Highs and lows of staying in Liverpool
Our road trip has reached the half way point and has taken us to some amazing places and some wonderful hostels too. We've realised hostels are the best way to do a long-term road trip like this on a budget. It's been interesting to see how different people and companies approach accommodation facilities and quality.
In to the north of England after fun in the Lake District, York and Newcastle, it was time to check out the iconic northern city of Liverpool. Home to the Beatles, famous dock yards and some wonderful architecture.
Hatters Hostel in Liverpool
We stayed at the well located and rather large Hatters hostel. A short walk to the rejuvenated dock yards area and centre of town. We've discovered on our trip that the bigger the hostel the more you get in space but the less you get in quality. Hatters was no exception unfortunately.
So lets start with the positive things. The place is huge! A grand historic building on the outside and a labyrinth of hallways and rooms on the inside. There's 2 kitchens, tv room, games lounge, 2 big rooms on the ground floor for eating and drinking. Another canteen in the basement and an Internet cafe area. The bedrooms were a decent size and the doors had key cards for access. The light breakfast was one of the best we've had provided for free in a hostel too. Every bedroom has a flat screen TV and our private bathroom was large and had a shower, so there's no shortage of features here for them to boast.
Big hostel problems
There's only two things any hotel or hostel needs to do. Give you a good nights sleep and make you feel welcome. Unfortunately the hatters hostel in Liverpool failed on both of those and not for just a couple of reasons either.
Our private room had a bed so soft you could feel the wood below the thin foam mattress. Our bathroom had a mould patch up the wall that had clearly been cultivating for some time. A health hazard that hasn't been cleaned off. The bedrooms are off a long corridor and all of the doors slam as there's no way to close them quietly. This means even with considerate guests you're likely to be woken up multiple times during the night by the bomb like bangs coming from the hallway. Weirdly the least considerate guests were there on the Monday who enjoyed shouting in the hallway at 3am.
So a decent nights sleep wasn't going to happen. Unfortunately there were more problems that added to the sense that guests aren't really welcome here. While breakfast was provided and was pretty good too, all the cutlery and crockery seemed to disappear once everyone has finished. We cooked in both their kitchens and attempted to make a hot drink during the day too. Every time we looked for a spoon, fork, plate or cup we discovered empty draw after empty draw. Putting together enough crockery and cutlery for an evening meal involved hunting through both kitchens and even asking staff on one occasion. It's as if everything is locked away after breakfast as guests can't be trusted. Very strange and frustrating.
Broken heating and more problems
As we're coming in to the winter months the outside temperature in the UK is getting chilly. It was surprising then to find that the central heating didn't work anywhere in the building. Our bedroom was so cold it was uninhabitable most of the time. We asked them to sort it on more than one occasion but they could do nothing all weekend. We were even told at one point that "There's been something wrong with it for ages, sometimes it comes on in summer and we can stop it". We even tweeted the hostel to complain after 2 nights without heating. Their response was 'you can get an extra duvet from reception'. On the last night the heating finally came on but only between 5pm and 11pm. After that the temperature dropped once more and we woke up cold and feeling unwelcome once again.
All of these issues seem to stem from the fact that the hostel was so big. Clearly very hard to maintain and with no clear manager or owner to speak directly to. The staff couldn't really help, the cleaners didn't really clean the rooms and the features they boast turned out to be drab, unloved and strangely organised.
The TV room could have been warm and inviting but ended up being a slightly depressing room with suspended ceiling and fluorescent light that only half worked. The ground floor spaces were large but unused. It should have been the main dining area as it had large windows and lots of sunlight. Instead breakfast was in the dimly lit basement with no windows and in a lot smaller space.
We got the feeling this place was loved once, maybe 10 or 15 years ago but now it's just used on a daily basis without really thinking what would make it a great hostel. I can't imagine any of the staff have actually stayed here to test out the facilities. Something every staff member should do in the hostel they work in so they know how good or bad their product may be.
Its location and relative price compared to hotels nearby makes it a popular budget option and it was busy with stag parties, hen parties and foreign students attending a language school nearby. If you plan on partying a lot and only being in the hostel between 1am and 9am it's probably perfect. The reviews online seem to reflect that. Unfortunately thats not the experience we had. You just don't expect mouldy, chilly and uncomfortable bedrooms with confusing and frustrating features.
Exploring Liverpool
Thankfully it didn't ruin our 3 nights in Liverpool and we had fun exploring the city centre, it's Cathedrals, a Beatles taxi tour and walking around the Albert docks. It's a city bouncing back from the 80's and 90's gloom that affected Liverpool in a big way.
Our thanks to Hatters hostel in Liverpool and Hostelworld for their support on our great British road trip. Also to GetYourGuide for the wonderful Fab 4 Beatles Taxi tour.
