From YearOfTheTeledu

A hotel has been decided upon, along with a date - Year of the Teledu will now be held over the weekend of 20th-22nd July 2007, at the Stage in Leicester.

Contents 1 Hotels 2 Possible Hotels 2.1 Key 2.2 Nottingham 2.2.1 City Centre 2.2.2 Nottingham Area 2.3 Derby 2.3.1 City Centre 2.3.2 Derby Area 2.3.3 Derbyshire / Arse end of Nowhere 2.4 Leicester 2.5 East Coast 2.6 Leeds 2.7 Sheffield 2.8 West Midlands-ish 2.9 Other

[edit] Hotels

By DotT Hotel Hunt

We need a hotel. So get looking and post details of any possibles below and on the Year of the Teledu Live Journal.

What we are looking for:

• Accommodation for 150 members (80 - 90 bedrooms)
• A main function room that can hold 120+ people theatre style
• Two to four secondary programme rooms each holding 10 to 20 people
• Access via public transport
• Car Parking
• Close to shops etc
• A good layout of function space

An ideal hotel has is somewhere central that people can sit and chat. This 'somewhere' needs to be large enough to accommodate thirty or forty people. It needs to be comfortable and not too noisy. It also needs to be close to the function space and the bar. It should be a place where you can chat to friends, read a book or have a drink. The best example of this is the Adelphi in Liverpool with its large, central lounge with everything coming off it. The Bestwood Lodge also fitted this layout.

Hotel Short List

[edit] Possible Hotels

[edit] Key

Need to be looked visited

Visited and Possible

Visited / Not viable

[edit] Nottingham

[edit] City Centre

Comfort Hotel (Google Maps UK) Remember looking at this for Incon or Wombat. Main function room too small?

Hilton, Nottingham (Google Maps UK) 200 Bedrooms, plenty of function space. But: no natural light in and stairs between function rooms. Corridors around function rooms too narrow (Meike)

Britannia Hotel Nottingham (Multimap) For those with long memories this is the hotel that hosted Mexicon 3 in late eighties. It has a single, very large function space (600 theater style) which can be split down plus conferences rooms. The function space occupies its own section of the hotel. City centre location but no outdoor areas. Citilodge (Multimap) Good function space. Cheap rooms (£58 per twin / double ROOM) + £6 breakfast. Audio / visual equipment built in and no need for staging. ISDN links to outside world, 20p per unit. 90 bedrooms. No bar in the function area. Hotel bar / restaurant is run by separate company and open to non-guests. Bar web site (yet more horrible Flash). No dance floor? - needs checking. Possible problems if we can't fill all 90 bedrooms. Park Plaza (Multimap) Very posh, new hotel. Excellent data links with internal network in function space (possibly including bedrooms). Function space is good but a little limited. No enough area to congregate. No permanent bars but do temporary bars. Are used to holding weddings as well as business dos so do have dance floor etc.

[edit] Nottingham Area

Nottingham Gateway (Google Maps UK) Near J26 M1. 108 Bedrooms and large function space. Went to look at it for Incon II but rejected because the function space was controlled by partitions. - Visited 21/2/6 Function space still crap - Tregenza. Belfry Nottingham 120 Room plus plenty of function space. J26 M1. Opens Feb 2006. - Visited 21/2/6 Possible but a bit posh and function space a bit large. Tregenza Village Hotel Nottingham 90+ Bedrooms, function space upto 400. Novotel Nottingham / Derby 108 Bedrooms, plenty of function space. Next to J25 M1 and the airport. Best Western Yew Lodge HotelKegworth, J24 M1. 90 bedrooms plus ample conference space. Nice leather sofas. - Not Available summer 2007 Bestwood Lodge Home of the Wombat. Rooms are not cheap, £77 to £150. All rooms have internet but no details. Conference rooms have ISDN. No real changes since Wombat. Too few rooms. Eastwood Hall Conferance Centre

150 bedrooms, tons of conferance rooms, outdoor areas. Same chain as Carnage Hall.

[edit] Derby

[edit] City Centre

Stuart Hotel

City Centre Derby - 100 rooms, ample function space - Spoke to them and they have less function space than the web site suggests. A non-starter. - Tregenza

Midland Hotel, Derby

Good conference space, 100 Bedrooms, right next to Derby station (and I mean right next to). - Great venue but not available.

[edit] Derby Area

Marriott Breadsall Priory Hotel & Country Club (Multimap)

Posh country house style hotel. 112 bedrooms. Plenty of function space but main room might be too small. Gorgeous hotel with lovely grounds, but these include golf courses.

[edit] Derbyshire / Arse end of Nowhere

Hangover, sorry Hanover International Hotel & Club (Multimap) Ashbourne in Derbyshire. Actually this appears to be a 'Quality Hotel' now with a shit website. New Bath Hotel (Multimap) Matlock, Derbyshire - 55 Rooms and conferance facilities but web site light on details. We might have looked at this one for Incon II. Palace Hotel, Buxton (Multimap) Very grand looking hotel. 122 bedrooms, huge function space. Best Western Lee Wood Hotel (Multimap) Buxton. Looks good, function space for 200 but only 40 bedrooms. Might work with if there is a suitable overflow. Moorside Grange Hotel (Multimap) Between Stockport and Buxton. Big place, 90+ bedrooms. Middle of bleeding nowhere.

