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Minster Hotel, in Bootham ranked among the dirtiest in Europe on TripAdvisor website

8:05am Tuesday 26th January 2010 in


THE owners of a York hotel listed among the dirtiest in Europe on a travel website have defended themselves against the unwelcome rating.

Visitors used the TripAdvisor guide to “name and shame” places to stay which they claimed did not come up to scratch on cleanliness – including the Minster Hotel, in Bootham.

But Colin Marsh, the director of the business, has reacted to its ranking as the tenth most poorly-reviewed hotel in Europe for hygiene by pointing to other positive surveys – and says some of the unhappy guests may have set their standards too high.

However, tourism chiefs say they are “concerned” at the Minster Hotel’s score and are investigating why it fared so poorly in TripAdvisor’s analysis.

“The Minster Hotel is rated as a three-star guest accommodation property, and it is possible that the comments on TripAdvisor are because people expected a higher standard of accommodation, such as a three-star hotel,” said Mr Marsh.

“Also, reviews on TripAdvisor can be made by anybody even without staying at the hotel, whereas other booking websites show the hotel scores similar results to other hotels in the city.

“While some guests may have been disappointed, the comments need to be taken in context and we are clear that our service matches or exceeds the hotel’s current quality assessment rating.”

Mr Marsh said the last survey of the hotel carried out by the AA saw it given a 70 per cent rating.

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of tourism body Visit York, said: “Quality and high standards are something which York is renowned for and something which is so important for the city’s reputation as a top-class visitor destination.

“All hotels and guest houses which Visit York promotes must hold a quality inspection through Quality in Tourism or the AA.

“We are most concerned to see this hotel in this TripAdvisor rating and are now in discussions with the owners to investigate the situation.”

Comments(23)

ashleyparker says...
8:15am Tue 26 Jan 10

ive been in here when i went for a job interview a while back and also stayed overnight once with a mate. It may be a bit small n quirky but its certainly not dirty. I dont think this report is a reflection on the business

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yorkandproud says...
8:27am Tue 26 Jan 10

Trip Advisor should be banned. It is a website where people can anonymously comment on Hotels and B & Bs etc. They can basically give a report on a place even if they have not stayed there. I cant comment on the Minster Hotel, but a friend of mine has a Guest House in York, had a guest who was unhappy with the price etc, and posted a comment on Trip Advisor saying ha had been bitten by bed bugs. It was of course ludicrous, but Trip Advisor refused to remove the comment.
On the other side of the coin, Hotels can post their own comments about their Hotels saying how wonderful they are. It is a terrible website that should be banned.

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dodgydave says...
8:28am Tue 26 Jan 10

Hey, nothing wrong with a Dirty night in a hotel...I should be so lucky!

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idlehousewife says...
8:28am Tue 26 Jan 10

Hygiene and general cleanliness are to be expected irrespective of the rating of the hotel!

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Rhino's Wellies says...
8:50am Tue 26 Jan 10

I passed the Minster Hotel about an hour ago and you couldn't see in as the windows are filthy. Not a good first impression

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King Edward says...
10:18am Tue 26 Jan 10

No one ever admits falling short on standards, they just offer excuses or blame someone else. Of course as this might dent York's tourist image it's all over the Press, no doubt CofYC, and all it's cronies are trying to put a positive spin on it. I wouldn't stay in a hotel anywhere or eat out. I've seen the staff hanging around outside a lot of them smoking. First impressions..

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addynuff says...
10:49am Tue 26 Jan 10

these sites are nothing more than outlets for spiteful and vindictive individuals to attack an establishment without fear of prosecution or comeback.

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Seadog says...
11:42am Tue 26 Jan 10

I enjoyed a truly excellent meal there once - but it was about twenty years ago!

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smudge1 says...
12:32pm Tue 26 Jan 10

This Minster group also own St Denys Hotel off Piccadilly and Blue Bridge Hotel on Fishergate which both have the same type of comments on trip advisor. Something must be wrong with the whole group as all there hotels come near the bottom of trip advisor and Mr Marsh should start spending some money on all these properties as it gives York a bad name for accommodation and our economy relies on tourism.

