Back in February I was fortunate enough to win a two night stay at the Heywood House Hotel in Liverpool with Hotel Rez’s twitter account. The prize was for a mid-week stay in a comfy room for two people worth around £145. I decided to bring my mum along for a short break mini break in Liverpool and so we picked out dates and set off on a Liverpool adventure.
The Heywood is a ‘budgetique’ (a term they have coined) type of hotel and supposedly one of the coolest hotels available in Liverpool, and to be honest, I fully agree.
Description:
The Heywood House Hotel is a boutique styled hotel located
within the heart of Liverpool city. All local and historic attractions such as
The Dockyards, museums, shops, restaurants and bars are right on your door step
and are easily accessible by walking. The Heywood is nestled within a small side
street just off the main road which hosts their main shopping Center and is
around a 20 minute walk (slow pace) from Liverpool Lime Street Train station.
First impressions:
We arrived at the Heywood around 40 minutes before our 3pm
check in time (which I thought was quite a late check in time) and entered a
small but modern reception area. Dotted around the reception were lots of tourist paraphernalia along with tea
and coffee facilities. My only gripe was that the receptionist was nowhere to
be seen for around 5 – 10 minutes. It may have been because we arrived earlier
than expected but it did take a little while before we were greeted even though
the hotel staff were sitting in a room just behind the reception.
Once we were greeted, we were met by young man who was
friendly and informative. He explained our room was not ready as we were so
early, so he offered to look after our luggage in a private room in the
reception, so that we could go off and explore the city for a bit without
having to lug our suitcases around.
After a short exploration around the Docks for 40 minutes we
made our way back to the hotel and checked in to our room, 211. This hotel is
much bigger than it looks from the outside, do not be fooled but it luckily has a lift to it’s many floors so no need to drag those suitcases or shopping up a few flights of stairs.
The Room:
My first impressions of our room was that it was a lovely
size; perfect size for
two adults. The décor was modern and sleek but also very cosy.
The bathroom was huge, much bigger than I thought it would be and it was fitted with an all-white suite including a bath.
The bed was large and very soft. Thankfully it was quite large as
I had originally asked for a twin room but was given a double instead. My mum
and me didn’t kick up a fuss and were just happy to be settled after our long
day of travelling. The bed did have quite thin pillows which lacked any
real oomph or sturdiness; you only got one normal bed pillow and then a
decorative pillow, both were paper thin. On the up side, the all white
bed linen was lovely, clean and soft; perfect.
Once we had settled in, we started to notice it is quite a
dark room; the windows aren’t that big and there isn’t a lot of natural light available.
The lights in the room are also fairly dull and even though there are many of them, it didn’t help the darkness situation.
Another thing to mention is that our room also faced an
office. I’m fairly certain no one in the office could see through the netted
curtains, but as it’s a city, it's expected to be close to your neighbors.
There were also tea and coffee making facilities available
within the room, along with a lovely set of shampoo and conditioners in the bathroom.
The room also has its own air conditioning and heating unit which you could control from within the room. This was perfect as the evenings were a bit chillier than usual and we needed to crank up the heating.
Even though we didn't ask for our room to be cleaned after
our first’s night stays, after we returned from our day out, we came back to
find our entire room and bathroom were cleaned and hovered. It was unexpected but a lovely welcome back as many hotels only do this on the second night of staying. This
for me, was a massive plus, nothing beats a nice, clean hotel room.
Location:
As mentioned, this hotel is right in the heart of Liverpool’s
city center and within walking distance to all major attractions and shopping
districts. The only thing I’d mention is the cobbled streets, I’d advised some
comfy walking shoes as there is a lot to see and a lot of uneven surfaces!
With the hotel being located so close to everything, inevitably
you will get groups of men and women going out to the clubs and coming back
late in the evening a bit merry and a bit loud. Obviously this is not the
hotels fault, but don't expect complete silence during the wee hours of the morning on the
weekends.
The hotel is set back on a side street; however there is a
comedy pub right next door to the Heywood. On the Thursday evening you couldn't hear a peep from the place, but on Friday night…wooo…there was a lot of noise
until the very early hours of the morning. Again, this is not the hotel’s fault
but I can’t imagine young families or older people appreciating this. My mother
and I were so exhausted from walking all day; we ended up passing out and were
only woken a few times during the night from the noise.
Overall:
I’d definitely go back to the Heywood and I would
definitely recommend it to a friend. They have amazing deals on their website
for their Plush Rooms (some are available with a balcony) which sometimes work
out better than their comfy rooms (which I was in). I wouldn't recommend any
young families or older groups visit their on the weekend, as the noise from
the pub and the revelers coming back home late from a night out, might be a bit
much, but during the week it seemed like a quiet and welcoming hotel to stay in. The staff are friendly and attentive, they always asked if you needed help and gave sound advice for us new timers to the city.
All in all, it's an affordable hotel in a fantastic location, with wonderful and friendly staff with cosy yet modern rooms, what more could you want?
