Untitled Document

Apologies for not having written sooner, especially after you had both been so kind over the last few years. I very much enjoyed staying at 146, especially with all the nonsense going on in education and my time was made more bearable by the good atmosphere you had managed to create. I miss those breakfast conversations with all and sundry.

Jan 2011

Hello Fellow Guests

It is often said that bad publicity is good publicity. It is not a view that I would share in this particular instance.

We have received a couple of vitriolic, unwarranted and nasty reviews which I consider an insult to our good name and a personal attack on my own character.
Trip Advisor has refused to publish my own response and for this reason that I have chosen to comment via our website.

Those who criticised have also chosen to remain anonymous (one wonders why?).

Our rooms are always clean and fresh. If you can’t work the shower, please ask. If the remote doesn’t work, please ask.

We are a Guest House and our Reception is not open 24/7. This is why we ask you to advise us of your estimated time of arrival, so that someone is here to meet and greet you.
Continental breakfast is included in the price. English breakfast is extra.

Despite the recession, our prices have remained the same since 2009.
Our terms and conditions are clearly stated on our website.

Rest assured my fellow guests and friends that the matter will not be left to rest and fester, as I am personally taking Trip Advisor to task about this and will keep you informed of the outcome.

Rebuttal:-

In parts of the world, some cultures still practice servility and employ servants to do the bidding of their masters. Although England has transformed itself into a proud service industry, it is nevertheless, not a servile nation.

At The Moorlea, we pride ourselves on our high level of hospitality. We are here to serve and attend to the needs of our guests. However, neither the management nor any member of its staff is here to be treated with condescension.

Occasionally, we have to deal with a few minority guests who can be self-possessed, egocentric, overcritical, oversensitive, capricious and confrontational. Under such circumstances, we do the best we can and personalities sometimes clash, but accusations of racism are grossly misleading and offensive.

We believe strongly in the intellectual and democratic rights of the individual to express his/her opinion without being vilified for it. I therefore feel no need to justify my own views and having travelled extensively abroad, I am more than aware of the criteria needed to satisfy the needs of our overseas visitors.

We are also a highly trusted service provider to the Universities, worldwide and the hundreds of positive comments we have received since I took over in 2008 would testify to our good standing and my own personal reputation.

Kind Regards
Albert Raymond

I just wanted to say a BIG thank you to your kindness and help in finding my way around Leeds. And I like to express my satisfaction on the lovely, clean, and homey hotel.. Now I know where to stay when I visit Leeds.

I’m back at home now and thought I would drop a few lines to thank you again for the pleasant stay I had at Moorlea.

I appreciated very much your attention to my needs, especially arranging the taxis which came very handy. Overall, your B&B provided me with all I needed during my stay in Leeds. I’m encouraging my younger sons to think about staying with you when they’ll be coming to Leeds next March to visit their brother. So, don’t be surprised to hear from our family again!

My son, Garen, tells me that Leeds is more or less at a standstill because of the snow, as are some other parts of the UK. I hope life gets back to normal soon. Strangely, we still have no snow in Ottawa and Montreal!

“Well located - but very basic”
Moorlea Hotel
rockystone_99 2 contributions
London, United Kingdom
Mar 26, 2010 | Trip type: Couples

If you're happy with a basic, clean room in a good location, then the Moorlea is fine. However, although the weather was not unseasonally cold, the room was. And to compound the problem, the duvets are too short for a tall man.
The power shower never exceeded a trickle and varied from freezing cold to pretty damn hot with just the slightest touch of the control.
The old fashioned TV had three channels but couldn't deliver BBC1.
The management are friendly and there is parking right outside with a complimentary permit, which is a great bonus.
The breakfast is basic and limited to one hour.
Not a bad place to stay at the price, but not the greatest either.
rockystone

Hello
We’ve had our first negative review for 2 years on Trip Advisor. In our book, any bad review is a blemish on our otherwise splendid reputation and we think that it deserves a response.

As our Mission Statement emphasises, we care very much for the comfort of our guests and within reason, we will do anything to make their stay with us a pleasurable experience.

