Hotel News & Gossip

[Fester]

With regard to The Grand,  I hear plenty of customer's verdicts on Llandudno's hotels.  Sadly The Grand is never spoken of in glowing terms.  It ranges from a shoulder-shrug and comments such as 'Well, its not TOO BAD when you book a cheap deal',  to  'Its a nice town this, but that hotel lets it down badly'

[Blongb]

We have always referred to it as the "Notso" 

[DaveR]

Work on the Clarence Hotel seems to be progressing very slowly. Judging by the large hole that has been dug on the Arvon Ave side, and the continual presence of Surveyors vans, the structural problems may well be more serious than they thought?

[wrex]

Oscar has been speaking to the owner of the Clarence and once again ccbc are holding up the project,what is wrong with these idiots we have to pay their wages out of our rates,its a joke.

[DaveR]

I see scaffolders are once again working on the Alexandra this morning. I can honestly say that I've never seen so so much scaffolding being put up and taken down as on that building in the last few months - is it some sort of Scaffolders Championship? 

[hollins]

This is a letter from a hotelier to the editor of the Good Hotel Guide.

"TripAdvisor is indeed becoming an ugly industry monster, however the public absolutely love it. Its website is the largest traffic generator to our website bar none, its huge for us and most of our bookings are generated from it.The worrying thing on the horizon is the Trip Connect feature, having to bid on a pence per click basis and offer low prices to be ranked higher. It’s obviously optional now, but you can see a time when you’re going to be forced to use it. A minority of TA users use the Booking.com function to book, and again customers are not aware of the commission rate of this. With Laterooms.com moving to 17% commission it won’t be long until Booking.com follows. All irrritations for sure but here to stay nonetheless. You might as well embrace it and just be clever in how you farm it for value.'

I don't think anyone has really answered DaveR's question about how can it be in some cases, cheaper to book with an agent rather than direct with the hotel when commission has to be paid to them.

[OrmeMac]

I've asked about this apparent anomaly and I was told it is because an Agent will approach a hotel and offer to buy up x rooms for a given fixed price. The hotel is guaranteed this money whether or not the agent manages to sell the rooms. The amount offered to the hotel will likely be lower than had they managed to sell the rooms themselves but at least it is 'money in the bank'. The agent then has to try their best to sell the rooms they have bought and paid for and as the time for selling the rooms reduces so the agent may be forced to lower their prices to at least get some of their outlay back.

[born2run]

What about these offers on things like Groupon or KGB deals

You noramlly get offered one or two nights - with meals or breakfast or whatever

says should be ££££ and is a big reduction.

But I looked at once recently that looked good - went on the hotel's website to check how much it was on there
and it was half the price!

I think those offers only really work best on weekends and if you're interested in ordering 3 course meal etc

[oliverrhysthomas]

Hello,

Does anyone know whats happening to this hotel and who is in charge now? Contact details?

Thanks all! Have a grand day

[DaveR]

Hello,

Does anyone know whats happening to this hotel and who is in charge now? Contact details?

Thanks all! Have a grand day

It is now owned by Mostyn Estates Ltd and work is shortly starting to renovate/convert it into a Premier Inn on the upper floors, with several restaurants on the ground floor.

[Pendragon]

I was told yesterday that developers are knocking down the back end of the Tudno.  There's a Pizza Hut going in the grounds.

[Fester]

The Belmont Hotel is now to be put up for sale,  and the staff have been told that it will remain open until it is sold, whenever that may be!

Good for morale eh?

[Bellringer]

Part of the rear of the Talycafn Hotel appears to have been demolished. Perhaps there is a case to demolish the whole building, it really does look a delapidated relic of its former self.

[Michael]

  But its only about 10 years ago that an enormous amount of cash was spent on the buildings and the carpark. Has it gone wrong in such a short space of time?

[DaveR]

It's going to be renovated and reopened as a pub/restaurant:
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/tal-y-cafn-pub-conwy-6752901