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alfie says...
1:04pm Tue 26 Jan 10

Why dont they just take the advise instead of moaning, CLEAN YOUR HOTEL!!!

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Silver says...
3:10pm Tue 26 Jan 10

TripAdvisor gives the opportunity for those who have enjoyed their stay to use their site to say so, sadly if you've enjoyed yourself you don't go online and write a nice comment. But for those of us who have had bad moments some of us do want vengeance so head to TripAdvisor and put spite onto the net. This is part of democracy, if you don't like something you have the right to say it. I use TripAdvisor when planning holidays abroad or similar sites. If the comments are vaguely similar such as rats were seen every morning at breakfast by 30 people I look elsewhere. You don't have to believe everything you read online you know just use your judgement wisely. Despite ending up in a hotel which didn't come well off with TripAdvisor such as having my doorknob fall off from the inside so I effectively locked myself in for those 3 nights I didn't really mind as it didn't spoil my holiday as I refused to let it.

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Cost Accountant says...
3:19pm Tue 26 Jan 10

A contributor to Radio York yesterday gave an alarming account of a stayin a very dirty room at an hotel near the racecourse during a recent race meeting, which sounded worse than that about this hotel. If the details as reported were in fact factual, the hotel also should be named to help clear the good name of the majority of establishments in York.

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jt says...
5:09pm Tue 26 Jan 10

King Edward wrote:
No one ever admits falling short on standards, they just offer excuses or blame someone else. Of course as this might dent York's tourist image it's all over the Press, no doubt CofYC, and all it's cronies are trying to put a positive spin on it. I wouldn't stay in a hotel anywhere or eat out. I've seen the staff hanging around outside a lot of them smoking. First impressions..
What has it got to do with CoYC?They're not even mentioned in the report.
I use TripAdvisor all the time and providing you read between the lines it is a good guide to where and where not to stay. Several different people are unlikely to make negative comments just out of spite.
Another York hotel fares very badly on T/A and there are a couple of common threads running through the comments, enough to raise questions.

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GoodDoc says...
5:49pm Tue 26 Jan 10

Of course the rating system on tripadvisor is flawed, and of course people don't tend to leave positive comments. But what these people are forgetting is that ALL hotels reviewed on the site are in exactly the same boat. The ratings are in the context of all the other hotels in Europe. I'm sure the place isn't generally a flea-pit, but there's no smoke without fire so standards should be improved.

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sponge says...
6:08pm Tue 26 Jan 10

alfie wrote:
Why dont they just take the advise instead of moaning, CLEAN YOUR HOTEL!!!
do you mean advice?
I worked there when it was Hudsons Hotel as a chamber maid whilst in sixth form & it was spotless. Greta Hudson wouldn't have let you get away with anything less. Mind you that was a while ago I remember watching the Minster on fire as I left my evening shift (I was on reception also)

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Guy Fawkes says...
7:04pm Tue 26 Jan 10

The basic problem with Tripadvisor is that if you've had a bad experience somewhere, you tend to want to get it off your chest by getting it online; but if you've had a good experience, you tend not to bother. The result is that the comments on that site do tend to veer to the negative. The trick is not to read too much into the 'this place is generally bad' type comments, but to take note of the more specific comments ('I was in room 526 and the hot water didn't work'). Multiple complaints of bedbugs was enough to persuade me to steer clear of one place on a conference trip last year, and I was very glad I did: several colleagues who ignored the Tripadvisor warnings had a very itchy week!

