Andy Burns wrote:
Andrew May wrote:

Doki wrote:

The other thing with Grand Designs is that it's obviously not a cheap
programme - the whole thing appears to be done very slickly, with
very little re-use of footage within the programme, unlike 90% of the
dross on TV that seems to be a 30 minute programme dragged out to
last an hour.

Although if you cut all the adverts out the one hour programme is only
46 minutes in total.

Chop out the titles, credits and the recap after the breaks, watch it at
110% speed and you can carve another 10 minutes off that.

Actually Grand Designs isn't too bad for unnecessary recaps. Certainly
not as bad as Property Ladder.

Andrew

Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Wed, 20 May 2009 09:11:43 +0100, Doki wrote:

I wouldn't keep a dog in a Travelodge. They're like the hotel of your
nightmares - bookings often seem to go awry,

Not my experience, they are at least consistent and generally well
maintained, you know what you are going to get. The online booking
system works well unlike some other chains sites that are so full of
javascript that unless you have the latest high power PC and/or use
IE are pig slow.

the rooms stink of fags

Not any more *all* rooms are non-smoking.

I've stayed in them since they moved over to non-smoking. They still stank.

and they're generally bloody unpleasant.

There speaketh a man who hasn't recently stayed in a private hotel in
the similar price bracket. Travel Lodges are at least have good sized
rooms with decent furnishings and are clean and warm. The same can't
be said for many private hotels with rooms were 90% of the floor
space is taken by the bed, the facilities are old and dirty and the
carpet moves on it's own.

I can't remember ever staying in a private hotel in the UK. A few B&Bs, but
never a private hotel, so I won't argue whether a Travelodge is better than
one or not. I suspect the difference is that the Travelodge will be much
more consistent, whereas booking unknown private hotels could be something
of a lottery. OTOH the Premier Inns and the like are only marginally more
expensive and considerably more comfortable than any Travelodge I've been
in - better beds, better rooms, cleaner rooms, better linen etc.

Huge wrote:

On 2009-05-20, Doki wrote:
Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Wed, 20 May 2009 09:11:43 +0100, Doki wrote:

the rooms stink of fags

Not any more *all* rooms are non-smoking.

I've stayed in them since they moved over to non-smoking. They still stank.

You've obviously never stayed in a French Novatel. Mmmm, Gauloises.

Or any Italian hotel until about three years ago.

The absolute pits for me was when some stupid PA booked me into a hotel
in Manchester and told them that I would be happy with a smoking room
without checking with me first or even, come to think of it, telling me.
The room reeked, no other rooms available, no rooms in nearby hotels. I
spent one night there and came away stinking like an ashtray.

In article , Doki wrote:

I can't remember ever staying in a private hotel in the UK. A few B&Bs, but
never a private hotel, so I won't argue whether a Travelodge is better than
one or not. I suspect the difference is that the Travelodge will be much
more consistent, whereas booking unknown private hotels could be something
of a lottery.

We use Premier inns a fair bit - both for work and with the Family.
Travellodge appear to have gone for the real budget end of the market and
offer SleazyJet type 19 quid rooms if you book at the right time. For
19 quid they are fine - but not great. Even the more expensive London
ones are crap compared to PremierInns. I've staying the City Road one
for example - it was nearly new and still the beds were crap.

PremierInn beds are consistantly great in my experience. Yes, they are now
quite a lot more expensive but *so much* nicer and as you say, consistent.

OTOH the Premier Inns and the like are only marginally more
expensive and considerably more comfortable than any Travelodge I've been
in - better beds, better rooms, cleaner rooms, better linen etc.

yep. Although they are often more than "marginally" more expensive now :-(
Many of the London ones now don't come in under my expenses allowance any
more :-/

Breakfasts are also massively better than travellodge - Kids also eat free
so it's not as expensive (for us) as it looks...

Darren

On Wed, 20 May 2009 09:39:21 +0100, Andrew May wrote:

Doki wrote:

The other thing with Grand Designs is that it's obviously not a cheap
programme - the whole thing appears to be done very slickly, with very
little re-use of footage within the programme, unlike 90% of the dross
on TV that seems to be a 30 minute programme dragged out to last an hour.

