The Grand Hotel

Brilliant hotel, comfy bed, huge and very nice room, very nice and helpful staff.
Breakfast was lovely, cold choose from eggs, full English and other English selections, continental breakfast, variety of cereals, yogurts, fruit and fruit salad. Great!

This is a fantastic old boutique hotel in the heart of an old area. Great walking around area. Very close to one of the best Indian restaurants in the UK, «4500 Miles from Delhi.» The breakfast was excellent, and I can’t say enough about the ambience. Within a two block walk, you have a small rotating street market (fresh cheeses, meats, vegetables), indoor market stalls, and a modern mall complete with post office. Everyone at the hotel was extremely helpful and friendly. Rooms larger than I’d expect. Only down side is that some of the rooms are a bit noisy, so ask for the quiet side. My room faced a gorgeous old church. Oh — and the windows open, which for me was icing on the cake. Recommend highly.

We chose to stay at the Grand by Thistle because it was listed as a 4 star rating and had impressive looking photos posted online. Unfortunately, the actual hotel was much more disappointing — it was decently clean, but it felt more on par with a dinky Holiday Inn than a 4-​star hotel. Cracks and unpainted plaster sprinkled the room walls. There were no outlets anywhere near the bed to power your mobile device or laptop.
We arrived to a room with a broken air conditioner and one towel for two people. We tried calling the front desk several times to let them know that the AC was broken. Half the time, no one picked up, and the other half of the time, they responded but never ended up sending someone to fix it. 12 hours later, our room was still stifling warm (over 80 degrees) and they finally agreed to move us to another room.
On the day we had to leave, we asked the front desk attendant to arrange for a taxi to arrive in an hour because we had to catch a train. The time came and went with no taxi to be seen. We were getting concerned that we might miss our train, so we asked the front desk attendant to call and check again, at which point he reluctantly called, but not before mumbling under his breath something to the effect of «Americans are more trouble than they’re worth.» This certainly did not feel like the Thistle’s «Signature» luxury service that was touted on its website.
During our stay, we did meet some staff that were kind and professional, but it’s a shame that most of our experiences with the staff were unhelpful and unpleasant enough to mar our stay in Bristol. Next time we visit, we plan to stay at the Marriott instead.

I live in Bristol, have done for a few years now, so you would think I have no reason to stay in any hotels in Bristol and you’d be right. Of course, why would I pay for a hotel in Bristol when I live a stone’s throw away? Especially somewhere as posh and potentially pricey as the Thistle. But when someone else is paying it’s a different story altogether. I went to take a flight to Newcastle from Bristol Airport and it was cancelled so Easyjet got us a room in the Thistle before putting us on the early morning flight. By the time we arrived at the hotel we’d been sat on the airport floor for about four hours so we headed straight to the bar. It’s a dimly lit underground affair with lots of interesting faces and the whisky was divine. The room was perfectly nice, with the obligatory free toiletries and the breakfast was decent enough. I only wish we could’ve stayed longer!

The Grand Hotel is not surprisingly a very posh and luxurious hotel in the centre of Bristol. The location makes it probably one of the most popular place for those with a bit higher budget. Inside, the hotel is really lovely. It’s very glamours and old English. Don’t expect all the mod-​cons but the rooms have character and class.
The staff were a little stuffy, but otherwise pleasant enough. I personally wouldn’t go back because in my opinion it wasn’t worth the money, however there are so many modern hotels dotted around that it is nice to find a more traditional one.

Expensive, extensive and majestic (that’s why its called The Grand, I guess). Like stepping into a Agatha Christie novel or something, there is retro glamour in the red drapes, carpet and impressive staircase. Close enough to Temple Meads to be convenient for people travelling on business.
My family recently enjoyed a stay — one of the rooms they booked was luxurious and big, the other smaller and shabbier in terms of carpet and trickle of a shower. Both were the same price. There are two bars and a function room bookable for weddings and conferences.

Hotel of choice for Japanese tour groups and visiting rugby teams, The Thistle is an expensive city centre hotel, with all the bells and whistles you would expect with that. At check-​in your bags will be promptly whisked up to your rooms and everything should be dealt with quick and painlessly. The rooms are well equipped and well presented. Generally, they’ve managed to capture that sense of theatre that somewhere like this should have
They do functions too so I’ll say a bit about these just in case your thinking of booking the place. Usually there’s a three course meal brought out by a small army of waiters. The food looks expensive and is pretty good. Perhaps not up to the standards of some of the better restaurants in Bristol. They aren’t held in the nicest of places; mostly big windowless rooms with lots slightly sickly red carpet. It all fairly well finished, and you whatever your doing will feel like a bit more of an occasion coming here. Going to the Thistle is a bit of an event and generally everything is just as it should be.