Last weekend, Ellie & I took part in another GO London hike (18km from Chilham to Canterbury). Considering that it had been in this little town, that I had proposed to my good wife, 16 years ago, we decided to make a weekend away of it and stay for a night. This is my review.
REVIEW OF THE CORNER HOUSE HOTEL IN CANTERBURY
Many of the other hotels had been booked out, so we ended up booking the largest room, The Dickens Room, at the Corner House, for £200. When this former 16th Century tavern was still called The Three Musketeers, the great Victorian writer had once spent a night there, even though it is unclear in which room. While the 600-year old Christmas market in the medieval town centre attracts a lot of visitors during the advent season, summer tends to be much busier than winter. During the main season, the price for the Dickens goes up to £250 a night, possibly more, if you book last-minute. In January, when many people are too skint to splash out on hotel rooms, prices start from £111.
All pics & video (c) BerkeleySqB.
NOT AN UNUSUAL PRICE RANGE BETWEEN OFF-SEASON AND SEASON
Not such an unusual price range, and certainly less than at the hotel, where Ellie & I stayed during a recent visit to Paris. That hotel had a sign next to the reception, which announced that the price for a standard double room is €140 to €2,800. I asked the receptionist, ‘surely this must be a mistake?’ She said, ‘No, by law we cannot charge prices outside the advertised price range, and during the Olympics, for a short period, €2,800 is the price we charged per night for last-minute bookings.’
CHEAPER OPTIONS AT THE CORNER HOUSE HOTEL IN CANTERBURY
The cheapest room (still en suite), the Becket Room, ranges in price from £94 to £230. A quick google search reveals that five years ago, the most expensive room during the high season, was £160 a night. It is entirely unclear why anyone would have thought that a price increase in excess of 50% over such a short period of time was justified, considering that nothing in the amenities, features, or interior design seems to have changed. This isn’t a proper hotel, it has no stars, and it’s not next to the cathedral or on the rather picturesque High Street with all its half-timbered houses. We are talking about five rooms above a (gastro)pub, located outside the city walls. Right next to a very busy dual carriageway. If you need parking (we didn’t), then this will set you back another £14 per night. Should you want to check out an hour later at 12 noon instead of 11am, then this will be another £15. It is not possible to book a proper late checkout, or at least no such option is mentioned on the website.
YOU WILL NEED TO REGISTER ONLINE BEFORE ARRIVAL
Booking online is easy, as you would expect (but I booked through Booking dot com). A day before check-in, you receive an email that, in no uncertain terms, makes it clear that you must register online before your arrival. We’ve seen more and more hotels employ this entirely unnecessary and unpleasant method of making things easier for themselves. What if you’re travelling abroad with no easy access to email.
THE RESTAURANT AT THE CORNER HOUSE HOTEL IN CANTERBURY
The Corner House’s homonymous restaurant has received various awards and has excellent ratings and reviews. That said, when I tried to book dinner online for the day of our arrival, I was put off by the fact that the only option available was a two- or three-course Christmas dinner, no normal food. More importantly, the T&Cs give you the distinct impression, that once you’ve booked, a cancellation, even if weeks ahead of your booking, will cost you £20 per person.
HAVING DINNER AT IL POSTICINO ACROSS THE STREET INSTEAD
We ended up having dinner at Tuscan restaurant Il Posticino, literally just across the street from the Corner House, which was a mixed experience. Solid cooking, delicious flavours, friendly and attentive service, but seriously overpriced for what it is. We’ve eaten much better for much less at Michelin-starred eateries in Mayfair. Even restaurant chain outlets close to the Corner House, like Cote Brasserie or Five Guys, would have been a much better choice than this pretentious little place, or better: Il Posticino Pretenzioso.
CONFUSING MESSAGING
Throughout our stay, the information we were given by the Corner House staff, was confusing, we were given different breakfast and different check-out times by different staff. Inside the room there is a sign that asks guests to leave their keys in the room when checking out. The staff had initially told us to leave the keys at a wooden board with hooks in the staircase. In the end the staff took the keys from us at the reception, and so on.
NO STAFF AT HOTEL OVERNIGHT
We were also surprised to find out, that no staff are on the premises after 11pm. They do provide an emergency contact number, but really only for emergencies. Not if you need an extra blanket or a plate. More often, recently, than ever in the past, with almost all hotels, just like the Corner House, moving from traditional metal keys to electronic cards and proximity tags, we’ve had cases where our electronic room key had stopped working. Maybe you should not have placed it that close to your phone or your other cards? Perhaps an unusually strong solar storm caused electronic havoc on planet earth? Simple wear and tear? Whatever it is, with a manned reception, this is no major issue. Good luck calling an emergency number in the middle of the night.
THE DICKENS ROOM AT THE CORNER HOUSE HOTEL IN CANTERBURY HAS A LOVELY ATMOSPHERE
None of this seemed relevant, when we were lazing about in our room, taking it easy. The Dickens room has a lot of space, a lovely ceiling with wooden beams, a quirky bathroom, a disused fireplace, and not least: two large bay windows, from one of which we could see the Roman city walls. The furniture is nothing too fancy, but pleasant enough. We liked the dozen or so 19th Century volumes of a Dickens collection and the copy of The Corner House cookbook. For a freakishly tall dude like myself, the ceiling was a little low, meaning I had to make sure I didn’t bang my head on the ceiling lamps and wooden beams, or the door frames. (The staircase also has a big warning sign, to watch your head.) Moreover, it wasn’t ideal that the standard-length bed had a footboard, because this meant that I wasn’t able to stretch. Can’t really hold that against the hotel, though, as they have plenty of pictures on their website, which had given me advance warning.