Although if you cut all the adverts out the one hour programme is only
46 minutes in total. But agreed, it does seem to be better put together
than a lot of them.

Andrew

He is very professional cf. most presenters, seems to know what he's on
about, can manage in several langauages and writes his own material.
I like the programme, especially where there's good scenery as a bonus.
Just wish that there were more of them.
Compare this with Ben Fogle's 'Extreme Dreams' - could be really good but,
due to the format, over-hyping and frequent regurgitation is, to me,
unbearable. It's probably done so that the 1-hour programme can be cut to
40 min. for sale to commercial channels.
--
Peter.
You don't understand Newton's Third Law of Motion?
It's not rocket science, you know.

Huge wrote:

When I was visiting Aulnay-sous-Bois (like Slough, without the charm)
regularly, they used to put us in the local Novotel, which had no
non-smoking rooms.

I think I've been there, but I can't remember why.

I think it's a Novotel feature, I had to stop one night earlier than
expected due to passenger fatigue on the A6 towards Paris. I can't even
recall where we were - somewhere south of Auxerre - and we stopped at a
Novotel. The bedrooms reeked of smoke and so did all the public areas.

This was only 18 months ago, and the entire hotel network is supposed to
be non-smoking.

In article ,
Steve Firth wrote:
The absolute pits for me was when some stupid PA booked me into a hotel
in Manchester and told them that I would be happy with a smoking room
without checking with me first or even, come to think of it, telling me.
The room reeked, no other rooms available, no rooms in nearby hotels. I
spent one night there and came away stinking like an ashtray.

Perhaps she posts to one of these groups using an alias?

--
*What are the pink bits in my tyres? Cyclists & Joggers*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Wed, 20 May 2009 08:50:34 +0000, Huge wrote:
The Holiday Inn Express I stayed in in Chester recently only did a Continental
Breakfast, which isn't breakfast at all, IMO.

Depressingly common this side of the Pond, sadly - and no matter how
much I eat at of one of those, I feel hungry an hour later... oh and those
darn eggcup-sized cereal bowls!

I think it's a Holiday Inn we're booked at in a months' time - something
like $140 for two nights. I think I might take some bacon, eggs and a
camping stove along ;-)

cheers

Jules

In article ,
Steve Firth wrote:
The absolute pits for me was when some stupid PA booked me into a hotel
in Manchester and told them that I would be happy with a smoking room
without checking with me first or even, come to think of it, telling me.
The room reeked, no other rooms available, no rooms in nearby hotels. I
spent one night there and came away stinking like an ashtray.

Remember working on a series where the PM had booked the whole crew into
some form of religious weekend retreat - midweek. Not only was it in the
middle of nowhere - but no smoking or drinking anywhere on the premises.
And no heating either on a cold night. Think two actually stayed there -
the rest found the most expensive hotel they could close to the location
and presented actuality bills afterwards.

--
*Proofread carefully to see if you any words out or mispeld something *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Jules" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 20 May 2009 08:50:34 +0000, Huge wrote:
The Holiday Inn Express I stayed in in Chester recently only did a
Continental
Breakfast, which isn't breakfast at all, IMO.

Depressingly common this side of the Pond, sadly - and no matter how
much I eat at of one of those, I feel hungry an hour later... oh and those
darn eggcup-sized cereal bowls!

I think it's a Holiday Inn we're booked at in a months' time - something
like $140 for two nights. I think I might take some bacon, eggs and a
camping stove along ;-)

You can fill the bowls more than once :-)

I've actually come to quite like the Holiday Inn express - proper breakfasts
are just too tempting and I pay for it later on. Need to adjust the toaster
to get it done properly though - but better than having it predone and
wrong.

On Wed, 20 May 2009 09:52:42 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

Chop out the titles, credits and the recap after the breaks, watch it at
110% speed and you can carve another 10 minutes off that.

Only 110%? When I was cutting 1/4" tape I could listen at double speed...
My HDD video machine will only do 1.5 times before it mutes the sound.
B-(

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Wed, 20 May 2009 10:44:50 +0100, Doki wrote:

the rooms stink of fags

Not any more *all* rooms are non-smoking.

