Wikipedia describes Richard Hannay, the hero of John Buchan’s murder and mystery novel as “An all-action hero with a miraculous knack of getting himself out of sticky situations”.

Anyways Richard Hannay (aka HonSec)

sets off for Bath to find the perfect hotel for the club’s weekend away in April. Unfortunately Andrew and I seem to have chosen an expensive city and a busy date so that was not the easiest of tasks. Miraculous he did find an good hotel, the County Hotel,  in a leafy Boulevard less than a 10 minutes walk from the centre, and cleverly reserved the rooms on a 100% cancellation policy. We thought it was sorted.

However (is anything ever that easy?) some members who know the area pointed out that there were no lifts and the rooms were very small. When you have that information there is nothing to do but go and see for yourself.

As it happened we were going to Wales the next weekend so we decided to stay in  the hotel on the Thursday night. It was a good choice, with a comfortable lounge area. But unlike when Mr Hannay visited we were able to see the rooms. Indeed, most rooms were very small (8 sqm),  and they were on the second floor which meant climbing a total of 39 steps (actually it was 43 narrow winding steps but that would have ruined my story). And, given the club’s policy of charging members the same room price regardless of the size or location of the room, we felt that someone on the top floor with a tiny room overlooking the street would not be very happy to pay the same as someone in a 25sqm room on the first floor overlooking the lawns and the Abbey!

But could we find another hotel so late in the day? There is the Premier Inn but it is fairly soul-less and has no communal areas at all. Opposite it we found the Apex Bath Hotel https://www.apexhotels.co.uk/.  It is brand new, converted from the council offices. It has 150+ rooms so everyone can have a good size room, it has several communal areas, and we might me able to hold Commodore’s dinner there in a private dining area. It was £10 more than the County but we felt members would feel that £10 was worth it for the lift and the room size. Hey, people can even upgrade if they want 🙂

Other hotels we visited were either a lot more expensive or frankly grotty. So we happily settled for the Apex and then proceeded to find out what we could do on our weekend away. It’s Bath, the possibilities are endless. See the TMYC brochure here , we hope to see some of you there.

But if any future Commodores are reading this personally I would organise a weekend away in the middle of the week! I think everyone who is planning to go is retired, and midweek the hotel prices in popular tourist areas like Bath are £30-£60 a night cheaper.

Post-script: Richard Hannay (aka HonSec) is taking one of the starring roles in this weekend’s Murder Mystery evening at the boat club. Will he get his man?