It always puzzles me when people choose to complain after checking out. We are here to help and we will do our utmost to put right, whatever is perceived to be wrong with our hospitality and the levels of comfort we offer. We can fix any any any anything .com, but we can’t do it after the fact.

Yes, it was unseasonably cold in March but the fitted radiator works well and is more than adequate for the room size. During the big freeze, we bought in some additional oil filled radiators as back up. If our guest, aka Rockystone, had mentioned the coldness of the room, we would have placed an extra portable radiator in his room.

Far be it from us to critisise, but many of our guests cannot operate the shower. They either set the temperature gauge far too high which reduces the water pressure (Yes, to a trickle!). Had we been informed, we would have happily demonstrated the functions of the shower to our guest.

This particular guest could not get BBC 1. Why did he not ask? We would have gladly changed the TV or retuned the set.

We have replaced some of our sets with more modern Flat screens with Freeview, but the change is gradual. When we can afford to do so, all of our TV’s will eventually be upgraded.

We are in the middle of a recession and whether or not, people choose not to acknowledge it, it is a fact. Small businesses like us cannot afford to willy nilly spend money unnecessarily on luxury goods. Meanwhile, our old fashioned TV sets, such as they are, provide for the five major channels and with good picture resolution.

In 2008, we actually spent over £2000 upgrading all of our rooms to digital cabling.

It was said that we offered just a basic facilities. If that means clean sheets, clean towels, clean rooms, clean showers and toilets and soft toilet rolls, then we are happy to endorse the fact that we indeed offer our guests the basic facilities of a B&B/Guest House. Not to mention, our full English breakfast which is far from basic and is excellent and you will not find a wider variety of Kellogg’s cereals anywhere else. Oh yes, clean cutlery and napkins too.

We do not limit our breakfast to 1 hour.
Flexibility is key to our modus operandi and we have never refused breakfast to anyone after the advertised times. Most of our guests are visiting academics and leave for the University well before 9 a.m and our breakfast time suits them well.

We are aware of the habits of our non- academic visitors and make allowances for the fact that some get up later, especially at the weekends. As long as they do not take advantage of our good nature, we are more than happy to serve them breakfast outside the posted times. We recently had a Rock Band ‘The Duke & The King’ stay with us and we were serving them breakfast at noon, but we do have to get on with other housekeeping duties.

With regards to the duvet issue, all of our single and double duvets are 6 ft long. There is nothing we can do about it and future guests (6 feet tall and over) are advised to perhaps bring their own extra long duvets. Alternatively, a pair of thick socks to keep their pinkies warm. Ha!

March 2010
Dear Albert
I just wanted to write to say thank you for making our stay so lovely. My daughter and I were visiting to take a look at the university and to get a feel for what life might be like for her in Leeds.
The Moolrlea Guest House is wonderful and I would reccomend it to anyone looking for somewher to stay in Leeds. Having stayed in a city centre hotel last time I was there on business I would have no hesitation coming to your guest house again next time. It is in a great location, walking distance to the centre with the added advantage of being able to park outside. You made us feel very welcome and the scrambled eggs you prepared us for breakfast were the best I've ever had!

Thank you once again and I wish you all the best for the future - I hope that many more visitors come to stay and experience your hospitality. (Oh and we loved Leeds despite the horrendous rain on the day of our visit!)

best wishes
Paula Sutton.(Kidderminster)

I just want to say thanks for the lovely stay I had last week in Leeds. The hotel is very cosy and I thought the service was great.

Hopefully I will be able to come to leeds again sometime next year and I will definitely stay with you again if I do.

In July I spent an pleasant one night stay with breakfast at your guest house. My son and his father joined me for breakfast and you took some photographs for us. You said you would like some for your website so I am sending you two.

B&B in Leeds for under thirty-five quid? Couldn't go wrong, I thought.
And how right I was. The delightful proprietors go the extra half mile:
friendly and welcoming yet businesslike and efficient, Albert and Adele
ensured my one-night stay was a joy. A cosy, comfortable room, a
generous, well presented breakfast and a lovely atmosphere. Thanks. I
would be back were you not booked to the hilt until Christmas (no
wonder!)

