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!!!