What our customers say
My wife, teenage daughter and myself stayed at the Britannia Hotel on New Street Birmingham for the Bank Holiday weekend, 24/25/26 May 2008. The entrance to the hotel is down a lane way, but it is easy to find. It is a small reception area and can get quite crowded easily, but adequate enough for booking in purposes. There is a lift to all the floors and we were staying on the 3rd floor where the view out the window is of a small central 'courtyard', for want of a better description. That is, all the various bedroom windows face in to this courtyard, which could actually do with a good cleaning.
The bigger picture is that the Britannia is currently undergoing a multi-million pound refurbishment so it is perhaps unkind to say anything bad about the hotel at this time even if one is inclined to want to do so. One thing I look for in a hotel is how the staff interact with the customers. How polite they are, how helpful they are and so on. Well let me say this, I cannot but praise the staff for their helpfulness and kindness during our stay. We had a small problem with our electric kettle the first time we wanted to make ourselves a tea/coffee. One call to reception and the problem was sorted out in under 5 minutes. Ask any member of staff for anything and they were only too willing to help. Even after the big breakfast I ate, which was gorgeous, I think they were almost willing to carry me back to my room such down to earth people they are.
I had a sneak preview of the refurbishment on the 9th floor and it looks great. I could not stay long enough though until they got to my floor.
Look, the bottom line is...I'll be back. The hotel is 5 minutes walk from the train station, through the Pallisades shopping centre. Literally, a stones throw, as they say. As I said earlier, I could nitpick about little things in our room, or not in our room (like a safety deposit box). However, these thing are probably coming during the refurbishment, I hope.
No matter what technology you use or how good the refurbishment is, if you haven't got the quality staff the Britannia has, then you ain't got the full ingredients to have a successful business. Britannia will be successful because it is on its way to having the lot. And by the way, using Alpharooms was the icing on the cake as our booking price was great and without hassle.
Paddy Downey , Dublin