Photo © 2010 Peter Coleborn
Brighton Pier |
THE WEATHER
Not our fault. Although it was neither as bad nor as good as it might have been.
MEMBERSHIP
We had almost 600 people attend the convention, coming from 16 different countries, with Saturday the busiest day.
THE HOTEL(S)
There have been a few mumblings—mostly from attendees who booked late and were assigned the lower level rooms in the Royal Albion—about the quality of the main convention hotel(s). We made it very clear on the website and in both the printed and electronic PRs that because of their location and historical listing, the Royal Albion and the Radisson Blu were perhaps not of the same standard as many North American chain hotels. This would have been obvious to anybody who checked the reviews on sites such as TripAdvisor. However, the Royal Albion only received four official complaints, which they responded to by immediately offering a further discount on the special convention room rate (during the summer, those same rooms can sell for more than £200 per night).
Photo © 2010 Peter Coleborn
Peter Crowther — PS Publishing |
For those of you who admired the 19th century splendour of the Dealers' Area in the Royal Albion, you may be horrified to learn that three days after the convention finished this area, comprising the Harry Preston and Victoria rooms, was demolished to make way for a further nine bedrooms. We can now also reveal that a year ago, without informing us, the hotel demolished two further conference rooms and a downstairs bar that we had reserved as part of our contract.
Photo © 2010 Peter Coleborn
Ray Russell — Tartarus Press |
There were a number of . . . unusual . . . incidents reported at the Royal Albion Hotel over the weekend. Several attendees experienced feelings of "unease" in the elevator and at various locations around the basement level, but perhaps the most intriguing event happened in a room situated above the reputedly haunted Harry Preston room. During the night, all the heating came on in the room, which quickly reached an unbearable temperature. Although the hotel staff was quick to react, and brought in fans to cool things down, nobody could understand how such a thing had happened. Neither could the engineer they called in the following morning. He was totally puzzled, because he had cut all the heating off to that room a couple days earlier!
It will perhaps come as no surprise to attendees that the weekend bar takings at the Royal Albion were the equivalent of a normal two weeks' worth.
Photo © 2010 Peter Coleborn
Horror Hotel on the Brighton Pier |
All photography copyright © Peter Coleborn. All rights reserved. If you want to use any of these photographs in print or electronic media please contact: peter@coleborn.co.uk