Weekend Away

On the weekend of the 16th – 18th November 2012 me and my boyfriend (Adam) visited Leeds for a weekend break away to get away from the stress of day to day life in Manchester. We stayed at a beautiful hotel called the ‘Bewleys’. The reason for choosing this hotel is because they had a good offer on at the time. 2 nights for two people for £113 which seemed very reasonable due to the great location.

When traveling to Leeds it took us two hours to drive there from Manchester due to traffic jams. Once turning off the motorway the hotel stood directly in front of us which came as a shock as we didn’t realize how close we were to the junction. As there wasn’t many clear signs to direct us to the hotel car park, we missed the quick turning and had to drive an extra 20 minutes around a one way system before arriving at the Bewleys car park.

Segel (2008) explains that customers perceive signage to be great customer service, helping them find what they want easily and efficiently. In our situation we were not satisfied due to the poorly lit sign adding extra time on to the travel.  When we annoyingly knew that the hotel was standing in front of us but was inaccessible due to the one way system once we missed one small turning.

Checking in was quick and simple and the staff came across as polite but not very informative.  This is because they did not inform us that the restaurant (Brasserie Restaurant) was not open over the next two nights due to functions booked in that room. We found this information out by reading posters in the lift , but I found it odd how we wern’t told about this when checking in to the hotel. Surely this information should be given out straight away when arriving. What if we wanted to eat within the hotel restaurant?  This resulted in me and Adam eating in the hotel bar for our dinner, as we couldn’t be bothered leaving the hotel thanks to the tiring journey.

The location of the hotel was excellent as it only took 10 to 15 minutes to walk in to the center of Leeds where all the shops and restaurants where based. Chavan (2010) notes that location implies accessibility and convenience to the users of hospitality services for example the hotel. This definitely was true in relation to the Bewleys Hotel as the location was more than accessible. This is because it was close to areas we aimed to visit such as the “Call Lane” and the city centre.

Once returning back to Manchester I began to tell people about my experience. Goodman (2009:22) explains that word of mouth occurs because people have a social and psychological need to tell one another about good and bad experiences. Therefore I will be using positive word mouth to family and friends with strong recommendations as my overall experience.

The weekend was relaxing and just what I needed! I would certainly return to the Bewleys hotel and Leeds once again. As it lived up to my expectations of being a great city to shop in and to socialize in.