A great conference venue but not ideal as a hotel

Advantages: Good rooms, well organised conference facilities
Disadvantages: If you aren't there for a conference, you could feel very 'left out'.

...I'm a member of an industry association that holds a two day meeting every year in spring and we move the venue around between different hotels, typically in the Midlands. Last year we were in Rugby at the Dunchurch Park which had excellent conference rooms but dreadful accommodation. This year, the organisers found a new place for us to use - Ettington Chase near Stratford upon Avon. I travelled down from the North West on the day of the conference and my sat nav had no problems finding the hotel. When I pulled off the road into the car park I found a very beautiful old building that looked like a Victorian vicarage but was completely swamped by the size of the new wing. As so often happens, the website shows lots of pictures of the old building and not so many of the rather characterless red-brick block that provides most...

koshkha 25.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Ettington Chase Hotel and Conference Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon

Wannsee Conference

Advantages: Extremely infrmative
Disadvantages: Hard to get to

...The Wannsee Conference house is set in quiet surroundings in one of Berlin's most luxurious suburbs. The shore of Lake Wannsee is only metres from the back of the house. This idyllic setting hides a terrible secret. In this villa on the 20th of January 1942, 15 men met to discuss the Final Solution. At the end of an hour and a half conference the Jews of Europe had been sentenced to death. The Nazi government tried to conceal this meeting from the world and only one copy of an original thirty minutes of the meeting survived the war. This house has been preserved and now acts as a reminder to the terrible events of the Holocaust. the museum is set in the villa itself and the exhibition inside covers the entire persecution of the Jews from its humble beginnings to the horror of the concentration camps. The museum is extremely...

mr_christa 08.05.2004 · Read review
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Review of Haus der Wannseekonferenz

De Vere Milton Hill House -Do Not Believe What You May Read!

Advantages: Well situated, Affordable, Good Facilities, Nicely Decorated
Disadvantages: We did not eat in the hotel so I cannot comment on that

...the bedrooms were totally unjustified in my opinion as it took us literally two minutes to get there, it was not a long distance at all no further than it would take to reach a bedroom in any other large hotel to be honest. As the hotel is used as a conference venue and has a number of conference rooms in the main building we had to walk past them all to access the rear of the hotel where the separate bedroom block was located. The block was grey concrete with ivy trailing up the front and even though it wasn?t the most amazing of buildings I wouldn?t say it was reminiscent of a concentration camp. I think the trailing ivy with looked to be a relevantly new addition (probably from the refurbishment) actually stopped the building looking quite so dated. We made our way up the stairs and located our bedroom which was situated on the first floor...

shazzaspannered 27.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Milton Hill House Conference & Training Centre, Abingdon

Disastrous conference in Birmingham

Advantages: Location
Disadvantages: Overpriced and unhelpful, zero customer service.

...I organised a conference on behalfof the company I work for. The room needed to be big enough for 80 caberet style. We also needed a stage to be set up so the room needed to be large enough for that. I also needed to have 80 bedrooms for the night and a dinner in the evening. Basically the delegates were arriving on the Tuesday morning, having a conference in the day, having dinner and then leaving the following morning. Sounds pretty straight forward doesn't it? Well when we arrived I was introduced to the manager who I had been dealing with. As with all of these things there are a number of changes which happen along the way, I was dealing with all the table plans and everything like that so they didn't have to worry about all the hassle of redoing them when people didn't turn up and changing people onto different tables...

Panda1976 27.02.2007 (05.03.2007) · Read review
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Review of Hilton Birmingham Metropole, Birmingham

A spooky stay at the Holiday Inn Frankfurt South

Advantages: Friendly staff, reasonable price
Disadvantages: Haunted? Not in the centre of town, not very modern, basic rooms

...I?ve stayed here a couple of times with work. My stays have been fine but I always feel a bit spooked in this hotel. It?s a grey 1970?s style block with other 400 rooms. It?s main purpose seems to be to cater for conferences, it has 23 meeting rooms. It is basically your typical Holiday Inn 4 star hotel (not three star as Ciao seems to have it listed) Now don?t laugh, but on my stays I have kept my bathroom light on and pulled the duvet over my head! The hotel does freak me out a bit, a slight atmosphere. It always seems to be very quiet and it?s quite gloomy inside which doesn?t help. I?ve heard all sorts of rumours about guests staying under the reception desk to sleep, to scared to go back to their rooms, that it?s built on the site of a old hospital that burned down with many deaths, that someone rolled an orange under their bed...

