My Recollections: The Chaise Guest House, Sunderland

When we arrived at The Roker hotel for the night’s stay, the hotel representative came on board and told us he would call out our names, give us the keys to our rooms, dinner would be at 18.00hrs in a restaurant next door and breakfast would be served in the hotel.

We were called off the coach alphabetically and we followed the previous couple, also named Brown, and we were then asked to wait by the coach.

All the other coach passengers were called, given their keys, and went into the hotel. I had to leave my husband outside to seek warmth and seating inside the hotel. After five or so minutes, the wife of the other couple came inside to get warm and seated.

After everyone appeared to have left the coach, the two Mr Browns were told to wait in reception for their keys. There was quite a gathering round the desk so we had to wait to ask about our room, eventually we were told that they had the key there and then - a gentleman came down to say he had no electric supply in his room. This was dealt with, in as much as the young lady behind the desk appeared to go with him to see what she could do about it. We again asked about our keys; having woke at 04.00hrs in order to be at the coach collection point on time, I was exhausted. It was now 17.15hrs ish.

the Chaise on the left

our Restaurant on the right

After a time of waiting, we were then told that a young man would show us to our room. He waltzed off out of the building with Mr D Brown in tow. His wife proceeded to follow him while my husband waited for me to get up and follow. By the time I reached the exit, I could see no-one outside but fortunately my husband spotted the other three several yards up the road (See the X above). We followed and the hotel person waited until my husband arrived and then left.

The proprietor (John) of the Chaise Guest House was embarrassed but very helpful and sympathetic for our predicament, especially as he had not known about our arrival until that morning. John had been told he would have a party of four, named Brown; we had only just met each other and I, for one, did not intend to spend the night sharing a room with strangers!

There were two rooms available, one family room (obviously) and another room on another floor which was not en-suite. I prepared to go back to the hotel as neither room was really suitable but John asked us to wait while he tried to sort different rooms for us. The re-arranged rooms were beautiful and very pleasant.

View from Bedroom window

We managed to change and go back to the hotel for our evening meal, out into the cold night air with wet hair – dinner was at six and we had to walk back to the hotel. We then found out that we had to go out of the hotel again, to another building for our meal (see X in second picture), to which a young lady showed us.

There was a birthday party taking place in the restaurant, which meant our meal didn’t start to arrive until 19.15hrs. The main course meat was served and eventually we had vegetables brought to go with it. I would like to point out that the waiters were wonderful; they provided extra delicious sauce for the main course, exchanged chocolate ice cream for vanilla while being cheerful and helpful. They certainly knew about Customer Service and we thanked them personally for all their help. We then walked back into the night air to reach our room.

the view along the front

the view down to the beach

The next morning we had our breakfast in the Guest House, a fantastic meal in good company. Our stay at The Chaise could not be faulted in anyway BUT we understood at booking that we would be in a hotel.

Our coach parked outside at exactly the right time, we still had time to have a look around and were suitably impressed. Having passed a marina on our way into the hotel, it would seem that Sunderland has a lot to offer!