MATTRESS, STYLISH WALLPAPER, FURNITURE, SECONDARY GLAZING, AND THE COOKIE SITUATION
While Ellie felt that the mattress was a tiny tad too soft for her liking, I was happy with it. We both loved that the bathroom floor is massively tilted, and the main room a little. The thick curtains and carpet, combined with the stylish wallpaper on the wall behind the bed, combine into a very homely, comfy atmosphere. There are two small rectangular tables and one desk, plus four chairs and one stool. During the day, a lot of light gets into the room, which makes all the difference to me. At night, various different lamps provide plenty of warm light. The curtains together with the secondary glazing keep all the light and some of the noise from outside away. It is still rather noisy, but guests will find two sets of ear plugs on their bedside tables. Personally, I don’t care too much about cookies, chocolates, the types of tea and coffee available, what’s in the fridge. I liked that they had a small refrigerator (with two bottles, one water, one milk). Ellie would have much preferred if they would have had a few sweets and at least one herbal tea.
WATER TAPS, SHOWER, BATHROOM DOOR, TOILETRIES
There were some further quirks, for example, next to no water pressure on the hot water and cold water taps (no mixer tap), and the water from the shower, which had OK water pressure, didn’t get hot, only warm, even if you had it running on maximum temperature for a few minutes. The door to the bathroom only opens, if you don’t have towels on the near side of the towel radiator. Indeed, the space is so tight, they had to cut out a little bit from the wooden door in order to fit around the radiator when opening or closing it. The toiletries were limited to the absolute basics and all run-of-the-mill.
WHEN BOOKING THE CORNER HOUSE HOTEL IN CANTERBURY, GUESTS ARE BEING ‘WARNED’ ABOUT THE BREAKFAST
Overall, and cost aside, I would consider the room very agreeable and I really enjoyed spending some time there. Then came the next morning with breakfast. Already when booking, guests are being advised that breakfast is being served on a tray, brought to the room at a time of the hotel’s choosing, and to be had in bed. They do warn you, that it includes “homemade granola, yoghurt and homemade berry compote, warm toast with butter and preserve, pain au chocolat, fresh fruit, and orange juice,” but in reality it looks even poorer than on paper. Also, instead of warm toast we had four cold, tiny, toasted slices of sourdough bread, instead of butter we had what we presume must have been whipped cream. The fresh fruit turned out to be two super-tiny, very organic looking apples (not the “this tastes so much better than expected” kind of organic, but the “you couldn’t possibly get anyone to pay money for this” type). Instead of two glasses of yogurt we had one, instead of two glasses of orange juice we had one, instead of two portions of granola, we had one. Not sure when they stopped serving warm breakfast. In February 2017, less than a year after the hotel had been opened, when the Guardian journalist visited, there was a lot of praise for the sumptuous Full English. The tomato ketchup that came with it, received particular praise.
MAKE YOUR OWN COFFEE IN THE FRENCH PRESS
You have to make your own coffee using a French Press coffee maker, the one with the movable plunger inside a glass carafe. We were joking that this was definitely not a B&B (bed & breakfast) but BS (“bed, snacks,” respectively a metaphorical male bovine’s excrement).
SOME ATTITUDE AMONG THE STAFF
Throughout our stay we constantly got a slight whiff of arrogance from the staff. For example, they would say “what’s the name of your booking” rather than “welcome to the Corner House, may I ask what name your booking is under,” or when you ask them, like we did, if there is still a table for two available at their restaurant, they would turn away, say nothing for 20 seconds, while checking, then “only from 9pm,” not “let me check for you, let’s see, nothing right now, oh, unfortunately the first available time slot is 9pm, would that still work for you” or similar. One was always made to feel more like a minor inconvenience rather than a valued paying customer.
A BIT OF FAULTY TOWERS CHARM
In some ways quite hilarious. It didn’t hurt our feelings, but we felt the behaviour was a little inappropriate and wildly wondrous. At one stage I found myself mimicking Corner House hotel staff for Ellie’s amusement, while we were sitting on our own at the table in our hotel room: “Well, may I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Canterbury hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest swinging majestically across the plain?”
A “LUXURY SMALL HOTEL”?
In my view, the local staff’s manners would be perfectly acceptable at a thirty-quid-a-night B&B. Even more so, because you’d be certain to get a hearty English breakfast. But please do not call yourself a “luxury small hotel” (a label we didn’t even take serious at the time of booking, because we knew it was unjustified, even only from looking at the pictures and considering the set-up, five rooms above a pub). Our guess is that all the awards and high rankings must have gotten into someone’s head, and gradually from there into everyone else’s heads. Those things happen.
CONCLUDING THE REVIEW
Would we stay at the Corner House again? No, I don’t think so. How would we rate it? This is a difficult one to answer. Based on the room alone, despite the aforementioned, rather significant issues with the room itself, I’d feel tempted to give it a 4 out of 5. However, once you take into account the price tag, the breakfast, and the service, it can’t be more than 2.75 out of 5, I’m afraid.
Looking for more travel posts? Feel welcome to check out my posts about Hotel Schloss Moenchstein in Salzburg, The Exhibitionist Hotel in London, Cotswold House & Spa in Chipping Campden, The Sheep on Sheep Street in Stow-on-the-Wold, Barshu Restaurant, Soho, Unusual Things to do in Paris, packrafting in Wales, and the Fisherman’s Trail in Portugal. I’ve also blogged about my recent rowing expedition in the Northwest Passage, how peasants’ food became posh, Bhutan and Papua New Guinea travel trivia, Ellie’s and my trips to Nepal and Tanzania, our kayaking and helicopter tours of London, and the Royal Geographical Society’s phenomenal Explore expedition workshop, earlier this year.
