The Copthorne Hotel – Plymouth

The Copthorne Hotel. Don’t be fooled by the palm tree, it’s definitely in Plymouth.

So, I was down in Plymouth this weekend and a lack of available bed space at my other half’s mum’s house (I think that’s the right grammar), meant that we would be staying at a hotel in the centre of Plymouth. Nic comes from Plymouth and it was an opportunity for her to see all of her friends and family for a birthday night out.

I am going to do away with the normal structure I stick to for this sort of thing because I can’t be bothered, this place doesn’t really deserve it. I also began writing a story of my weekend, well forget that too. The key points are as follows: –

• Plymouth is a pain to drive around. The road network makes little sense, the speed limits are 30/40mph regardless of where you are and the level of danger to pedestrians and speed cameras are liberally dotted around the city.
• The Copthorne hotel is not attractive from the outside, although the location is excellent.
• Inside the hotel it is pretty typical of a place decorated in the 90s and it has the usual amenities. Certain rooms have a minibar, but they only contain soft drinks and there’s no price list.
• The room was pretty spacious and the bed was large and quite nice.

That’s pretty much all the relevant facts. At £50 per night it’s not bad value. However, some of my own experiences, which may or may or may not be repeated should you visit were not great.

• Customer service at the hotel is pretty poor. One lady on reception looked after us quite well, but other than that the service and attention to detail is atrocious.
• Cheryl, a receptionist, is possibly in the least suited job imaginable for her skill set. I say this because receptionists almost exclusively deal with the public. Cheryl is not a people person.
• Parking is a movable feast. The likelihood of obtaining one of the hotel’s parking spaces appears to depend on a number of factors none of which relate to whether the hotel is willing to take your money for a parking space.
• Your room may, or may not have the used dishes of the previous occupants left right in front of the door for a period of no less than 24 hours.
• Room Service will typically arrive in the mid afternoon and when finding that your partner has had to get out of the shower to answer the door, will subsequently stand there, having a good look, before eventually being told that ‘no, now isn’t a good time, I am wearing a towel’. They will then offer to come back later and ultimately fail to do-so.

I was eventually lucky enough to get a parking space. Although this was after I had to pay to park at Sainsbury’s (getting up at 9:30am to do so). I then sought a refund for my parking only to find that Cheryl had already added my refund to the computer without having actually given me the cash, so the poor girl the next day had to sort that one out. Finally I learned later on Saturday that 3 car parking spaces had appeared and I eventually managed to park before seeing Spurs’ pretty poor result against Chelsea.

I will give a score, but to be honest if all you care about is a place to put your head overnight, this hotel is fine. If you want to park your car or deal with people who have any interest in looking after you or your room maybe pay a few extra quid and stay somewhere else.

Star Rating ***

Location 4.5/5

First Impressions 2/5

Amenities 3.5/5

The Room 3.5/5

Costs 4.5/5

Customer Service 0.5/5

Overall 2/5

Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5

Sofitel Heathrow

I had never heard of Sofitel before this holiday, they have both city centre hotels (including London) and airport locations.

Star Rating

*****

It is important to note that hotel ratings have not yet been standardised internationally, meaning that the rating listed above is the official rating provided by the relevant agency in the hotel’s locale.

Location

The Walkway

Sofitel’s Terminal 5 hotel is a bit special, primarily because the entrance is actually inside the terminal. It is a surprisingly long walk down a corridor to get to the hotel itself, but when you are checking in at about 5 in the morning, staggering out of your room and 5 minutes later finding yourself in the airport is a pleasant experience. There is also a bus which you can use to reach the other terminals.

5/5

First Impressions

The hotel itself is lovely. I am sure the temptation is there to take advantage of the location to bump up the prices without really providing an experience to match. I didn’t have to check in myself, arriving late, but the check-in desk were extremely helpful in providing me with a door card and all that stuff. You can immediately tell it’s a nice hotel, with plenty of open space, a few bars and restaurants and a few little shops and things; there’s even an Audi R8 on show.

Now, if you aren’t staying there, access to any floor but the lobby is restricted. That is to say, you can go anywhere you want to spend money, but getting to a room is only possible if you have a room key, which you will need in order to operate the lifts.

4.5/5

Amenities

The bars are pretty straightforward and I didn’t get the chance to eat there. Apart from that there is plenty of room. The hotel is split up into a number of different sections within the main shell of the building, each with rooms running up and down a corridor and windows facing out into one of the open spaces, whether that is the bar or the ‘Zen Garden’, which our room faced.

