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First off, a link to the article I'm referencing here: Barry Capal's Blog #3. (For the lazy amongst you: Barry Capal is the recently installed General Manager of the English Bridge Union, and the article is him moaning about the standard of the function rooms in the Brighton Metropole, where the recent Summer Festival of Bridge was held.)
I'm going to post about my experiences here, but first of all I'd better say that all of my grievances, and indeed those of the vast majority, are with the Metropole, their staff, and the level and availability of services. The organisation and running of the event by the EBU staff and directors (many of whom are volunteers) was, as ever, top-notch and ran as smoothly as ever.
Now, to the Metropole.
The congress was housed in the back of the hotel, in three large function/conference rooms (whose names escape me for now). Two were very functional - little in the way of decoration, fire doors open to the back of the hotel, randomly scattered seating and tables. One of these was a playing room, and the lighting levels for a room with no natural light just wasn't acceptable. I got a headache playing in that particular room. Thankfully I played only one session in there.
The biggest room, which is split into two levels with a balcony overlooking the main room, had two strips of tables beneath the overhanging balcony area where the lighting couldn't be used due to failed air-conditioning.
The toilets by and large were inadequate and certainly not befitting a venue like the Metropole (a 5-star hotel, owned by the Hilton group). The largest set of toilets got flooded at one point, and were out of use for over a day.
Bar and catering facilities were also very poor, and over-priced. The bars were selling draught XXXX at £3 a pint, usually in plastic glasses, and that was only when they didn't run out. They were running it all from temporary taps, with the barrels sat underneath them. There was a second, under-used, bar, but it was upstairs and quite a hike (and unless you're good at balancing acts, hardly ideal for brining more than a couple of pints down from). They were understaffed, by staff who clearly didn't know much about tending bar, and they were also totally unprepared for what would've been easily anticipated peaks in demand - particularly the end of the evening sessions, around 11pm, when a lot of players wanted to get a drink, and sit down and run through the day's hands.
All in all, this didn't feel much like an event hosted in a 5-star hotel.
I'm going to post about my experiences here, but first of all I'd better say that all of my grievances, and indeed those of the vast majority, are with the Metropole, their staff, and the level and availability of services. The organisation and running of the event by the EBU staff and directors (many of whom are volunteers) was, as ever, top-notch and ran as smoothly as ever.
Now, to the Metropole.
The congress was housed in the back of the hotel, in three large function/conference rooms (whose names escape me for now). Two were very functional - little in the way of decoration, fire doors open to the back of the hotel, randomly scattered seating and tables. One of these was a playing room, and the lighting levels for a room with no natural light just wasn't acceptable. I got a headache playing in that particular room. Thankfully I played only one session in there.
The biggest room, which is split into two levels with a balcony overlooking the main room, had two strips of tables beneath the overhanging balcony area where the lighting couldn't be used due to failed air-conditioning.
The toilets by and large were inadequate and certainly not befitting a venue like the Metropole (a 5-star hotel, owned by the Hilton group). The largest set of toilets got flooded at one point, and were out of use for over a day.
Bar and catering facilities were also very poor, and over-priced. The bars were selling draught XXXX at £3 a pint, usually in plastic glasses, and that was only when they didn't run out. They were running it all from temporary taps, with the barrels sat underneath them. There was a second, under-used, bar, but it was upstairs and quite a hike (and unless you're good at balancing acts, hardly ideal for brining more than a couple of pints down from). They were understaffed, by staff who clearly didn't know much about tending bar, and they were also totally unprepared for what would've been easily anticipated peaks in demand - particularly the end of the evening sessions, around 11pm, when a lot of players wanted to get a drink, and sit down and run through the day's hands.
All in all, this didn't feel much like an event hosted in a 5-star hotel.
