"Maybe 3.5.
I like Hilton's Garden Inns. So first, the positive: the location was great. Walking distance to the train station, the aquarium, the shopping, the cathedral, and St. Mary's. And right next door to a little park where there are remarkable ruins of an old Templar church. Just Amazing.
The front desk staff were competent and friendly. Very helpful.
The room was clean and fine. (Side note: why do hotels that rent rooms for two people have only one place to put a suitcase? This hotel is no different from any other.) The bathroom was very small, with very little space to put out your toothbrush, toiletries, etc. The shower was nice.
The sort-of-good but annoying: There's a guest laundry. That's good. But it is ONE washer and ONE dryer, even though the room is quite big enough for more. That meant I did just one load of laundry, because somebody came in while my stuff was in the washer, and he wanted to do a load too. There was an ironing board but no iron. There was no place to sit. The washer leaked. And the machines took only coins. I've been to other Hilton Garden Inns where you buy a token at the desk to run the machine, so you can simply charge it to your room -- since most of us don't carry much cash these days. (The Hilton Garden Inn in Dublin does this.) This was a problem. The front desk will change paper to coins for you, but only English pounds. I had Scottish pounds (having recently been in Scotland), which are supposed to be legal tender throughout the UK, but the hotel would not accept them. I had to go find someplace that would accept them, to get change (thank you, Tesco express!).
The not-very-good: breakfast at the hotel was adequate, more or less. It was not well staffed and ran out of stuff, and was slow to re-stock.
The awful: dinner at the hotel. It was just awful. Eat someplace else. I've mercifully repressed whatever it was I ordered (i should have written this sooner; it's been three and a half or so weeks now), but I remember I couldn't finish it. Skip it. Walk someplace else for dinner; there are a number of places a short walk away. We just ate there the first night because we'd been traveling and we were tired and my husband's leg was bothering him.
Would I stay here again? Yes, although it might not be my first choice. At least I know what I'm getting in to, and it is really convenience to the train station. I would probably still eat breakfast there, I wouldn't eat dinner there, and I wouldn't plan to do laundry there (which is part of the reason I choose Garden Inns!). But as I said, the front desk were friendly and competent, and that goes a long way, and the room was comfortable and clean."
