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Hotel Alpha

Hotel Alpha

RRP: £99
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You may be unsurprised to learn there’s a touch of The Grand Budapest Hotel to this one. Hotel founder Howard York, though he sounds an awful lot like an Ayn Rand creation ( i.e. Howard Roark, the architect-hero of The Fountainhead), is most like the Ralph Fiennes character. He uses his influence to finagle anything for a guest; “you could believe, sitting here in his castle, that he really did mean to live a couple of centuries and that everything he had built would still be standing around him.” But even he can’t stop tragedy; a fire at the hotel in the 1980s orphaned and blinded a small boy named Chas, who Howard then adopted.

These guidelines and standards aim to keep the content on Booking.com relevant and family-friendly, without limiting expression or strong opinions. They're also applicable regardless of the comment's tone. Each review score is between 1 and 10. To get the overall score, we add up all the review scores and divide that total by the number of review scores we received. Guests can also give separate subscores in crucial areas, such as location, cleanliness, staff, comfort, facilities, value, and free WiFi. Guests submit their subscores and their overall scores independently – there’s no direct link between them. Watson always has a great style to his novels, a warmness. He makes the reader feel like they know the characters well. The first-person narratives do that effectively and Watson manages to make them feel like two very distinct voices. I think the cleverest thing though is that neither are really the main character- that comes in the form of hotel owner Howard York. It is him that the secrets surround and him that runs the hotel and plays a big hand in running the country. Yet at the same we rarely get up close and personal with him in the story, not really knowing what he is really like until the end. Hotel is handy for train station and it’s easy to get train into Pompeii, Herculaneum, Sorrento etc. Algarve Holidays | Antalya Holidays | Antigua Holidays | Balearic Islands Holidays | Barbados Holidays | Benidorm Holidays | Bodrum Holidays | Bulgaria Holidays | Canary Islands Holidays | Cancun Holidays | Cape Verde Holidays | Caribbean Holidays | Corfu Holidays | Costa Del Sol Holidays | Crete Holidays | CroatiaHolidays | Cruise Holidays| Cuba Holidays | Cyprus Holidays

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I must admit that had I not been given a copy of this book, I probably wouldn't have come across it, as I don't tend to go for books by celebrities known for things other than writing. Evening meals were very hit and miss- some nights ok, other nights dreadful. Restaurant manager not particularly friendly. The centre of Sorrento is a 45-minute walk away but buses and a light railway run regularly to and from the town. Other shops are closer and the lift down to the La Marinella beach (normally in use June - September) is only 320 metres away. The hotel enjoys a quiet, ideal location, a short walk from the centre of Sant'Agnello and its shops, the local bus stop and the train station. La Marinella beach is located around 300 m away and the centre of Sorrento is roughly 1.5 km from the hotel. Restaurants can be found in the immediate vicinity, whilst Capodichino Airport is about 40 km away. The hotel was approx 30-40 mins walk from Sorrento. 30 minutes down the busy Corso Italia and 40 mins if you choose the more scenic route. We do enjoy a walk, but be advised that either way the route isn’t exactly picturesque so don’t expect a relaxing stroll into the centre.

This elegant, 19th-century villa has been completely restored and is now a welcoming, 4-star hotel. Surrounded by fragrant citrus groves, the garden is full of exotic flowers and plants and is a great place to relax. The swimming pool is especially inviting during hot summer days. Each review score is between 1-10. To get the overall score that you see, we add up all the review scores we’ve received and divide that total by the number of review scores we’ve received. In addition, guests can give separate ‘subscores’ in crucial areas, such as location, cleanliness, staff, comfort, facilities, value for money and free Wi-Fi. Note that guests submit their subscores and their overall scores independently, so there’s no direct link between them. I didn't read on to the 100 extra tales (told by other hotel guests), I liked the story standing on its own and didn't feel the need to explore further, though I liked the idea. Dalaman Holidays | Dominican Republic Holidays | Dubai Holidays | Egypt Holidays | Goa Holidays | Florida Holidays | France Holidays | Fuerteventura Holidays | Germany Holidays | Gran Canaria Holidays | Greece Holidays | Ibiza Holidays | Italy Holidays | Izmir HolidaysWe see changes over the decades, we see stories develop, old secrets unearthed, and society altering around the hotel, which valiantly tries to keep up. Graham's narrative says a lot by what he doesn't say - his repeated meal at home, his loyalty to his work. Chas's world of darkness is on the surface, the more moving tale, though his growth over time to me meant the constant Graham looked even more set in his ways - not embracing changes in technology, wistfully remembering the past. Jamaica Holidays | Jersey Holidays | Kefalonia Holidays | Kos Holidays | Lake Garda Holidays | Lanzarote Holidays | Las Vegas Holidays | Madeira Holidays | Magaluf Holidays | Majorca Holidays | Maldives Holidays | Malta Holidays | Mauritius Holidays | Menorca Holidays | Mexico Holidays | Morocco Holidays | Mykonos Holidays Contributions should be travel related. The most helpful contributions are detailed and help others make better decisions. Please don’t include personal, political, ethical, or religious commentary. Promotional content will be removed and issues concerning Booking.com’s services should be routed to our Customer Service or Accommodation Service teams. Watson is a very good writer. Assured, confident and funny, he also manages moments of emotion and warmth.