‘Zen Garden’

To be quite honest, I don’t really understand the Zen Garden. To me it looks like one of those things that architects put there to make their plans look pretty. You know the ones, you see this attractive sketch, usually with pastel colours, or something that looks like it’s been painted in watercolour. The plans talk about amazing open spaces for people to hang out, the Zen Garden offering the chance to stop for a contemplative thought or the chance to ‘escape from the hustle and bustle’. The reality never matches up, with the open spaces left unused because they are totally impractical, and the reality of the buildings never matching up to their imaginary forefathers. What I am trying to say, with this unnecessarily long ramble is that the Zen Garden is pointless. There was never anyone in it, there were a couple of benches and a few ornaments, but certainly no ‘garden’ and all it really offered is the chance to charge a bit more for a room that overlooks it.

There is a spa and relaxation suite, perfect for pampering groups of hens on their way out of the country for a wild holiday, or the over 50s with too much money to spend. There are apparently 5x treatment rooms, sauna, steam and a ‘Vitality Pool’ which is ponce-speak for a pool which is too small to actually swim in.

There is also a hair salon and jewellery shop although if you have a 6am flight I doubt you’ll find much time to make the most of these! Perhaps more practical is the car park, which means that you can purchase both a room and parking for your trip, perfect for the more busy travellers out there.

In reality though, the hotel has pretty much anything a traveller could need, with hard liquor or relaxation available… although it all comes at a price.

4.5/5

The Room

Until recently, my hotel related experience was pretty non-existent. Between the ages of 0 and 12 my holidays consisted almost exclusively of Mathews caravan holidays on the French Atlantic Coast. From there on family holidays were usually spent in Spanish apartments, with the odd trip to Center Parcs thrown in.

What all this means is that I was far from qualified to hold any type of opinion on where I stayed, because I had almost no point of reference. Since then I have been lucky enough to stay in a few hotels and I have tended to find that regardless of whether you spend £90 for a night or £290 for a night, much of what you find in your room is the same.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is, the ratings in this area are pretty tight, unless a room is dire, but things like cleanliness and spaciousness will have a big impact an my views, because things like beds and toilets are items you’d hope to find in all rooms. I suppose decor and the like will also count for a lot.

Sofitel ‘Classic Room’

I believe I stayed in a ‘classic room’, which is, as you might expect, one of the rooms at the cheap end of the spectrum. There are suites available, with the largest offering 3 bedrooms. If that’s what you’re aiming for, I imagine your experience will be 100x nicer than mine and I can tell you now, my impressions were pretty darn good.

Like many business and higher end hotels, Sofitel Heathrow’s rooms are relatively generous in terms of the space afforded and the decor is clean and inoffensive. You won’t be surprised to learn that everything also feels modern, with the hotel only having been open for a few years.

There is a flat screen TV, mini-bar, safe and internet access in the room via an ethernet cable. In the bathroom, there is a bath and a walk in shower, rather than the more predictable ‘shower over the bath’ arrangement that is popular in hotels and homes across the country. It is worth noting that in these cheaper rooms, the broadband access, be it WiFi or through the cable is chargeable, whilst in all other types of room it is free.

The bed, which was queen sized, was nice. Slightly on the firmer side, which is how I like it. I didn’t like the pillows, which were some kind of unnecessarily soft feather based affair. Apparently they have 5 varieties available and a call down to reception would have sorted me out, but I’m not the sort to make a fuss (it’s the British way), so I soldiered on, with my face increasingly engulfed by pillow as the night wore on.

I can’t really have any complaints about the room though and given that it was really just a stop-over for a night before flying out, it was more than comfortable.

4.5/5

Food

Unfortunately, with an early flight and the choice of a room that doesn’t have breakfast included, unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to sample the hotel’s cuisine. I understand the restaurant, well, Brasserie; Brasserie Roux serves fantastic food if you are at the hotel for dinner, whilst there is Breakfast included with all of the nicer rooms at either the Vivre Restaurant or La Belle Époque. If you have had the chance to eat at any of Sofitel’s restaurants, please do leave a comment with your thoughts below.

I did have breakfast in the terminal though, at Giraffe, a review of which is on this blog. (It’s not yet, hence the lack of a link, but it will be, then there will be a link and not this bit in brackets, which is temporary…)

Costs

Rooms cost upwards of £130 if you book at least 2 weeks in advace or closer to £170 for something more flexible, meaning that although it’s not cheap, what you save on catching the National Express Coach (see my earlier review) you can spend staying here, instead of with Lenny Henry at the big purple Premier Inn. Once again though, in a section I have poorly labelled ‘cost’ it is the value for money that counts and although it’s not cheap and you don’t get a great deal included, it certainly isn’t bad value for money.

3.5/5

Overall

A lovely hotel, with an unrivalled location, particularly if you happen to by flying with BA from Heathrow. It’s modern classy and has a fresh design which sets you up nicely before a long journey, or allows you to have an ideal night of rest on your way back home.

If you plan on staying at Sofitel, you can book with them here. In case you’re wondering, I don’t make a penny when you click-through to any of the sites I link to from my blog, I am just trying to make your life easier!

I’d love to have the chance to stay again and if I have the money, I will certainly opt to stay here over any of the budget alternatives.

4.5/5

1,460