have even drafted in a few extra friends to help us - thank you Trevor and Gary. If you fancy a decorating weekend then you are more than welcome to join us too.

No more pictures as they all look exactly the same as the last ones!!!

Christmas in Eastbourne

2007-12-26T16:48:00.001Z

Christmas has come and nearly gone and still our minds are very much focussed on the hotel and whether we ever will be open in time for March. The repainting at the front of the hotel is coming along just fine but well over budget as we find that the rendering needs replacing and the majority of the windows need renewing. The situation at the rear of the hotel is not much better and the damp in some of the rooms is entirely attributable to some nasty cracks which will also need attention.

In the meantime, we managed to remove the floorboards in the back room and found out why the floor isn't level ..... the joists have all rotted away so there is another expenditure we didn't bargain on - the good news is that the rear of the hotel isn't subsiding! The kitchen is gutted and we would have the plans finalised had it not been for the fact that Frank cannot tell the difference between inches and centimetres. The fire alarm system is now in place and we eagerly await the lighting system which is all planned for (but not paid for).

Of course we are not neglecting the Gladwyn and have already redecorated the lounge which is now looking rather nice although I say it myself. Regardless of everything going on around us, we found some time to decorate the Christmas tree and decorate the front of the building so the whole place has a Christmas feel. We are now working on the hallway and then room 6, room 4, room 3 and room 1....in that order. If we ever finish that before opening then my one and only Christmas wish will have come true.

Here are some of the latest pictures of the work in progress

Too busy to blog

2007-12-01T23:21:00.003Z

Perhaps it is a measure of how busy we are that it has been nearly a month since I last wrote here. The answer to my last question was five skips and still more rubbish to go. In the meantime, the scaffolding has gone up at the front and the gardens are being sorted at the back. The kitchen has been completely gutted , the second entrance hallway reinstated and we have removed the carpets from the hallway and stairs….hooray for that.

Frank made the big mistake of deciding to strip room 104 of the woodchip wall paper and one week later agreed with me that this was probably not going to be a priority (if we still intended to open in March 2008). We have some ambitious plans for the other rooms and I have been busy commissioning artwork and collecting paintings and prints for the Kandinsky, Lowry, Monet, Rothko and Van Gogh rooms.

Today saw the launch of the hotel website at www.davinci.uk.com and I am grateful to Frank for the hours, days and weeks which he has put into this .... I hope you agree that the effort was worthwhile. In the meantime, a big thank you to all our friends and family who have turned up to help us with the project. One day I promise to create a roll of honour and include your names as testimony to your support and encouragement.

Some pictures for you too look at....

Upstairs and downstairs

2007-11-05T19:35:00.001Z

Day 5 and we are now beginning to wonder what the hell we have let ourselves in for. Our initial view about the place is beginning to be tempered by the fact that, downstairs at least, the place is an absolute disgrace. Upstairs, the bedrooms are not looking so bad and the front rooms are OK although the reception had to go - just a pokey cupboard under the stairs. Downstairs is another matter and how anyone could live down there is an absolute mystery. The floors and ceilings are falling in, the carpets are too dirty to walk on and the furniture is an absolute disgrace ....heaven only know how many skips we are going to need to move this lot!

Completion at last

2007-11-01T18:06:00.000Z

Getting this place was never going to prove easy but when your solicitor says completion by midday and you are still pacing the room at 3 o clock then you know something must have happened. For some reason I now have two solicitors on the case and both think the other has got the money. In fact they are both wrong because the money has gone to the clients solicitors as I discover when I start ringing around myself. Fleurets ring to say the place is now mine and the keys are handed over on the doorstep at 3.30pm on Thursday 1 November 2007. The hotel is ours and the journey begins.

Falling at the last hurdle

2007-10-16T16:15:00.000+01:00

My solicitor rings to tell me that the other buyer is intending to exchange within the next 48 hours. He is quite calm about the situation which is more than can be said for me. This journey has been too long to fall at the last hurdle. Besides which, we have bought the website address, planned the colour schemes, sorted out the furniture, discussed the staffing and thought of an appropraite name. The solicitor tells me he will see what he can do. By 4 o clock he rings to tell me that we have exchanged and we are now the proud owners of a derelict hotel in Howard Square . Completion date is agreed for Thursday 1 November 2007.

