Durham North hotel

I booked 2 nights at Durham North to move my teen into her 2nd year house. T transpired that it was also open weekend for the university as well as a folk music weekend in the city, so the hotels were all very busy even though I had booked well in advance. I've stayed at Walkergate and Newcastle Washington before and the staff at both locations were really delightful, so I was a bit surprised that the desk staff at Durham North were very surly and unwelcoming. On the first day and second morning, we encountered 3 different desk staff and all were very curt. Our room was fine, however in the evening of our first night, when we tried to use the shower, it was not properly fitted and poured out one side of the head so the floor of the bathroom was flooded. We spoke to staff who said it would be looked at the next day. We were told the next afternoon that it had been looked at but upon checking the fault remained. My partner went to explain and finally we had a lovely member of staff willing to take time to properly provide customer service. We were swiftly moved into a new room across the hall and the shower here was working properly. This was much much better customer service. We also enjoyed a breakfast in the hotel on our first morning and the food was great, and the staff in the dining room and kitchen were all lovely and very welcoming and friendly.

Excellent location for Beamish Museum and Durham. Pleasant staff, clean hotel - hopefully they will serve dinner soon

The problem is the room temperature. The hotel doesn't have aircon which wouldn't normally be a problem. There was no heatwave and the daytime max was 20, the night time max was 16 but the room temperature kept increasing throughout the stay until at 23:00 when it got to 29 degrees we checked out. The windows only opens about 3 inches and you can't get air into the room. There is a standalone fan which is useless. The hotel offered another room but that was also too hot to sleep in. Avoid this hotel until they sort out the major issues with their heating issues.

We had a ground floor accessible room which was clean, roomy and comfortable. The location was great and the hotel was quiet. It was good value, staff were friendly and very approachable.

Had a nice stay for 2 nights here in August. Parking was free on site and there were plenty of spaces. Staff were lovely and checked us in a bit early as the room was ready, leaving my daughter a lovely welcome message and gift for her stay. Staff were friendly and helpful throughout. Room was clean, spacious and well stocked and the beds very comfortable. However, it was very warm despite the weather being a lot cooler for a week prior by that point, which I suspect is because the window doesn't open more than an inch wide due to a safety mechanism. As a result I wouldn't recommend this hotel in a heatwave as it must have been horrendous during the earlier heatwaves that summer, rather I'd pick a Premier Inn with air-conditioning (this particular branch does not have it for reference but I believe others in Durham do). The restaurant at the time was closed due to refurbishment which was a minor inconvenience, but there is a lovely Italian restaurant 5 mins walk away and the usual array of fast food places at the nearby retail park (also 5 mins walk). This didn't affect breakfast though which still ran as usual and was generally a good selection, albeit short sometimes of things like croissants. Overall we had a nice stay here that was lovely and relaxed with warm, friendly staff.