Legacy Springfield Hotel - Gateshead, United Kingdom 

Stayed here for the easter w/end. Booked on last minute.com and got the hotel for £48 per night inc breakfast for 2 of us so really couldn't moan. On arrival hotel looked pretty good. Lots of car parking spaces. Check in was swift and the hotel looked fairley modern and nicely decorated. When we got to our room it smelt badly of smoke even though it was a non smoking room. The room is adequate enough, has the ususal stuff, hairdryer, trouser press, iron and tv, etc. Bathroom was a bit out of date but there was always hot water at anytime and I found it to be clean enough. For some reason they lock the doors of the hotel very early and on the 1st night we returned about 11.30pm to find the doors locked. It had a sign saying please ring bell and wait for night porter. Despite me ringing the bell constantly, after 10mins we were quite annoyed and my boyfriend walked around the hotel to see if he could find someone. After another 10mins someone came and let us in. No apology, even though they could see I was quite hacked off. Not ideal, esp if it's cold. Breakfast was really good. They had lots of fruit, cereals, juices, etc. They had menus on the tables with hot breakfast options, and they come round and took your order. Full english was very nice. Staff were friendly and quick to clear tables. Towels and bed linen were changed day after arrival. Location is not ideal as you cannot walk into the town centre so constantly relying on taxis. This is the only thing that would make me try to get another hotel closer in but at the price I paid it evens itself up. Taxis cost about £5-7 each way. Quayside was quite good for food and pubs. Chinatown is also worth a visit. Oh the other bad thing is there were lots of clowns in this hotel on both nights who kept us awake. The 1st night it was about 3.30am till about 4.30am banging doors, people shouting etc. But the Saturday night was worse. Think they were across the hall from us and it went on until about 6am. Playing music, singing, shouting, banging doors. Although I think it would be the same no matter which hotel you choose as there are lots of stag and hen parties around the city. All in all it is cheap, clean and does the job, I would return again.

We were in Newcastle for the weekend and decided to stay somewhere cheap n cheerful to do the Americana festival. We choose the Springfield for being close to the venue, and reasonably cheap. We probably could have done better - the receptionist was really grumpy when we arrived; the double bed was a pair of mismatched singles shoved together and one of them had definitely seen better days (big dip and v squeaky!); the room was boiling with half the windows nailed shut; and the bathroom had lots of mouldy grouting and a shower that was almost impossible to turn off without superhuman strength. You can get better for your money in the area.