recently stayed at this hotel with my girlfriend for the weekend and had an excellent stay in this hotel. booked it before reading reviews on this site so didnt expect much from the hotel. however, now i would disagree with nearly every bad comment made by other reviews. the location is perfect, the room we had was clean and spacious and the staff were helpful and very friendly. we had a river view room, which i highly recommend booking, and had fantastic views of the minster and the rest of york. the breakfast was also brilliant,wide choice range of food and a nice dinning area. some people obviously have far too high expectations of what a four star hotel should be like, as in our opinion we both enjoyed our stay and would disagree with other reviews. i would definately stay here again on another visit to york

Hi,

My wife and I spent a couple of nights in this hotel recently and I'm sorry to say, I would have to agree with many of the opinions expressed in this forum. I booked the hotel despite being aware of some of the negative views and comments offered on 'Tripadvisor'. I suppose I was hoping that they were exaggerations and that the handy location of the hotel and it's proximity to the train station (10 minute walk)would compensate.

The hotel itself is a drab, characterless 8 floor high rise building which I would guess was built in the 60s. We arrived early - 11:55am and asked if the room was ready for check in. It wasn't, but we were informed that it would be ready by 2:15pm (pretty late for a check in I thought). However, we weren't too bothered as we just wanted to get out and see the sights.

When we arrived back in the evening, we picked up our luggage and proceeded to our room. The lifts looked unwelcoming - lined with dimpled silver metal, they would have looked more in place in a council high rise flat. It was apparent when we got to our room that we had been allocated one in a refurbished part of the hotel as the hall carpet changed from a musty smelling brown to a newer looking blue themed one. We were quite relieved by this but I've got to say that if this WAS a refurbished room, it was not done to a very high standard. Paint was chipped from the bottom of the bathroom door (which incidentally didn't close properly) and there was a gap where the bath panel met the wall. The room itself was fine apart from some chipped and scuffed paintwork and a 'lumpy' look to the walls (as if the plaster work hadn't been smoothed and prepared prior to hanging the wallpaper).

All in all, this wasn't a terrible experience - the buffet style breakfast was really quite good and we didn't have to put up with any undue noise. It's just that for a four star hotel, I would have expected better. I think it would have been wiser of the owners to have spent a little more money on the refurbishment as parts of it were already beginning to look a bit shabby.

When I next visit York, I will stay in the 'Best Western Dean Court' hotel. We came across this hotel during our travels and it looked very grand from the outside and was in a very good central location.

Sorry 'Moathouse' but we won't be visiting you again.

This hotel really was better than I expected. It's not stylish or contemporary, but when you get inside, it's not unpleasant. The bar on the first floor is actually quite nice.

The staff were fine and unoffensive, if sometimes unpolished and a little unprofessional.

I had an upgraded Crown Room which was nice, but nothing remarkable - especially as an upgraded room. It did have a bath robe and fine bed.

So, overall, nothing to write home about or be excited by, but in an upgraded room at least, there's nothing really wrong with this place.

On first sight this hotel looked horrible from the outside. Once inside it looks nice but then you get into the lift and its like walking into Butlins in 1960s!. I have stayed in many hotels in York. I would never stay here again. Rumour has it that its not really a 4* and doesnt really have a star rating!!! Its definately more like a 2 to me. The rooms are old and smelly and definately more than 3 things in each room dont work. Save your money and check into one of the cheap hotels in York or better still a good B&B!