Crowne Plaza hotel Harrogate

 

 Introduction:

I was away for a short break up in Yorkshire and checking hotel prices showed that this hotel in Harrogate was around £35 cheaper than an equivalent hotel in York – which was where I had originally planned to stay. So with that price difference in mind I booked a suite room for 5 nights.

The hotel is about a 10 min walk from the train station but there are plently of taxis and Harrogate does have an excellent bus service.

Traveling arround the area:

Now my advice is if you are walking to the station – don’t follow google maps as it sends you on a longer route. Ask it to get you to the town centre and this goes almost right past the train station in a much quicker time.

If you travel from Harrogate to York or Leeds etc. my advice is that you take the buses in place of the train the service. The bus service is excellent and all the busses I took in the area had WIFI  - which unlike the local trains, actually worked.

Arrival at hotel and check in:

The lobby area was large and spacious and more importantly it was clean. The lobby had plenty of seating and it lead into a large bar area.

Whilst there was a bit of a wait to be checked in this was done quickly and efficiently and the staff that checked me in was pleasant and polite. After obtaining my key cards I headed to the lift to get to my room.

Now the minor gripe I had here are the lifts, they were small and you had to wait a very long time for one of them.

 The room:

The room was in the suite style so I had a separate lounge area to the bedroom. How this was laid out made it look like it was originally two adjoining bedrooms made into one. The room was clean and well set out.

The bedroom area had a large, possibly even a super king bed in it which was comfortable and had clean linens on it. The desk had a desk chair to it and a desk light. The wardrobe was a good side and had enough hangers for my needs. It also contained two bath robes and two pairs of slip on slippers. There was also a safe in the wardrobe as well as a few shelves. However, I would have preferred a set of draws rather than just shelves. The wardrobe also contained a hair drier, iron and ironing board. There was a TV opposite the bed. The window was a good size even if the view was not the most inspiring.

There was a small fridge below the kettle tea/coffee making facilities but the coffee was only instant so perhaps in a suite room a coffee pod machine could be provided? There were a good number of power points around the room so no problems in charging your devices.

The bathroom was a good size and in my experience it is now unusual for hotels to have an actual bath in it but I got one here with a shower over this. Whist shower gel etc. is provided (in those large ‘locked to the wall’ bottles) I have to say I was not fond of the smell of it. I am not saying it smelt bad, it just wasn’t for me. Hence taking your own is advisable. The shower was hot and had a reasonable power behind it. Now the door to the bathroom did have a frosted glass panel in the door – not really for me I do prefer a solid bathroom door but it was frosted so I suppose I am fussing over nothing here.

The sitting room area was a good size and had a dining table with 4 chairs, sofa and an arm chair and two smaller side tables. Here there was another TV and a reasonable sized window. The sofa was comfy enough to sit on to watch TV/read etc. and there was a standing lamp as well as table lamps. This was needed as the sitting room area had no ceiling lights – something I found VERY odd.

 

The club lounge

Now I am an IHG club member which gave me access to the club lounge 24 hours a day. This was a large seated area where hot drinks from the machine and some soft drinks were available 24/7 as well as some snack things.

Between 5pm and 8pm there is a selection of bread cold meats and cheeses available free of charge as well as wine and bottles of beer again free of charge – on a fair use policy. This I did make use off as I had a pub lunch each day so only wanted something light in the evening and this served that purpose. I will admit the complimentary beer was not the best but can you really complain if it is free?

In the morning a small selection of pastries are provided in here again complimentary so a light breakfast can be had here.

 

My night’s sleep:

I will admit I did sleep well during my stay here. I was outside the main town centre so this reduced the noise a bit and even if the hotel was located on a busy road even the noise from the road was not enough to disturb me. The hotel was also quiet as I think not many families would stay here – too far from major attractions perhaps. The bed was comfortable which also helped in my night’s sleep.

 

Food

As I tended to eat out most days and only had the evening nibbles from the club lounge I can’t really comment here.

Checking out

Again this was quick and efficient and just like when I checked in the person who checked me out was pleasant and polite and was able to book a taxi for me to the station.

 

A greener stay

If you are an IHG member you can opt for a ‘greener stay’ where you hang the ‘greener stay’ notice on the outside of your room door at night. This is to opt out of your room being serviced the next day. This cuts down the amount of cleaning products used and you are rewarded with 500 bonus points for each night you use it. During this stay I used it twice.

 

Final Score and summary

Check in & out  4/5

Room 4/5

Facilities 5/5

Sleep quality 4/5 (only as there is nothing like your own bed)

Total 17/20

As I didn’t really use the restaurant I can’t comment on the food and I have added what is provided in the club lounge as part of the facilities.

Summary:

Yes there are a few minor things but these are very minor. This is a good hotel and I would stay here again when I revisit the area.