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King Edward says...
8:45pm Tue 26 Jan 10

jt wrote:
King Edward wrote:
No one ever admits falling short on standards, they just offer excuses or blame someone else. Of course as this might dent York's tourist image it's all over the Press, no doubt CofYC, and all it's cronies are trying to put a positive spin on it. I wouldn't stay in a hotel anywhere or eat out. I've seen the staff hanging around outside a lot of them smoking. First impressions..
What has it got to do with CoYC?They're not even mentioned in the report.
I use TripAdvisor all the time and providing you read between the lines it is a good guide to where and where not to stay. Several different people are unlikely to make negative comments just out of spite.
Another York hotel fares very badly on T/A and there are a couple of common threads running through the comments, enough to raise questions.
CofYC is run like a medieval guild, as is the Tourist board, and whatever the business one calls itself at the moment. Guilds stick together like overpaid bankers. In this case to prop up tourism.
Any dent in public perception will start a knee jerk reaction spending money on glossing over the issues.

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AngryandFrustrated says...
8:51pm Tue 26 Jan 10

GoodDoc wrote:
Of course the rating system on tripadvisor is flawed, and of course people don't tend to leave positive comments. But what these people are forgetting is that ALL hotels reviewed on the site are in exactly the same boat. The ratings are in the context of all the other hotels in Europe. I'm sure the place isn't generally a flea-pit, but there's no smoke without fire so standards should be improved.
I agree whole heartedly!

I also want to say to Guy Fawkes that I don't totally agree with what he posted - I had a lovely trip to Gran Canaria and stayed in a fab hotel - I did put a very positive rating on TripAdvisor.

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Guy Fawkes says...
10:24pm Tue 26 Jan 10

I also want to say to Guy Fawkes that I don't totally agree with what he posted - I had a lovely trip to Gran Canaria and stayed in a fab hotel - I did put a very positive rating on TripAdvisor.


I've done that too, and for flights on airlinequality.com (which requires you to use your real name and verifies it before publishing your posts, thereby making it a little less vulnerable to manipulation). I've frequently found with the latter that there have been sustained comments about delays, cancellations and poor quality service on a particular airline/route combination, have decided to take a risk on it anyway because that fare is a lot cheaper than anyone else's, found the service to be perfectly OK and then written it up on that site. As I say, the trick with all these 'rate the product or service' blog sites is to not read too much into general moans but to concentrate on the specific observations.

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mythofthenorth says...
11:07pm Tue 26 Jan 10

What a ridiculous comment.

TripAdvisor gives power to the people rather than having to reply on the opinion of ''experts'' from of date guides from the AA etc.

We've used the site for many years and stayed in some wonderful hotels we wouldn't have found otherwise.

Obviously if there a just a few reviews you take it with a pinch of salt, but most of the genuinely good places have plenty of good feedback.

There are of course some over the top comments on even the best hotels, however the hotel/guest house has the opportunity to post a reply to any comment.

Hoteliers should embrace sites like this, not use it as an excuse for their own sub-average standards.

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Rhino's Wellies says...
11:42pm Tue 26 Jan 10

mythofthenorth wrote:
What a ridiculous comment.

TripAdvisor gives power to the people rather than having to reply on the opinion of ''experts'' from of date guides from the AA etc.

We've used the site for many years and stayed in some wonderful hotels we wouldn't have found otherwise.

Obviously if there a just a few reviews you take it with a pinch of salt, but most of the genuinely good places have plenty of good feedback.

There are of course some over the top comments on even the best hotels, however the hotel/guest house has the opportunity to post a reply to any comment.

Hoteliers should embrace sites like this, not use it as an excuse for their own sub-average standards.
Exactly....just because the hotel is ranked 3 star for guest accommodation doesn't mean that they don't have to clean the place once in a while. People are commenting on the CLEANLINESS of the place. Even a 1 star place can have a hoover or duster run over it once in a while

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Zetkin says...
9:26am Wed 27 Jan 10

TrustAdvisor?
`
How can we trust a website that can't spell "adviser"?

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Rhino's Wellies says...
10:16am Wed 27 Jan 10

Zetkin wrote:
TrustAdvisor?
`
How can we trust a website that can't spell "adviser"?
It can be spelt with an "o" or an "e"

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