[edit] Leicester

Belmont House (Multimap) 77 rooms, function space for 175. Central Leicester so overflows should be easy to find. A quarter of a mile from the train station Leicester Stage Hotel (Multimap)77 rooms. Function space adequate. On the outskirts of Leicester, one and half miles from South Wigston station. Scalford Hall Conference Centre

88 Bedrooms, Lots of function space but biggest room might not be big enough. Outdoor space. Reasonably priced. - Not Available

Imago @ Burleigh Court This appears to be a 4 star hotel on Loughborough University's campus. 137 bedrooms. Claims massive function space but doesn't give any specs. Outdoor space?

[edit] East Coast

Best Western Bentley Hotel (Multimap)

80 rooms, good mix of function space. Five miles from Lincoln train station, just off the A46. Looks a bit rural.

Knights Hill Hotel (Multimap) King's Lynn so a bit remote. Four miles from King's Lynn station. 73 Bedrooms. The function space is two large barns.

[edit] Leeds

Crowne Plaza

135 bedrooms. Function space looks a nice size and reasonably laid out. No outside space obvious from the website.

Ramada Leeds North

105 Bedrooms. Function space looks OK. Outside area?

Thorpe Park Hotel

123 bedrooms. Upstairs function space looks great but not clear where the main function room and bars are in relation. Outside area?

Riva Hotel 127 bedrooms. Looks a bit short of function space. Outside area? Golden Lion Hotel

89 Bedrooms. Only three function rooms. City centre.

Weetwood Hall

Conference centre. 106 bedrooms, lots of function space. Outdoors.

[edit] Sheffield

Holiday Inn Sheffield Royal Victoria

100 bedrooms, massive function space, some/small outdoor area. Looks posh and the rack rate is pricy. - Could work but they do lots of weddings and no real outdoor area.

Rutland Hotel 63 bedroom, 4 function rooms. Private outdoor area. A little small (main function space is only 100 people) but we would be able to take over the entire hotel. On the outskirts of central Sheffield so overflow would be easy to find. - Turns out to be very small and run down. Sheffield Park Hotel

95 bedrooms, Massive function space, large outside grass area. - Function space not ideal but workable.

[edit] West Midlands-ish

Wood Norton Conference Centre - Worcestershire formerly BBC Wood Norton training centre.

Very accessible (, lovely location, LOADS of outdoor space and close to Evesham, which is a pleasant enough town. One of my collegues regularly stays there as the rooms are basic but very well priced - £45 per double room inc. breakfast. He enquired about a 'weekend conference for about 100-150 next summer' apparently they'ld be only too happy to have us and are open to negociation on rates etc. Since they tend to do business-related stuff their trade is mostly weekdays, so there's a strong possibility of having the place to ourselves. Suggested by User:Sarah_Mum who is investigating. -- NOT AVAILABLE

Best Western Tillington Hall Stafford

91 room, half a dozen function rooms (max 200 theatre style). Outdoor area???

Best Western Park Hall Hotel

75 rooms, decent function space (max 400 person) "grade II listed building set in 5 acres of landscaped gardens. The hotel is only 3 miles from the centre of Wolverhampton and is ideally located from 3 motorways" - Very strange mix of room. Only 12 doubles out of 75 rooms.

Best Western Lea Marston Hotel

80 rooms, smallish function space (max 100). Appears to have a 9 hole golf course.

Best Western Premier Moor Hall Hotel & Spa in Sutton Coldfield

82 rooms, 8 conference rooms (max 250). "country house hotel set in parkland".

Great Barr Hotel & Conference Centre

105 bedrooms, decent conference space, resonable price. Outdoors???

Holiday Inn Solihull 115 rooms, decent amount of conference space. Photos show outdoor area but might be clever camera angle.

Alvestn Manor Hotel 114 Rooms, small to reasonable functions space, outdoor area?

Wroxall Abbey Estate

Countyry house and associated buildings. Only 70 bedrooms and 5 miles to the nearest hotel. Has decent function space and loads of grounds.

[edit] Other

Beeches Conference Centre (Multimap) Bournville in Birmingham. Handy for the Cadbury's Chocolate World. Plenty of function space, some outdoor space. 68 bedrooms. - Visited 4/3/6 - Nice venue with lots going for it but some significant problems. Scotch Corner (Multimap) Hosted several previous conventions including Lazlar Lyricon 2 and Incon V. A bit run down, but inexpensive with fairly good convention space and cheap room rates. Also has a swimming pool! Holiday Inn Shepperton (Multimap) Formally the Shepperton Moat House Hotel, was home to several great conventions including Aliens Stole My Handbag and Damn Fine Convention, and quite a few media/generalist cons in the late 1980s. More recently the home of Discworld conventions. Good convention rooms, but a bit spread around the hotel. But that might be good for an open convention. Abbey Hotel

(Multimap) The Abbey Hotel was used for Attitude and Novacon, both in 1997. I've never been there myself, but I hear it's very nice. - NOT AVAILABLE

Bull Hotel, Peterborough (Multimap) This hotel hasn't been used for a convention before, I don't think (apparently it was used to host a couple of Eastercons in the 1960's - Chris), but Max looked at it and came back with some comments. John Coxon Carnage Hall

150 rooms, loads of functions space, Has at least some outside area. (I've been to Cranage Hall for work and have posted more details as a comment on the LJ - Claire)

Quality Hotel Welwyn, Hertfordshire (Multimap). Directions 96 bedrooms. Near London. 2 bars, lounge, 45 quid per room, per night (before we strike a deal), Meeting/Banquet facilities [http://www.milesfaster.co.uk/london-hotels/quality-hotel-welwyn.htm another link). NOT v near public transport but very easy by car. Can walk to Welwyn Village for pubs and other restaurants. Suggested by User:AlexMcLintock who will investigate it further.