I've stayed in them since they moved over to non-smoking. They still
stank.

Ooo, yuk. I'd make *a lot* of fuss over that. The ex smoking rooms need to
be gutted, cleaned and all new soft furnishing fitted. They won't get rid
of the horrendous stink otherwise.

I suspect the difference is that the Travelodge will be much more
consistent, whereas booking unknown private hotels could be something
of a lottery.

Very much so unless you can get a recomendation from some one you know and
trust.

OTOH the Premier Inns and the like are only marginally more expensive
and considerably more comfortable than any Travelodge I've been in -
better beds, better rooms, cleaner rooms, better linen etc.

When I'm away it's because I'm working which generally means a 12hour+
day, all I need the room for is a couple of hours wind down in front of
the telly, some where to wash and a bed. I'll be out around 0800 and not
back to it until after 2000. Not some ponced up paper shuffler leaving at
0900 and back at 1700, that's only half a days work! B-)

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Wed, 20 May 09 11:48:36 GMT, dmc wrote:

Breakfasts are also massively better than travellodge -

That's not difficult. Travel Lodge don't offer a real breakfast, you can
get a tray but thats about all. Pretty sure they all have an ajoining
place that will do a cooked breakfast, though that won't generally won't
be much more than normal the boring cerial/fry up offerings.

What I like, when away, is a selection of fresh fruits (no citrus) with
plain yogurt, fresh toast, butter, jam, maybe some form of "pastry" and
fresh good quality coffee. The sort of stuff that Hilton and the like
do... You're now going to tell me now the Premier Inn have that kind of
breakfast available. B-)

Kids also eat free so it's not as expensive (for us) as it looks...

That's worth bearing in mind.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Wed, 20 May 2009 08:12:26 UTC, "Doki" wrote:

Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 13 May 2009 15:03:21 UTC, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

On Wed, 13 May 2009 10:45:49 +0100, Arfa Daily wrote:

I wouldn't have expected the accommodation costs for a small crew
to be that much, either. What's a Travel Lodge ? Forty quid a night
?

I wish... The flexible rates start at £41/night but vary from there
up depending on the demand at a particular lodge on a particular
night. Ones around here are charging over £50/night for tonight.
These rates do not include breakfast.

Travel Lodge are the cheapest of the half decent accommodation
chains. Comfort Inn, Premmier Inn, Holiday Inn, Marriott, Ibis,
Ramada Jarvis etc are consistently more expensive in my experience.

Holiday Inn includes breakfast, so factor that in.

IME Holiday Inn is usually about £90 a night.

I was talking about Holiday Inn Express, and I've never [aid that much.
It's on a par with TraveLodge etc.

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Steve Firth wrote:
The absolute pits for me was when some stupid PA booked me into a hotel
in Manchester and told them that I would be happy with a smoking room
without checking with me first or even, come to think of it, telling me.
The room reeked, no other rooms available, no rooms in nearby hotels. I
spent one night there and came away stinking like an ashtray.

Remember working on a series where the PM had booked the whole crew into
some form of religious weekend retreat - midweek. Not only was it in the
middle of nowhere - but no smoking or drinking anywhere on the premises.
And no heating either on a cold night. Think two actually stayed there -
the rest found the most expensive hotel they could close to the location
and presented actuality bills afterwards.

I keep running into film crews around the UK, usually the same ones
filming house programs. At one point I felt haunted by Dominic
Littlewood since he + crew turned up in the same hotels as me from
spring to autumn. Still, better than the other frequent encounter in
hotels, McGuinness and Adams. They seem to haunt Jury's Hotels and
they're popular with my clients as places to book consultants into.

Huge wrote:

On 2009-05-20, Steve Firth wrote:
Huge wrote:

When I was visiting Aulnay-sous-Bois (like Slough, without the charm)
regularly, they used to put us in the local Novotel, which had no
non-smoking rooms.

I think I've been there, but I can't remember why.

It's the nearest Carrefour to Roissy airport?

