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Hotel from heaven!
TV's Hotel Inspector usually hits the spot. Indeed, she tends to savage the spot. When former inspector Ruth Watson checked into the Dalmatian doggy-themed Sparkles Hotel at South Shore in 2006, she left after a night, lambasting the surreal surrounds, on Station Road, as a "hotel owner indulging her own fantasy."
Criticising local tourism traders is a bloodsport for visiting media. Need a hotel from hell? Check into the purgatory that is Blackpool.
Easy pickings. But the town is also beginning to acquire an elite squad of rather special small hotels - boutique hotels, although the term is as dated as a Quant mini skirt.
Now the transformation of a former guesthouse into a brand new boutique hotel, Langtrys, is about to be shown on prime time telly.
The former Sunnyside hotel on King Edward
Avenue got the Hotel
Inspector treatment. It's won Visit Britain five star guest accommodation
accreditation through the school of hard knocks and is now a chic sleek
comfort zone.
The programme is broadcast on Channel Five next month. July 20 at the last check.
And very nice it looks, too. Langtrys is an
altogether more fitting name for the new look, even if Lily Langtry lived in Bournemouth. Which is fine and dandy because the couple who now run Langtrys used to live in Brighton.
Both David Webb and partner Julie Sayers reckon Brighton is over rated, and saturated with luxury small hotels to the detriment of the market, which can have enough of a good thing.
Julie doesn't think Brighton has enough good things either, just one pier, and a tatty one at that, no Tower, a pebbly beach, and so on.
"It was where Blackpool's at now 20-25 years ago and improved standards, but too much, too soon, and is now on the way down again," she adds.
"And it has always gained from being close to London. But we've got Liverpool and Manchester."
Langtrys is about to land, via Hotel Inspector, a positive press, although Julie and new inspector Alex Polizzi crossed words over "mood boards" and other recommendations.
Polizzi may be the granddaughter of international hotel magnate Lord Forte but she still likes white tiles and chrome fittings, and dust-attracting rattan – all no-nos to Julie.
But Julie loved Polizzi's suggestion of window seats in the new-look lounge and the idea of colours "flowing".
It's now the sort of small hotel that business and conference delegates should crave to visit. Small but perfectly formed.
Just six bedrooms instead of the Sunnyside's nine, rates from 70 a night to 120. If visitors still want a nice traditional guesthouse - well, Julie's sister runs the place next door.
Lots of help from Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board ... and a grant from Invest in the Best.
However, check out VisitBlackpool's own conference map, issued to delegates who visit the town, and King Edward Avenue, let alone Langtrys, doesn't even feature.
The cluster group of hotels on King Edward Avenue, of which group Julie and David are members, is one of the best, busiest and most vocal locally, on one of the nicest streets on which to stay, with a big emphasis on driving standards up.
Indeed, it's fair to say the award-winning group has put King Edward Avenue's small hotels and guesthouses on the map.
But in spite of paying to feature in the conference guide they haven't made it to the real thing. The nearest street named is the neighbouring King George. And a mini-version of the map ends at Springfield Road.
Seek it out and step within and it's all stripped wooden floors, LED lighting and re-furbished living and dining rooms, bedrooms akin to suites, enlarged and re-decorated to include luxurious bathrooms with heated floors and double sized showers, top quality towels, bed linen, refillable toiletries. There's a big push for environmentalism here, so don't expect lots of freebies in plastic wrappings, and do expect Fairtrade goodies.
It's a fabulous find, a triumph of reinvestment and reinvention.
The old Sunnyside guesthouse was nice enough, a well-kept three star, but the couple, now in their fourth season, saw business falling off, and realised they needed to strike out in a radical new direction.
All this has been achieved within 16 weeks. That's thanks to local builders and other craftsmen making good on promises.
About 95 per cent of the work – and indeed fixtures, fittings and food – has been purchased in Lancashire.
Attention to detail even extends to the hand- made chocolates in the bedrooms, with Julie seeking out local suppliers, and the glassware on tables is by local lad made superstar John Ditchfield.
Read the brochure and the ethos is explained – the capital letters being their's, not mine.
"It's about Elegance, not exhibitionism," reads the brochure to hand. "Glow not glitter." (See that and weep, Mrs Sparkles.) "Quality not quantity." And more.
But where is it? Thanks to that VisitBlackpool conference map, it's a bit like the Blackpool Pleasure Beach advert which doesn't actually mention Blackpool, save in print on the last page of the latest TV advert.
Peter Taylor, secretary of StayBlackpool, is delighted with Langtrys. "It's very exciting that it has been honoured with a five star rating and just goes to show that, despite disappointing visitor figures last year, hotels are driving their standards up and it's succeeding."
* www.langtrysblackpool.co.uk
jacqui.morley@blackpoolgazette.co.uk
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Wednesday 30 May 2012
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