The race is on

2007-10-10T13:09:00.000+01:00

My solicitor tells me that the other solicitor is now talking to him and has told him that I am not the only person pursuing the hotel. My temptation is to tell the lot of them where to stick the hotel but it has been a long journey and I do not intend to fall at the last hurdle. I warn the bank that we may need to move fast and I know my solicitor is on my side when he gives me his home number. The race is on and I now believe that whatever will be will be. If we do get the place then it was destined to be.........

Another hold up

2007-09-21T10:53:00.000+01:00

Well now the fun has really started. The bank want a survey of the property and intend to scrutinise my business plan to see if it reasonable - the survey goes OK and my business plan survives its first test. My solicitor is on the case but tells me that their solicitor refuses to communicate. Fleurets tell me that their client now wants proof that I have the money. I contact my solicitor. I contact the bank. They tell me that they cannot deal with third parties and I tell them that they will have to or I shall never see the inside of this place. Time stands still.

Making another offer

2007-08-31T11:39:00.000+01:00

I find out that the RBS might be interested in providing financing since I have previously banked with them. I have to provide a business plan along with evidence for this , proofs for that and receipts for the other. My full time occupation is now filling in forms for the RBS and jumping through a series of hoops with no sign of a light at the end of the tunnel. I work out that I have to pay stamp duty of £26000 as well as solicitor and broker fees. The bank promise me an interest free month and I submit another offer to Fleurets which is accepted by their client - hooray!

A recent history

2007-08-06T18:24:00.000+01:00

Frank and I have been doing our homework and find out that the present owners had made a planning application to turn the hotel into (holiday) flats. The proposal was rejected by the council with a lot of backing from the local residents who were determined that the area would be best served by a hotel in preference to holiday flats. We also find out that the hotel is a grade 2 listed building. In the meantime, Fleurets have increased the cost of the hotel and tell me there is another interested party. My bank account tells me I cannot afford it.

Disappointment

2007-06-25T14:50:00.000+01:00

Fleurets contact me to say their client has rejected the offer.

Making an offer

2007-06-22T15:30:00.000+01:00

It suddenly dawns on me that I might need to get some finance if I an going to seriously consider the purchase of the hotel. I find a company who specialise in commercial mortgages and they tell me that they aren't worried that the place has been empty for a couple of years or that I am unable to produce any balance sheets (since none exist). They don't need me to provide evidence of my financial standing and they don't even require a business plan from me. In conclusion, they will be happy to loan me the money as long as I don't mind paying an extortionate interest rate. I contact Fleurets and make an offer.

Prospective buyers

2007-06-21T11:00:00.000+01:00

Fleurets are a bit concerned that I should make an offer without having seen the place so now it is my turn to go and have a look at the hotel. They are running one of their 'open days' so I am not the only visitor although the place is hardly heaving with prospective buyers. On this occassion, I am joined by a couple who already own "three sea front hotels in Brighton" and have made their fame and fortune from hen and stag nights. Somehow, I think that Eastbourne may not be ready for such excitement - my own view of the hotel's future is a long way away from this!

Up for sale again

2007-06-12T18:05:00.000+01:00

Surprise, surprise as I have just got over the disappointment of losing the 'Stanley House Hotel' and now I get an email from Fleurets to say that it is back on the market. I quickly contact themand tell them that I am still interested and we arrange a viewing (which I cannot make). Farakh tells me that the place is a dump but it has lots of potential. There is a big hole where the ceiling is falling in and the place has been empty (derelict?) since Christmas 2005. We decide to put in an offer.

In the beginning

2007-06-08T11:15:00.000+01:00

Just found out from the Fleurets website that the 'Stanley House Hotel' is up for sale so contacted them only to find out that the hotel was now under offer. I have never stepped inside the place but know that this is just the sort of place to complement the 'Gladwyn' although the particulars suggest it is a lot bigger. My disappointment at finding the ideal place then finding out that someone else got their first is heightened when I ring a fortnight later to be told that the new owners are to exchange that very day.