Having stayed before I arrived having come to expect the hospitality and care to which I had become accustomed in previous years. This however could not have been further from the reality of my stay.

The bar staff to their credit were very polite and helpful. Upon raising a grievance about my uncleaned room a young lad behind the bar apologised, kindly offered me a drink during my wait and fetched the General Manager, a larger woman in her late 40's who was incredibly cold and seemingly unhappy to address my issue which given it's nature I felt was completely unfair. She skulked off brashly informing me that someone would sort it out. The room following this was still not particularly clean, stained floors, lights not working.. though this I did not feel welcome in bringing this up due to my previous encounter. The overall experience felt unwelcoming and unclean which for a trusted name as Young's is not what I expected. When discussing with another guest of the hotel the disappointment appeared to be a prevailing opinion!

I will consider carefully before staying in a Young's hotel again and certainly not The City Gate Hotel. The saving grace was the staff, who despite the attitude of their manager were very polite and hospitable. I felt more welcome speaking to the staff than the management!

number of stays lst year = 30+
numbr of stays this year= no more!

Pros -
central location, good selection of beers ales and wines, reasonable rates for a city centre hotel.

Cons-
dusty and drab rooms, very cold if bad weather, unorganised management of bookings (if your booking.com booking has reached them and been added to their system that is, sloppy and slow served food. most unhospitable atmosphere encountred for a long time.

at present would not reccomend this hotel which is a shame as the hotel used to have a certain warmth and charm about it that is severely missed. I joined some of the regulars by the fireplace one evening whom shared the same opinion as myself.

Come on guys bring back the City Gate we used to love.

I returned to the city gate after a handful of previous visits last year. Had I not been before I would not have known it was the same hotel. The warm friendly atmosphere has been replaced with sour miserable attitudes. The food dire the place dirty. The staff could have been inmates in a prison the lack of wanting to be there. One member of staff a young lad behind the bar was very helpful when I mentioned my room had obviously not been serviced he apologised got me a drink and asked me to have a seat whilst he got a member of management. I waited for 15mins before I was rudely told that she was busy with a wedding which is why I had to wait and without apology managed to make me feel I was in the wrong for taking up her valuable time. I told her my room number on the first floor to which she replied it had been and walked off flustered muttering she would get a member of staff to sort it!!! I asked the young lad to speak to someone above her to which his response was she was the general manager . He fetched a young lady who I was told was the assistant manager. A complete contrast very polite and apologetic and very efficient in rectifying the situation. I would say that the people in charge here should maybe read a manual on hospitality and realise it is a job where you will have to deal with people and maybe crack a smile!! On a plus lovely court yard garden good ales and would reccomend their gourmet burgers.

My husband and I had our wedding reception here on July 30th. It was absolutely fantastic!

We had a drinks reception in the garden upon arrival which was brilliant as the weather was fine. We then had a meal in the function room. The room had been decorated beautifully - the hotel had advised us of what we would need and how best to arrange things. We were allowed to choose all the food that was being served, we weren't limited to their menu, and we could give three options for each course, unlike all other wedding packages I had seen which offer one dish per course. The food was delicious, the only downside being we were too full to finish dessert! After the meal, we moved down into the Cellar bar for a party with cheese and biscuits.

All our guests had a fantastic time and we had the wedding reception we wanted. We stayed in the hotel that night and had a fab breakfast the following day. The only negative would be that my aunt, who had stayed for a few days, said that was the first day she had been able to have fruit and yoghurt for breakfast, something which is advertised on the menu but had been unavailable.

The staff were all friendly and helpful, and nothing was too much trouble, even thought we kept them up till gone 1am and they had to be back in for breakfast the following day.

All in all, we had a fantastic stay, and this was a fantastic setting for our wedding reception. A very memorable night - thank you!