Budget rooms

Even I have to admit that the hotel's quirky style is not to everyone's liking. I have tried desperately to ensure that our publicity explains exactly what we are and what we offer. The da Vinci is not your typical sea side hotel ....the downstairs rooms house an art gallery for local artists while the bedrooms are individual so that no two rooms are the same. The colour schemes are bright and more brazen by the time we opened the last 4 rooms...

Feedback from various review sites confirm that the majority of guests like what they get with lots of positive mentions about the art gallery, tasty breakfasts, good location , friendly staff  and value for money. Most of the negative feedback is about landings and towels which we are trying to address through refurbishment and replacment. For some reason the quality of our sausages seems to be a big issue which we have still not resolved.

Another issue is to do with the 'budget' double rooms at the back of the hotel ....rooms 101, 102, 201, 202 and 301. They suffer from being at the back of the hotel and we do admit that they are not as big as the ones at the front. However, I must iterate that the are big enough to swing a cat (although cats are not provided) and it is possible to walk around the double bed. Our publicity says that " Our double bedrooms are small but not miniature, they are ideal for short stays and budget travellers."

We think these rooms are rather nice with everything for the budget traveller except loads of empty space. Here are some pictures of room 201 to wet your appetite......

 

Buy busy busy

Busy week around the hotel: new floor in breakfast room, painted walls in the front lounges, refurbished room 202, new curtain rail in back lounge...and launched the Photographic Society's Annual Exhibition.
 

Eastbourne Photographic Society

Delighted to be hosting the Abnnual Exhibition of the Eastbourne Photographic Society which is open daily from Saturday May 4th to Friday May 31st. The exhibition comprises so amazing photographs coving local and no so local scenes. Lots of visitors already amd a wonderful launch in the company of the Mayor on Friday night.

What chance for the rest of us....

Budget hotel chain Travelodge is offloading 49 hotels to pay off debts including their own hotel on the seafront in Eastbourne. This is the very same hotel which has been busy undercutting us all with its £11 rooms and causing a few neighbouring establishments to go to the wall. Sometimes it seems,  that even in this business, there is justice in the world and you cannot carry on offering something for cheaper than it costs. I wish the new owners all the best in their venture.  

Tourist Information

The staff at Eastbourne's Tourist Information do a fantastic job but why is the Tourist Information Office shut on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. Look at any other seaside town (for example Southend) and you will see that their Information Offices are open all hours so what about Eastbourne?  



Winter

If you think this is bad then below is a picture of Eastbourne during the 'great blizzard' of 1908.The local newspaper wrote,   "There is nothing that so utterly transforms a town as such a fall of snow as that of this week. It brings with it a rare witchery of beauty, yet a rare sense of desolation. The beauty is in the encrusting of the trees, the silvering of the bushes and the mantling of lawns in purest white. The effect of desolation was heightened by the profound hush. Indeed the strange effect of deep snow to the townsman is the silence that it brings”.

 

Bar prices

Looking at our bar prices which we think are rather reasonable....

 

Summer

Rail services

Very interested (and a bit amused) to hear that a faster rail journey from Eastbourne to London (70 minutes) might be on the cards but I am convinced that this is just not possible with the present railway infrastructure whereby all trains are funnelled through the bottle neck of East Croydon. I have repeatedly added my support to the idea of a new railway line using the former Lewes to Uckfield line and then to London via Tunbridge Wells or East Croydon. Improvements including better signalling, double deck trains and 16 car trains are just not going to do it and we need some radical thinking not lame posturing.

 

 

 

The true cost of Airbourne

In 2008, 48000 customers paying £5 each would raise £240 000 with losses of £360000 incurred. In 2012, 100000 residents plus 50000 visitors paying £1 each would raise £150000 and 30% of that is going to the RNLI leaving £105000.  We are told that this is sufficient to make the event ‘viable’

Is the problem with Airborne that no one is willing to tell us exactly how much it costs and exactly how much it brings in.  Only when we know that, can we make any informed judgement on whether the event is worthwhile or not.

More tales of the hotel lift

Quite distressed to find out that our lift has decided to give up its day job....ie carrying passengers up and down between floors. We contacted the company (with whom we have a contract) immediately but there idea of urgent is a lot further down the list than ours. Eventually persuaded another lift company to come and have a look but not all good news. Indeed their prognosis suggests that our much loved lift is seriously unwell ...in fact nearly as sick as I was when they told me how much it would cost to put it right!!!!

Wedding party

Busy day today at the da Vinci  hosting a wedding party for our friends Lindsay and Merv.  We are not really on the wedding venue listings but Lindsay and Merv are personal friends so, when they asked, we could hardly refuse. In the end, the celebration was quite a success with many reporting on the relaxed and friendly atmosphere. We managed to anticipate requirements well.....additional staff, rooms rearranged, tables cleared, bar stocked and cake displayed plus a  wonderful display of balloons in bridal colours. Apologies only to our arriving guests who must have wondered what they were doing in the middle of all this celebration....regardless they enjoyed sampling the buffet and toasting the bride.

