Bath room

Although I would ideally stay in the railway hotel when a Big Day Out extends into a weekend, in the case of Bath it was fully booked by the time I got round to looking - the tourist season was just beginning and hotels were horrendously expensive. Instead, I stumbles across an 'apartment' which was in fact student accommodation for Bath Spa Univesrity. There is a trend now towards student accommodation becoming far more well-appointed, with en suite bathroom as standard, and in this case, a little kitchenette in each room as well. In the course of going to academic conferences and interviews for jobs I've stayed in a lot of student accommodation, including the most uncomfortable bed I have tried and failed to sleep in - and that was for a job interview.

So I thought it might not be great, but I knew I could hack it as long as it had the en suite (tick) and was clean (the reviews all said it was).

In fact, it was brilliant. Once I managed to get into the building (the only slight hitch) a friendly porter showed me to the room (and when's the last time that happened in a hotel? Certainly not in my price bracket).

The booking details warned that there might not be crockery but there was, and there was also a hotel room style selection of tea and coffee, with hot chocolate and biscuits (I always keep the hot chocolate sachets for boating - but I did bring my own teabags. Of course.). The room was clean and bright, and the absence of a restaurant on site, given the cooking facilities and fridge in the room and the proximity of plenty of shops, was a positive for me. And the bed was comfortable.

Not sure I'd want to live in it for a whole semester, but for an overnight stay I'd definitely do it again.