A dated 1960’s/1970’s compact high-rise hotel needing a massive investment. Operating in receivership, or was it administration, can’t remember, there is a statutory notice on the wall giving details. Many hotels are in this financial limbo for long periods and are often better for it.
Mid week the clientele seemed mainly low budget contract workers. Staff seem to be battling on, working on a shoe string, trying hard, hanging onto their jobs. Considering the price paid it was just about bearable. But not all of the time. I was there for about five days. I had three rooms. They would have been pretty good about twenty years ago but the furniture is now thread bare in parts, or just plain worn out and dirty. Very poor on sound isolation between rooms too. It’s pot luck if you have a room with noisy guests either side or not. I moved rooms because of this. One of the lifts was out of order and the other one would only go up before going down. The restaurant for breakfast was like a film set of a basic Russian tourist hotel in communist days. The place just hasn’t moved on. Limited service time but linen tablecloths and napkins and if you want a basic breakfast of cereal, juice, bacon, egg, sausage etc then that’s fine. I wanted a none fat breakfast which narrowed the choice down to egg and beans. They only once had beans available in the days I stayed. Crazy.
- Swallow Hotel Gateshead
- Gateshead Swallow Hotel
