The Milner York — Attraction in Great Britain

What was, isn’t anymore, sadly gone into rapid decline. Stayed here previously when it was known as The Principal York and based on that experience we have made several recommendations to friends and family and also the main reason we booked a suite @ £420 ( per night) for this stay to mark our wedding anniversary. However it’s has recently rebranded as The Milner after being acquired by RBH in 2022 who have also rebranded the restaurants and bars. Based on our recent experience I would encourage readers to seriously review the reviews and then chose very wisely. Service with one exception ( Receptionist - who was very helpful) is mediocre at best. It’s gone downhill drastically based on our last experience. Staff are unable to function, stressed and complaining about staff shortages, working extra hours and complaining directly to and in earshot of paying guests about their frustrations with lack of staff and requests being made of them. For example rebranded bar areas are 4 deep and it’s 20 mins to be served, what few staff there are are running at 200mph. The bars resemble beer tents at music festivals and no one is available to mix a cocktail from the menu. One member of staff after listening to our desire of celebrating our anniversary with a cocktail did offer to try ‘insert herself behind the bar to try’ but we declined and settled for an alternative. There appears to be a lot of atmosphere and low morale that has been presumably created or are unable to resolve hence the numerous vacancies currently being advertised on the main RBH site. Based on this experience we opted to have dinner at an alternative nearby establishment which was completely amazing experience, a decision which was totally justified by the breakfast experience at The Milner the following morning. The Milner elect to use the smallest room for serving breakfasts with minimal inexperienced staff, which makes a simple breakfast somewhat a pantomime. The hot food availability was very limited and several people tried to plate up a breakfast, but had several items missing and there was just empty containers, for example no eggs, scrambled or fried and no hash browns - at which point just 10 fried eggs were wheeled up and some hash browns which caused issues as people who had part breakfasts needed to access to these and other guests had formed a queue and were taking what was now available. This led to some snide comments and bad behaviour as guests with part breakfasts tried to reenter the queue part way. Basically badly organised unprofessional food preparations that didn’t meet basic demand and caused unnecessary issues between guests and once the food had been topped up staff just walked away. Yes and coffee is available out of canteen style flasks, all of which were empty.

Would you believe it that The Milner (RBH Hospitality Management) don’t and can’t even supply a needle and thread kit ! Reception advise that they don’t have and haven’t for months, had any needles and threads available for any guest emergencies- in essence nothing major but speaks volumes about the decline in standards and just how this hotel is now being operated. Our Suite @ £420 a night was adjacent the lifts and opposite the stairs so very distracting with noise and loud drunken people returning to rooms in the early hours. Rooms are OK but a far cry from luxury and finesse portrayed on the web site . Rooms are cold and just lack those finer touches that you expect for £420 Horrible experience and won’t be coming back, recommending The Milner, as in our opinion it’s totally broken and hidden behind somewhat misleading...

Update '25 -Nov. Steve & Laura in attendance & all running smoothly - floors clean Bars open ,stocked .. hot drinks prepped.

Staff - pleasant & working hard . Good improvement over last year's teething (?) problems.

'24 - Location notwithstanding most things about this Hotel/event centre seemed mediocre & underwhelming.

The floors in the event centre ( at 1100 hrs) were filthy & littered, (+ badly needed hoovering) , especially considering a pre arranged business event for 168 people was due to take place. Poor preparation. Lack of supervision.

The recent 'Top down' shake-up/change of staff & name proved of little use here . A complete lack of preparation ,training, or motivation seemed evident. Maybe , shades of all three ?.

The young staff were preoccupied playing games with each other in the corridors despite being approached & passed by paying customers. This was a common occurrence throughout the day & evening. Very unprofessional & childish behaviour. Twanging each other constantly with bar cloths, playing ' chase me', telling crude jokes etc . Not the behaviour a professional business establishment would want it's staff to be known for. It was like a crèche. This infantile behaviour should be kept out of sight , where appropriate. Not appropriate in the main thoroughfares. It's a working event centre & Hotel , not a playground.

