My wife and I were celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary and stayed at the Minster hotel. First impressions were OK, a very nice and helpful young receptionist checked us in and later organised a taxi , our room was number 20. A very tired room with the most uncomfortable bed, springs and lumps were bulging out of it everywhere. That evening was cold, 9c outside, the radiators didn`t work, no central heating, never mind watch TV for a while, the web site states satellite TV with modern facilities, only there is an old portable with no aerial, two broken remotes and the only channel watchable was channel 4. The bathroom was not clean, with marks in the toilet, the mirror was dirty and in the morning there was no hot water from the shower. At check-out I was asked if everything was OK , I mentioned the above comments to be told they would be passed on to the manager. I e-mailed these comments later but noone has had the courtesy to reply. Do not be put off York, we went to the Blue Bicycle for dinner, it was fantastic.

We have stayed there several times and it used to be fine, but the last couple of stays we have been given very sub-standard rooms with awful bathrooms. The wash basin and taps hadn't been cleaned properly this time, and the overflow hole was black. The bathtaps were surrounded by scum, there was black mold round the bath and the tiles were cracked and broken. I know that the public loos on the ground floor were renovated not that long ago, yet 2 out of 3 toilets in the Ladies had no working lock and the seats were loose. The Gents were, I'm told, no better and the tiles were dirty. While we were there, there was dirty bedding thrown in the corner of the stairs and its was not removed - it must have been there over 24 hours.
WE've known the place for more than five years and there seems to have been a renovation programme going on all that time, although we have never been given a newly decorated room. The management really needs to get its act together and clean the place up. The only reason for staying here now would be that it is well situated and actually has a free carpark, which very few in central York can offer. I think we'd have to be desperate though before we would go back.

This hotel leaves a lot to be desired. We were booked to stay for three nights and paying £119 per night.
The first thing we noticed was that the room was dirty. I don't think a hoover has been used for a long time, there was thick dust on the shelves, the tea cups on the tray had brown rings in, the toilet had not been cleaned and had stains on the seat.
The shower was just one of those hand held heads so we couldn't have a proper shower. The tiles on the bathroom floor were loose and there was no toilet roll holder. I tried to turn the bedside light on to find that there was no bulb in it and on looking round the room there was no bulbs in the other lights either. I told reception about this who gave me some bulbs to try - didn't work, so the receptionist told me it would be reported the next day to the maintenence man. The next day came and went and nothing happened!.
On the first morning we went for breakfast to find a group of people all waiting to be seated. The tables had not been cleared from previous guests and were piled with dirty dishes. We had to wait 20 minutes just to be seated.
We checked out a day early and went elsewhere as we were very dissapointed with the service and level of cleanliness. We will not be back.

There were good points about the hotel, I'll start with those;
the bar is quite nice with a clubby atmosphere, reception staff are friendly and helpful, our room was a reasonable size and had high ceilings, the location is close to all York has to offer if you are on foot.

The bad;
the room was so jaded and old fashioned very 1980's. Our four poster was small and uncomfortable and had grubby grey net curtains. We had a view of a flat roof. Worst though was the bathroom, it was filthy, the window cill was covered in dirt and the previous occupants waste. There was horrible black mould on the tiles along with soap scum, the floor tiles were cracked and raised.

The car park was full, despite this being one of the reasons we booked, it is big enough for all guests cars, but they do not monitor whose cars are in there. We had to use a public car park.

There was a wedding and disco on the first night we stayed, we were only informed on arrival, also that the restaurant was closed. We asked to speak to the manager and we were told that there was no one in charge as staff were just 'left to get on with it' in the evenings.

There are a lot of nice hotels in York, go to the Royal, or deansgate. We were charged £250 (about $500) for two nights.