Happy Anniversary

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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!!!