The Hotel Inspector

The Channel 5 programme called the Hotel Inspector was essential viewing this evening as it featured one of our neighbouring hotels which has pretentions to become a four star hotel on the back of being 41 out of 41 on the Trip Advisor review site.

I have every sympathy for host Alex Polizzi as she tried to instil a sense of realism into the owner’s consciousness ……but this was never going to be an easy task. Regardless, the hotel is now number 39 (out of 41) on Trip Advisor ….and might shortly catch up with the other hotel in the group with is sitting at number 37!!!

PS My favourite quote from the programme is: Owner  "If you don't like the room for God's sake why did you take it ?".  Guest "We changed four times"

Railway investment???

I note with considerable interest that the £9bn railway investment announced recently by the coalition doesn't offer much support to commuters living in the south other than the promise of even higher fares to pay for electrifying the line to Sheffield. A growing number of people are pushing strongly for the reinstatement of the Lewes to Uckfield line which would do much to take the pressure off rail services to London and congestion at Haywards Heath and East Croydon .

Lewes MP Norman Baker said "The reopening of the Lewes - Uckfield line is something I have campaigned for locally for over twenty years. It is vitally needed, not just to link the two towns again, but also as a key building block in providing an alternative to the heavily congested Brighton main line.".

Unfortunately, since he took on the job of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport he seems to have gone rather quiet .... other than suggesting “You will, I hope, appreciate, that a minister is not allowed to use his or her position to advantage their constituency”. So not even much chance of jam tomorrow then!!!

Eastbourne Town Team

I may unwittingly have upset some members of the Eastbourne Town Team when I took issue with their recent findings about what might make Eastbourne great. They wrote on their blog "Just back from a stint on the BIG IDEAS 'zeebo... and really impressive response so far. Amongst the most impassioned ideas to come up so far are: much more plants and flowers in the town centre,..."

Unfortunately, I believe we need a lot more than plants and flowers .....so here is the list I sent to them:

Remove paid parking especially around shops
Pedestrianise central shopping area
Cycle ways from Beachy Head to Sovereign Harbour
Pursue John Lewis to open in Eastbourne
Encourage more good quality street entertainers
More street cafes…not pubs on pavements
More street markets ….not just Wednesday
More police to curb nuisance behaviour around pier
Improved rail services (to London, Brighton, Rye etc)
Sort out our heritage (bandstand, congress, …)
Insist that owners of listed buildings look after them
Build an iconic structure near the wish tower
Improve the quality of hotels and guesthouses
Less of those folk who pounce on you for charity
Discourage (penalty) shop landlords for empty shops
Free entertainment on the sea front (bandstand?)
Longer opening hours at the Tourist Information Centre
Reduce VAT (probably not possible but important)
Ask what EBC does with £25 million in business rates

Please let me know what you think.

Another hotel for sale

Sorry to hear that yet another hotel in Eastbourne is up for sale. This time it is the Big Sleep which is part of a chain of hotels, predominantly owned by Cosmo Fry. The  50 bedroom hotel  has a price tag of £1.6 million and was described  by the Travel Trade Gazette as the 'Travel Lodge with sex appeal'.

A single hotel up for sale may not be too much of a worry but when it becomes part of a trend then someting needs to be done. The Heatherleigh,  Carlton Court, Palm Court, Claremont and the Alexandra....plus a load more guest houses are all up for sale at this time.

Of course the good news is that Premier Inn have bought  the old Co-Op building although buying the building and opening a hotel is not quite the same....and no sign of any work to date I have to say.
So my advice is book early to get a room then check that the hotel is still operating as you get closer to your stay. Alternatively book yourself into the da Vinci...is the best advice I can give!!!

Languages spoken here

Just been counting the number of different languages spoken by staff at the da Vinci including:

Albanian, Arabic, English, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Tagalog and Urdu.

An impressive line up of talent I think!!!

Falling apart

Sometimes I wonder exactly what is happening to Eastbourne. First we hear the news that pieces are falling off the Congress Theatre, then it is the roof of the bandstand on the seafront. Who exactly is looking after our heritage in Eastbourne?

Unfortunately, not the council it would seem. We have a Conservation Officer but they only work part time - well one day each week in fact...and they don't have time to answer my emails

So we are now paying the price of these cut backs....scaffolding covering the Congress Theatre and a temporary structure to stop the roof of the bandstand falling on one of the tribute groups.

I have also asked what they intend to do about the building opposite which continues to rot away with no one taking a bit of notice...except me perhaps.

Bandstand

Getting ready for the high season

Very busy trying to get everything ready. Walls are being repainted. Others are being touched up. New wooden floors in the remaining rooms. Additional toilets on the mezzanine floors. New sofa beds in the family rooms and new furniture ordered for rooms 106, 206 and 208. We have completed painting the back of the hotel and sorted out the gardens at the rear. Resolved the leak in 105 and replastered the ceiling in the front lounge. Now I just need some guests so I can pay all my credit cards off.