Jenbel

I haven't lived in York for years now, but the Star Inn at Harome (locally revered pub) has opened an offshoot in York which has been attracting national reviewers. You'd probably need to book, but its close to the station:

http://www.starinnthecity.co.uk/index.htm

(I am not responsible for the very annoying website).

stut

Oh yes, I saw the savaging that Jay Rayner gave that place at the weekend... I may try it all the same!

RichardInSF

Forget the savaging, you do want to eat at the Star Inn in the City. I did so last night based on Jenbel's suggestion and found it quite delightful. I would definitely go back again, thanks for the help.

Now the Cedar Court Grand hotel is a totally different story. The room I ended up in was OK but bad management, particularly front desk, disqualifies the hotel for me. They claim to be an upscale hotel but have an absurd 11am checkout which they will extend to noon to show how generous they are. Any extension beyond that is 10 pounds an hour. Sure it's a trifle, but it's the kind of trifle that I find to be a total turnoff.

I also asked about upgrade possibilities and they informed me that the hotel was full. Needless to say, their online res system showed all categories of rooms -- every last one of them -- to be available. They have no obligation to upgrade but I hate being lied to. Maybe they were trained by an airline.

stut

I'll give it a try. York's only a couple of hours on the train from us, so I go quite often.

Never tried the Cedar Court - the prices are always way over the odds for the reviews it gets whenever I search (and I'd quite like to, given the history of the building). York is pretty poor for hotels, I find - most know they barely have to try. So I always end up in the Hotel du Vin, which is one that definitely does.

FWIW though - I can't remember the last time I stayed in a hotel in the UK that had a check-out time later than 11am (although admittedly, I don't go for the very high end of the scale...)

Gagravarr

The hotel I'm in tonight (Mercure) has as 12pm checkout time, but the Hilton Garden Inn I often stay in seems to be 11am, which surprised me when I looked it up just not. (I was sure it'd be 12pm too)

That said, mid-week, very few people seem to check out late. About a year ago, I was checking out of this Mercure around 10am, and the reception staff were surprised by this as they were sure everyone leaving that day had already gone! Turned out I was the last one to checkout, at 10am, and a previous departing guest had somehow already paid for my dinner... This hotel does seem to be rather "special" in terms of its reception, so I'm not sure how representative it is!

Overall though, it seems to vary by chain and status. Starwood properties seem pretty good on late checkout, Hiltons, Club Carlson and IHGs I find good for an hour or so, not so good on late late checkout (eg 4pm +). Accor and Melia, well, you probably weren't expecting consistent service with either chain, so maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't, maybe they'll notice, maybe they won't...

Actually, mentioning Melia reminds me. MeliáRewards Silver (2 stays) should get you 2pm late checkout. I was staying in a Melia property on a long weekend with a friend, I left mid morning and paid the bill, but explicitly didn't check out as my friend needed to do some work in the room before they set off. Confirmed the Silver late-ish checkout and set off, my friend went to check out just before 2pm, and they made a huge fuss about how my friend was so late, but they'd make a special exception for them. Queue an angry phone call from my friend for putting them in an embarrasing situation, cured only when I sent my friend the Melia page showing that we should've been fine for 2pm anyway :/

stut

Fair enough. Probably says more about my assumptions, then