Katieshaz 17.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Holiday Inn Conference Centre, Frankfurt am Main

Bouncy beds in Kamloops

Advantages: Good hotel and conference centre in downtown Kamloops
Disadvantages: None

...took the lifts and others the stairs and we were soon in our comfortable bedroom. There were 98 bedrooms and suites, some of the two bedroomed suites will sleep up to 6 people, useful for families. There is wireless internet throughout the hotel and this is especially useful as it is a conference hotel with several large meeting rooms. Bedrooms We were on the De-luxe floor, the bedroom was bright and airy with a view of the distant hills and parts of the town. There were two queen sized beds (with 850 coil count, I take their word for it, I didn't count them!) with the lovely pillow top mattress covers, and beautiful white cotton duvet covers, which I noticed in the information you could buy to have the same quality linen at home! The throw was in gold velour and gold covered cushions. The curtains were heavy gold patterned...

jo145 01.10.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Thompson Hotel and Conference Centre, Kamloops

Self-Harm Conference - 1st March Self-Injury Awareness Day!

Advantages: Excellent conference, excellent speakers, raising awareness
Disadvantages: This review might not make much sense to Ciao members!!!

...me talking about my personal experiences - for more info about the charity visit www.sis-cumbria.co.uk Anyway, today (well technically yesterday as it's now after midnight) I attended a conference in Gateshead organised by the CCYP (Counselling Children and Young People) which is a subdivision of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) entitled "Self-harm - an effective response, understanding and working with children and young people who self-harm". I'm not a counsellor myself (most people there were) but I found the day very educational and there were excellent networking opportunities. The following information is what I've spent this evening writing to share with our organisation's counsellors. I'm not sure if it'll be interesting to Ciao members unless they have experience working with young...

marymoose99 01.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Everything that starts with S ...

Try this Sleep Inn

Advantages: The hub for all your sightseeing adventures, a pleasant place to stay, easy accessible.
Disadvantages: None

...In December 2005 we travelled up north from Portsmouth to Darlington to see our family, this being a regular event for us as we love travel, and we stayed for a couple of nights in a hotel. It's called Sleep Inn Hotel & Conference Centre Darlington and can be found at the south end of the A167 at Newton Park approximately 35 metres from junction 59 on the A1(M) either north or south exits will get you there. At the entrance to Newton Park you will find a MacDonald's and a petrol station then it's straight on to the hotel and the automatic barrier that lets you into the car park. The hotel is only two and a half years old and is very well lit with it's very neat, clean and tidy landscaping and the very large free car park had plenty of spare places, in fact it was near enough empty. In front and at the sides of the main entrance there...

yampy-uk 10.02.2006 · Read review
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Review of Sleep Inn & Conference Centre Darlington

Aston Hotel, Darlington

Advantages: Large Rooms, Power Showers, Free Wifi...etc
Disadvantages: None!

...off the motorway, so it was very handy as you can get anywhere very quickly. I would like to add that I could not hear the motorway throughout all of my trips at night. There is a petrol station and a McDonalds on the same site as the hotel, but they are not next door and in my opinion were not an issue at all. The Hotel: The Aston is part of a chain, with 4 hotels dotted around the north of England and Scotland. The entire hotel is furnished to a high standard, everywhere is carpeted and is always spotlessly clean. The reception is on your right as you walk through the automatic sliding doors, and there are always people on reception to help and swiftly check you in and out. The restaurant and bar are on your left through some more doors and bedrooms and conference rooms are on the right past reception. The hotel also has free...

charlottemt 12.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of Sleep Inn & Conference Centre Darlington

"Peace in our time"?.The Munich Conference 1938

Advantages: -
Disadvantages: -

...for self-government. Not only were there 2.5 million people in the region to absorb into Germany, there was the small matter of the Skoda armaments factory located there that would be of untold importance to German industry. Crisis talks between Britain and Germany's leaders Neville Chamberlain and Hitler failed to resolve the issue and war seemed certain. Upon the prompting of Italy's dictator Benito Mussolini a conference to further settle the problem was agreed to be held in Munich starting on 29 September 1938 between the European superpowers Britain, Germany, France and Italy. No invitation was sent to the Czechs, even though these talks would decide the reshaping of their own country. Neither was one sent to the Soviet Union, still a pariah amongst what passed for a European community in those days. Hitler had his way...

pinkmatchstick 12.11.2004 (23.01.2006) · Read review
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Review of Everything that starts with M ...