Just completed my first stay here and... ehh it's just about okay but with some fairly big issues that would probably put me off staying again.

First the good - I got upgraded from an entry level room to an executive room with terrace. Yay!

I was in Newcastle for a wedding so arrived at the hotel around 10am. Room wasn't ready but I headed to the gym changing room to get ready and then left my bags with the concierge. All easy enough. Inevitably I got a ping on the app about 5 minutes after I left saying the room was now ready. Typical!

Arrived back at the hotel just before midnight and headed to the room. It was pretty big, bed was comfy enough. However, it really feels stuck in the early 2000s. At the risk of being called out for first world problem sharing, not having plug sockets by the bed in a 4 star hotel in 2023 just isn't okay. Thankfully I noticed on arrival that someone had set the alarm clock for 6am and deactivated it. This would not have been a pleasant discovery the following morning. In addition, the door to my terrace was locked 'for my safety' and as I was only there for one night I didn't bother calling to get it unlocked. View from the room is spectacular though.

Also just a few things in the room that niggle. If you're going to put the hairdryer under the lift up bit of the desk and not in the wardrobe or drawers like every other hotel you need a sticker that tells people that. If you're not going to fill the minibar anymore, please remove the sticker telling me I'll be charged if I move any of the items in there. The whole thing just feels like management don't care.

Breakfast in the morning was fine but not much more than that. The Doubletree in Manchester is substantially better on this front. Was able to get check out extended to 1pm but no further (had asked for 2) but this wasn't a huge issue as I just plonked myself in the lounge at 12:50. It... isn't great. There was no bottle opener so the Coke and Diet Coke wasn't actually available. The snacks on offer consisted of two biscuits (not two types of biscuit, literally two biscuits and for my sins I had both of them) and the coffee is pretty meh. No staff visited at any point in the hour I spent in there.

The gym is pretty nice - didn't visit the pool.

All in all the hotel is just about adequate but at the £150 I paid for a night I was pretty underwhelmed. The rooms really need a refurb in the next year or two.