A seeming lack of preparation meant the event centre bar was not opened as requested & arranged. Meaning the 30-40 people who arrived early, anticipating a cold drink completely drank all of the unsupervised sponsored free welcome drinks for 168 people on a nearby table . Tea & coffee was placed along side the welcome drinks, but couldn't be consumed as it took another 30 mins (& several requests) for milk to be sourced & provided.

The meal served was very tasty & a good size.

Steve & Laura seemed competent supervisors, did a good job, were communicative, available, & happy in their work.

Afterwards in the Bar -

Bar Staff did not use initiative in cleaning up or wiping down tables. Supervisors too busy doing other jobs. Repeated requests for service 'batted off' with a "We just need to do this first".

Pint of pale ale -£6.25.

Pre ordered Sandwiches & chips were EVENTUALLY put out in the bar area. Simply plonked on a table to dry out/go cold. No presentation whatsoever.

The only way for the 168 people to eat the chips was by scooping them out of the 2 X 18" bowls with their bare fingers/holding them in their hands .- No cutlery, no plates provided. No sauces, no vinegar, no condiments at all.

The Bar tables were left cluttered & full of empty glasses the whole evening . Meaning people couldn't even place their un-plated sandwiches down on the bare table tops.

A lack of training seemed evident. A lack of people taking any initiative once it was seen that things had gone wrong or were incorrect. A lack of supervisors oversight or quality control was evident. It seemed supervisors were busy doing other people's jobs.

Yes,it was busy ,but no excuse for a prearranged event for 168 people.

This was not surprise walk in custom. It was anticipated booked/planned & should have been catered for, in staff planning/rosters beforehand

No excuse for dirty floors.

Do not feel I could recommend at these prices & at this low level of service.

Update Nov '24 - following 'Guest Manager's reply. Establishments within the Hospitality industry can either deal with constructive criticism or deny/ignore it at their peril.

Yes, the event...

First, don't book last minute. You will get an annex room even if the description doesn't say it!

Second, NOT kid friendly. There were nothing but drunk people at this property. It was 4pm and already drunk people.

Third, not worth the price tag. I booked a room that did not say it was an annex, but it was. If I had known I would have never booked. This is actually disputable and this hotel needs to be more careful because yes, we CAN get our money back. It's called false advertising. For the room: They put us in the basement... It smelled really bad. It was damp as well...the rooms were not clean. The rug even in the hallway looked moldy--but definitely stained!! This is like American version of a super 8, but worse! No heat! They give you a little plug in heater. Wow! Just wow. The window cracks open, but you can't use it because so many drinks outside being extremely loud. Do English people not know how to hold their alcohol? 😅. They are EXTREMELY loud. It's crazy.

Fourthly, we complained about it being loud ALL night. We called and they said they would handle it. I asked them if not we needed to move rooms. They never handled it and would not move us. I never got any sleep! My husband who is a deep sleeper also never got any sleep because of how loud they are. Apparently they have a smoking section right outside the annex room windows and that's where they all party.

We left early because --we were not happy about the rooms and the noise kept us up. So we left at 4am! We told the guy at the reception about this and he did nothing. Just refunded our parking...😂 I appreciate the sentiment but that is not enough.

The grand finale was a drunk lady at 4am. I don't know what she was doing but she was in the reception clearly incapacitated and was trying to start a random fight with us 😂 the guy at the reception did nothing about that either 😂 moral of the story: we are young travelers who are very flexible. We couldn't sleep, couldn't imagine an older person. And the beds were uncomfortable, and I was worried bugs would come out at any moment too 😂 it was a horrible experience. The worst experience of our 16 day trip throughout Europe!

You don't deserve your stars for this hotel. You have the money, you need to do better by your customers or you will lose this place one day.

For the good stars: they have better rooms that you must book well in advance and even then according to some reviews, they don't get still.

They have good rooms and then roach like rooms. This is a selfish hotel. We have stayed at some good $500/night hotels that deserve their stars. This place did not deserve any. And they charged at a high rate 😂 at least have the decency to charge less and tell us what we are...