Berkeley Suites — Hotel in Bristol

On the positive side: the location is excellent and very close to Bristol University where I was attending a conference. The staff that we dealt with all seemed friendly and competent. There were some nice touches such as the sherry and the prosecco on the first night and fresh fruit. Apart from this, I don’t know if we were unfortunate in the Suite that we stayed in (Suite One in the basement) but it had a number of problems and overall I found the standard of the accommodation to be disappointing for the following reasons:|1. There was a pervasive damp smell to the apartment with a whiff of decay. I am not sure if this was due to proximity to the restaurant or structural.|2. The wiring seemed like it needed to be replaced with lights in both the bedroom and living area constantly flickering.|3. The projector in the living area was old and slow and once we got it to work, turned out to be too loud, for it to be possible to watch tv on|4. The wifi was quite unreliable and mainly only worked in the main living area.|5. The “kitchenette in a cupboard”, is probably fine for people who are just staying for a couple of days, but it’s not very well equipped if you are staying for a longer period (as we were) and hoping to be able to prepare anything more than toast or to reheat something on the single plate. The fridge is very small too. |6. The main living area was generally uncomfortable. The couch looked interesting, but it was not very comfortable for two people to sit on for extended periods. There was a very small rug and it generally felt quite bleak sitting in there with little natural light during the day and under flickering light at night.|7. There were 2 dining chairs and one of these was broken.|8. The bedroom is nicer with some light coming through from a small courtyard. However, I saw water leak through the ceiling in the bedroom onto the couch. This should be attended to.||I understand that this is an older property and it’s possible that the other Suites are better but all I can report on is my own experience which, apart from the location, had little to...

I called this hotel before booking to see if they had a lift and parking since we're traveling with an infant. The person on the phone told me they had a lift so I proceeded to book on the same phone call, but she failed to tell me that the suites we were booking were in a separate building with no lift. Our suite was on the top floor so we had to carry our baby, stroller, and all the associated luggage a baby requires up 6 flights of stairs. For the parking, our SUV didn't fit in the hotel's provided parking garage so we had to park on the street.

The room itself was very cramped despite having a separate living room area and I felt like most of the decor was just for pictures and not exactly useful. For example, there was complementary pasta available in the kitchenette but no pot that would fit the pasta and no strainer. I called down to ask for paper towels or a dish towel and they told me they didn't have that and asked what it was for. The fridge was full of items for purchase so if you actually wanted to store anything in the fridge there was no room.

I had to crouch to get into the bed because of the low ceiling (I'm 5 foot 3).

I'm not sure how this is listed separately from the Berkeley Square Hotel, they're the same place.

Despite all of this, the halloumi at breakfast...

It was truly nearly the perfect room - talk about luxury! The living room is definitely the main character - the chandeliers, the furniture. All was simply extraordinary. However, the bedroom was quite standard, I would say, considering the expectations that the living room set. Perhaps, I was expecting something even more impressive, but, of course, it is just a bedroom at the end of the day and it served it’s purpose - great sleep 🤭. Some attention to detail was also lacking in some areas, for instance in the shower and the mattress itself there were some hairs found, but that didn’t exactly bother me at the time.

Talking about breakfast - I would say there was quite a lot of things that you could order for your mains, including vegetarian options. The staff at the breakfast service was also reasonably polite, but didn’t acknowledge me upon the arrival.

Location - 5 stars 🌟 ! The hotel was located in a rather very convenient location, which allowed me to explore the city that I was planning before I arrived. There were quite a few shops and restaurants around the hotel itself, so definitely worth it. There was also a nice park and a tower right next to the hotel.

Overall, this hotel was an add-on to my Bristol adventure and provided an escape that I very...