I heard from Melinda, my colleague who recently took up a room with Moorlea, that she had been well taken care of by you. Am glad to know that and I thank you for your warmth and helpfulness! And I also found out that Albert may not likely be around when the group of us - Ima, Sim Yee, Reena, Rewa and myself, bunk in next March. Going off to Aust?
A little disppointing 'cos the poor Adele will be left alone taking care of our breakfast every morning...tiring herself out...hehehe. And, well Albert's been wonderful taking care of the housekeeping.

Whatever it is, nice to know you are both doing great in keeping Moorlea as lively as always been!

July 2009-07-12
Thank you for the usual warmth and very accommodating service you both rendered my sister and friends. I am very sorry that Elizabeth forgot to surrender the KEY on her checked out Friday,10th July. Keys for room#11 will be posted by registered delivery on Monday,13 July 2009. Please accept my apology for any inconvenience that may cost you.

July 2009-07-12
I recently stayed at the Moorlea, a friendly, homely place. Albert’s knowledge of Yorkshire is brilliant and I am now planning a return visit to Yorkshire.

The Moorlea appeared to us as a tiny port where you tie your boat and feel at home. Was it Shakespeare or Kurosawa who brought us back in time to King Lear and his sons? No, it was the 11th Royal Anthropological Ethnographic Film Festival. The Moorlea sounded to us more like a mysterious tree growing only in Yorkshire. It was night when small hills and fresh air welcomed us in Leeds. It was cloudy and dark when the Moorlea suddenly arose in front of us with its sleeping flower behind the window of a gleaming breakfast room. It became a place where to rest and dream, get fresh apples, ripe bananas and sweet strawberries, and discuss intricacies of human life.

It was the hosts who made the place glimmer. We enormously enjoyed our stay in the Moorlea. Thank you Albert & Adele.

Sept 2008
Thank you for looking after Anna. She found her way safely home and we are grateful to you for your help. She enjoyed her breakfast which kept her fed all day.

Best wishes,

The Vickers Family

Sept 2008
Please find enclosed your Parking Permit. Apologies for not handing it in when I checked out. I didn't even notice it until halfway home.

I would like to say that both my friends and myself really enjoyed our stay at The Moorlea. The rooms were great and everyone was very friendly. The next time I'm in Leeds, I will definitely return.

Regards

Andrew Kononowicz

Jan 2009
Just a quick note to thank you so much for your warm welcome to The Moorlea on Tuesday evening. After such a long drive it was nice to find crisp clean linen, warm room with more than adequate ensuite facilities, also very clean. Thank you for allowing us to return for Hannah to change for her interview. It meant she was not ' crumpled and creased' on arrival at the Uni!

She felt her interview went well and so we will hear in February if she is offered a place. We got home at 10.20 pm after a brief stop on the motorway and then 20 mins with friends nr Cheltenham.
In the meantime, very best wishes and many thanks.

Liz and Hannah

May 2009
Hi Adele and Crew

JUST TO SAY A HUGE THANK YOU FOR THE WEEKEND. WE HAD A BRILLIANT TIME & WHAT'S MORE A VERY EASY RETURN JOURNEY.

WE HAVE ALL FALLEN IN LOVE WITH LEEDS (NOT TOO SURE IF LEEDS HAS FALLEN IN LOVE WITH US ....?) BUT RIGHT FROM THE WORD GO, WE FELT AT HOME.

I HAVE NO HESITATION IN RECOMMENDING YOU TO FRIENDS.

ONCE AGAIN, A THANK YOU.

KIND REGARDS

NORA
(MY EARDRUMS ARE OK NOW)

Thank you for your support in Leeds. Whenever someone is going to ask me where to stay in Leeds, I’ll answer The Moorlea. Without you it would have been much harder to live in here. I am quite sad we have to leave already.

Thank you for making me so welcome. It was my first stay at The Moorlea – my room was comfortable and clean. Everyone has been so supportive and friendly. I will certainly make Moorlea my regular place when visiting the University.

Thank you very much for your warm hospitality at The Moorlea a few weeks ago. Yours was really one of the nicest B&B's I've ever stayed in, and certainly the friendliest. I have just realised I left without returning the 2 pounds you generously lent to me for bus fares; don't let me leave without repaying you next time!