Thoughts on the Preston Marriott, UK?
 

I'm going to be in the UK and considering a stay at the Preston Marriott. I have not found many reviews so I wondered if anyone here has stayed there recently. Two specific questions:

1. Is there a concierge lounge, if so is it the usual week days only schedule?
2. Is breakfast included? It was at the Forest of Arden, not sure if this is the usual expectation in the UK. The Forest of Arden is almost worth a trip just for the inclusive cooked breakfast!

It'll be 2+2 in one room, Platinum Premier, probably stay midweek to take advantage of the lounge if there is one.

Chris.

I have not stayed at the Preston property for some years, but I always got breakfast there as I do at all the other UK Marriotts I have used. Pretty sure there is still no lounge there.

You'll find a few comments from me here;
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...hlight=Preston

I stayed at this Marriott for about 2 years, but that was 2 years ago so my views might be slightly out of date. There isn't a lounge. However in return the hotel gave platinum/gold members a free breakfast in the hotel restaurant (full English breakfast, very good including an egg chef who cooks in front of you). I think you'll enjoy it.

The hotel itself was refurbished in ~2009 so the rooms should still be reasonably nice, and all the public facing areas were upgraded to look pretty nice.

Just let me know if you have any other questions.

Sounds similar to the Forest of Arden, to be honest I'd happily sacrifice the lounge for the full breakfast, it is soooo good at the Forest of Arden!!

Not sure what else there is in the North, we'll be based out of Sheffield and visiting relatives in Preston so a couple of nights here seems like a good plan as it looks to be reasonable convenient for Blackpool, the Lakes and Preston.

Thanks for the feedback. There are no pictures of a lounge on the photo tour which is usually the way I figure out if a proerty has one or not. It's nice if they'd state on the web site if a property has a lounge or not.

The hotel is ideally placed for Blackpool and the Lakes as it is right next to a couple of motorways that will take you either into the center of Blackpool (M55) or the Lakes (M6). The breakfast is indeed much better than that you'd get in a lounge. If a lounge was important there is only one hotel nearby with a lounge - the Manchester Airport Marriott, but its not that great and Preston is preferable.

Preston is likely to be similar to the Forest of Arden as it is a "Country Club" rather than just a standard Marriott, so more focused on a pleasant break.

Thanks all, looks like we'll book two or three nights there, visit the relatives then use it as a base for a day trip to the lakes. Appreciate the feedback.

Chris.

One more question... I just checked availability and it states the rooms have EITHER one Queen or one Double, some executive rooms have a King. Are there no rooms with two beds? There'll be two adults and two 7 year olds, we usually get a room with two beds but it looks like they may not have any?

I guess I could try and get a King room and all squish in together but otherwise it looks like this would be a problem as they also say no rollaway beds.

I guess I could book and plead my case on arrival and see if the Platinum Premier card will help!

Chris.

I stayed there twice in January and can verify the info in this thread as of that time. Breakfast was actually included in our corporate rate, but as everyone on my team was Gold or Platinum at the time, I'm sure we would've gotten it via that route as well. No lounge. I wish I had more time to explore the grounds and the hotel a bit but the weather was poor, the daylight short then and my work hours long, but I'd stay there again. Only downsides I recall was an older elevator that was out of service for a few days and the traffic along Garstang Road, which was annoyingly slow at rush hour, especially north of the M55 interchange roundabout.

To ukchris - I'm pretty sure I had a room with two queens at least during one of the stays, but my memory's a bit foggy on that point. They might just be sold out of those.

As an aside, if you like reasonably priced Indian food, we quite liked Gate of Bengal in Broughton just down the street. It's misplaced on Google Maps, so pull the address from http://www.thegateofbengal.co.uk/ to find it.

I stay in this hotel very regularly and I believe there are no longer any rooms with 2 beds in them. You certainly can't book any I believe and I've never been put in one with 2 beds.

Some of the Queen/Double rooms are tiny too and you can barely fit 2 people in let alone 4.

Unfortunately I doubt your Platinum card will hold much sway either - alot of the guests staying there are working on long term assignments in the North West and are all Platinum - I think there are about 20 Plats from my company alone who stay there.

I would definitely give them a ring to ensure they can guarantee you a room with 2 beds

Not brilliant
 

Mr HP and I have stayed there twice and both times the service was dreadful. We stayed once DB&B and the whole order for room service was wrong. We asked for a quiet room; they gave us one next to a plant room with a loud hum. We complained afterwards and they gave us a free night. We went on the free night and couldn't even have breakfast at 8am as they had run out of everything but fatty, sweet pastries (Mr HP is a type 2 diabetic and has a very strict diet, so bad news) We waited 20 mins for coffee and just got up and went and got breakfast at McDonald's!!!

This said, we are going back next week for the first time in 3 years and I am hoping they have got themselves organised.

Just to confirm: they DO have 2 double bed rooms. They just don't show on the booking, but when our reservation is booked it shows "guaranteed 2 double beds" AND we have stayed both times in a 2 double room.
There is no Exec Lounge,easy enough to check on the online booking screen.

Can someone with recent experience confirm if breakfast is given weekdays & weekends if there is no lounge? I'll update the exec lounge stickey.

Cheers.

Breakfast is comp for Gold/Plat both weekdays and weekends. It includes continental and full English and is actually very good. There is also an Egg chef who will prepare fresh omelettes / poached eggs etc on request.

For non elites, it costs about £15 I think.

Missed this thread originally. I'd echo the points about there being lots of Platinums here. I stay here three / four nights most weeks and would estimate my company has 25 plus Platinums here and there are probably two or three other organisations in similar positions.

On the two beds point I can't remember the last time I had a room that didn't have two beds.

No lounge though.