No, work related. The main centre for work at the time was at Rungis
(another hole like Slough but down by Orly airport).

I wonder if Alcatel have a base at Aulnay-sous-Bois? Whatever, it's not
really important other than as evidence that the French can build slums
to equal those in the UK.

On Wed, 20 May 2009 14:02:53 UTC, "Clive George"
wrote:

"Jules" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 20 May 2009 08:50:34 +0000, Huge wrote:
The Holiday Inn Express I stayed in in Chester recently only did a
Continental
Breakfast, which isn't breakfast at all, IMO.

Depressingly common this side of the Pond, sadly - and no matter how
much I eat at of one of those, I feel hungry an hour later... oh and those
darn eggcup-sized cereal bowls!

I think it's a Holiday Inn we're booked at in a months' time - something
like $140 for two nights. I think I might take some bacon, eggs and a
camping stove along ;-)

You can fill the bowls more than once :-)

I've actually come to quite like the Holiday Inn express - proper breakfasts
are just too tempting and I pay for it later on. Need to adjust the toaster
to get it done properly though - but better than having it predone and
wrong.

Same here - I still eat too much though. Found the Edinburgh one
particularly good last summer. On the subject of toasters, one of them
(Exeter?) had a row of 4 slot proper Dualits...

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

On Wed, 20 May 2009 15:22:34 UTC, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

What I like, when away, is a selection of fresh fruits (no citrus) with
plain yogurt, fresh toast, butter, jam, maybe some form of "pastry" and
fresh good quality coffee. The sort of stuff that Hilton and the like
do... You're now going to tell me now the Premier Inn have that kind of
breakfast available. B-)

Holiday Inn Express, in my experience...

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

On Wed, 20 May 2009 15:22:34 UTC, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

What I like, when away, is a selection of fresh fruits (no citrus)

Often apples and bananas - nowt more exotic than that though.

with plain yogurt,

Sometimes...

fresh toast,

Yep - do it youself with a dualitt conveyor toaster normmaly

butter,

Essential with the toast

jam,

dissapointing small tubs :-(

maybe some form of "pastry"

sometimes a selection (custard ones are lovely ). Normally only muffins
though :-(

and fresh good quality coffee.

Fresh Costa coffee - does that count?

The sort of stuff that Hilton and the like do... You're now going to
tell me now the Premier Inn have that kind of breakfast available. B-)

Almost :-)

They do us some sort of slightly odd sausage with nutmeg - not convinced on
them (although more experimentation is obviously required)

Darren

On 20 May 2009 18:42:18 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

What I like, when away, is a selection of fresh fruits (no citrus) with
plain yogurt, fresh toast, butter, jam, maybe some form of "pastry" and
fresh good quality coffee. The sort of stuff that Hilton and the like
do... You're now going to tell me now the Premier Inn have that kind of
breakfast available. B-)

Holiday Inn Express, in my experience...

I may have to look at them again. Though I normally get put off by the £60
price tag on the room or the fact that breaky doesn't start until the time
I have to be out the door or that I'll get fed if I arrive 1/2 an hour
early.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Wed, 20 May 09 19:17:56 GMT, dmc wrote:

What I like, when away, is a selection of fresh fruits (no citrus)

Often apples and bananas - nowt more exotic than that though.

Not exactly inspiring, banana is OK but some fresh (not tinned) pineapple
to go with it and fresh figs is much more acceptable.

with plain yogurt,

Sometimes...

Oh dear, essential to go with the fruit.

fresh toast,

Yep - do it youself with a dualitt conveyor toaster normmaly

butter,

Essential with the toast

jam,

dissapointing small tubs :-(

So they have the toast sorted, I don't object to the tubs of preserves,
privide it's a self service so you can have more then one per two slices
of toast. Tubs are better than a manky pot refilled over and over and with
everyone elses breakfast knife diving in.

maybe some form of "pastry"

sometimes a selection (custard ones are lovely ). Normally only
muffins though :-(

Not so good.

and fresh good quality coffee.

Fresh Costa coffee - does that count?

It'll do. B-)

--
Cheers
Dave.