For a stand-up comedian, Mark Watson is an excellent novelist. Hotel Alpha is mostly set around the fictional hotel of its name, a sort of modern day Hilton in London. The story is told through alternate narratives. The first comes from Graham, concierge and lifeblood of the hotel. The second is from Chas, the hotel owner's blind, adopted son. Both love the hotel and need it but a dark secret threatens to ruin it for both of them. Poor disabled access with lots of steps at entrance- not an issue for us but certainly something the hotel management should consider. Swear words, sexual references, hate speech, discriminatory remarks, threats, or references to violence Sorrento is a heady mix of tourist friendly resort and a still traditional Italian coastal town. It has all the amenities you could wish for, as well as catering for families, couples and the more adventurous. It retains its artisanal crafts, and is filled with small shops specialising in ceramics, limoncello and leather goods. The aromas of fresh pasta, pizza, lemons and tomatoes permeate the air as you stroll around the quaint streets filled with restaurants and cafés. These guidelines and standards aim to keep the content on Booking.com relevant and family-friendly without limiting expression of strong opinions. They are also applicable regardless of the sentiment of the comment.

Exclusive garden where the presence of a fabulous swimming pool, palms and refined plants, which frame and an amazing view. HOTEL ALPHA it will be the unforgettable place for your stay and your events on the Sorrento Coast. Beautiful grounds, a large swimming pool, a typical restaurant; Hotel Alpha gives you all this and more in peaceful SantAgnello, a 2-minute train ride from the centre of Sorrento.

Graham, the concierge, has been behind the Alpha's front desk since the day the hotel opened and knows everything about it. Chas, Howard's blind adopted son, has almost never ventured outside its walls. Both of them believe that the Alpha gives them everything they need - until two mysterious disappearances raise questions that no one seems willing to answer. As the years forge ahead, Graham and Chas must ask themselves whether Howard's vision of the perfect hotel has been built on secrets as well as dreams . . . I felt that the plot was fairly limited in this book. It's a simple story of two people's lives in the hotel on the surface and all the revelations etc take place off stage. I have mixed feelings about this idea- it kind of works because of the conflicting narratives yet at the same time feel like the reader is dropped from anything too exciting. This is a light read which makes the reader feel like a passive observer of the drama. It doesn't sweep you up the way a thriller would but it is comforting and a nice book to wrap yourself up in. I loved how the story develops, how Chas's adolescent then adult narrative complements Graham's as we see the hotel's story from their differing points of view, and their views of the entrepreneur Howard. It's a fascinating, and at times heartbreaking tale. Anyone else who spots something suspicious can always report it to our Customer Service team, so our Fraud team can investigate.Contributions should be appropriate for a global audience. Please avoid using profanity or attempts to approximate profanity with creative spelling, in any language. Comments and media that include 'hate speech', discriminatory remarks, threats, sexually explicit remarks, violence, and the promotion of illegal activity are not permitted. Anyone who spots something suspicious can always report it to our Customer Service team so that our fraud team can investigate. Ideally, we would publish every review we receive, whether positive or negative. However, we won’t display any review that includes or refers to (among other things): Breakfast was ok as long as you only ate the cold food plus toast. The hotel did offer bacon, sausage and scrambled eggs all kept warm using candles!! Inevitably they weren’t warm and very few people eating it- a bit of a clue that the staff and management should really be looking to improve. Rooms feature a living area, a kitchen and a bathroom. Air conditioning and central heating ensure comfortable temperatures. A balcony is included as standard in some rooms. Rooms have a double bed or a king-size bed. Extra beds can be requested. A safe, a minibar and a desk are also available. Additional features include a refrigerator and a mini fridge. A direct dial telephone, a television with satellite/cable channels, a plug adapter and WiFi (no extra charge) provide all the essentials for a comfortable holiday. Guests can take advantage of the nightly turndown service. Bathrooms are equipped with a shower, a bathtub and a bidet. For additional convenience, bathrooms also provide a hairdryer. For extra comfort in the bathrooms, guests are offered cosmetic products. Wheelchair-friendly rooms can be booked. The hotel has family rooms and 67 non-smoking rooms.



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