The opening of The George in Rye has lifted the spirits of the locals in Rye and surrounding area. It has been much missed over the last few years because of the fire and the refurbishment and, if the buzz of the place in the last week is anything to go by, it will soon be back as one of the top places in the south east to meet at, dine in and stay, where it belongs.
It appears in The Times’ best 25 hotels by the British seaside.
A warm welcome awaits you and there is so much to admire in the new version of the great George of Rye.
Image Credits: Nick Forman , Kt Bruce .
Is this news? or an advert for the hotel? Perhaps a review of the restaurant would have been more enlightening for locals.
I can vouch for the fish stew in the restaurant! It’s superb and the choice of puddings is both innovative and delicious.
I concur Stephen, clearly an advert. It does look like they’ve done a great job though.
Have a look on trip advisor, not the shining start they had hoped for.
Utterly shocked by the bad reviews on TripAdvisor. We did go in for a drink but gave up after waiting endlessly to be served and left. We were also due to go for Sunday lunch but have now cancelled until hopefully they get their standard of food higher and better trained staff. I’m not prepared to risk wasting money on a bad meal. I have spoken with two different staff who were trainees who couldn’t answer basic questions. Perhaps that’s the problem, all the staff are trainees who aren’t yet ready to deal with the public and they have no experienced staff to assist them. It sounds like The George reopened too soon? Please get your act together.
I waited for 20 minutes to get served as I was looking forward to seeing the George reopened, gave up and left.
I can only assume that the George is desperately trying to recruit seasonal staff like other establishments in Rye. It’s obvious that the EU workers that did fill these posts are no longer willing or unable to because of Brexit.
I think we have to move past putting the blame on Brexit for lack of staff. The question is why don’t British people want theses jobs? If we focus on The George it’s a lovely establishment to work in no matter what your role is. Is there no unemployment in East Sussex or Kent? At The Globe Inn Marsh some of their staff live in Ashford and are happy to travel to Rye most days of the week and all appear happy in their work.
The free movement of EU workers to take seasonal low paid work filled jobs like these in hospitality and fruit picking etc. Not ideal as it should be U.K. workers that fill vacancies but for young people wanting to travel and work for short periods in EU countries and gain experience and learn other languages, the system worked.
We’ve become a backward Little England that sadly can’t understand the impact of Brexit. Ask some of the Rye hoteliers.
I agree that the service is absolutely abysmal and while Brexit might be a contributing factor, let’s not forget there are many hotels and restaurants in Rye whose staff are not as poorly-trained and surly as those at The George. Frankly, it’s up to the management to ensure that the staff are providing top-notch service to all customers – Reading the Tripadvisor reviews, almost unanimously awful since the reopening, I was astonished to see guests still complaining about staff noise in the courtyard after 1am; I know about a dozen people (myself included) who wrote letters of complaint about this issue in the years before the fire so clearly it was never addressed by the management; but you would also think they might have taken the opportunity of the rebuild to install some soundproofing. In fact, I recall receiving a reply from the manager some years ago basically telling me that the courtyard noise that kept me awake all night was effectively *my* fault for booking a room on that side of the building!
To be fair to the George there was a great deal of hype and public pressure to get it open as soon as possible, had it not opened there would have been the normal complaints of “why isn’t it open yet?”
As for staff, it does appear that either everyone in Rye has a job or people just don’t want to or don’t have to work.
You read about how busy the food bank is and how much the cost of living has gone up and then that local businesses can’t get staff, somethings definitely wrong with the system and it looks as though it’s too easy not to work.
The pressure on The George to reopen was just noise from the public. The owners of The George had the luxury of reopening when they wanted to. They didn’t financially suffer at all regards the fire or the pandemic. In fact the pandemic gave them the perfect opportunity to redecorate and refurbish and prepare for the future.
You don’t open a business without properly-trained staff, regardless of whether or not residents are clamouring for a swift reopening.
The hospitality industry customarily seeks employees with experience in the field – that could explain the issue: perhaps everyone with the relevant experience is already engaged at the many other restaurants and hotels in the locality?
As for you final comment “it looks as though it’s too easy not to work” – stop reading the Tory propaganda sheets and get yourself down to a food bank to volunteer and find out what’s really going on: 95% of people you’ll meet there are actually in work, very low-paid work or zero hours contracts work. Most Universal Credit claimants are in work too. What does *that* say about “the system” after twelve years of Conservative government?
Sadly brexit gets the blame for everything these days, whether it’s Covid,or the war in Ukraine,time to move on, and get the unemployed back to work, that is the real cause of the problem, the benefit system has been abused for years,and we need to get those in Rye included,who have ni underlying illness, back to work in all businesses in Rye.
If you can name some benefits of Brexit?
I really do not wish to become embroiled in the brexit debate,the majority voted out of the European Union and its time for some to move on,however bitter they are at the result, life is too short to be going over the same old ground,year after year.
Despite a majority vote to join the EEC in 1975, I have listened to endless rhetoric from the anti-EU-faction for almost my entire adult life. They certainly did not ‘move on’ or stay silent following this democratic vote to join the EU.
So why should those who do not agree or accept the outcome of the 2016 referendum do so now?
However, please could you explain a few benefits of Brexit to make us less bitter.
I think Amy B’s comment gives the lie to this uncharitable stereotype that anyone who claims any kind of assistance or benefit is a feckless parasite… Surely we’re all mature enough to know life’s rarely that simple. During this period of rocketing inflation and fuel poverty, returning to Victorian notions of the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving poor’ doesn’t seem that helpful to me…
Re Steve Blattman comment ” if you can name some benefits of Brexit”.
One fabulous benefit is the way it still winds him and other Remoaners up. It gives me such joy.
If that’s the best you can come up with, plus the insulting ‘remoaner’ comment, then it adds to my conviction that Brexit is shaping up to be a disaster for this country. Nevertheless, I’ve learned to accept that it is inevitable, and the vote irreversible, and wish with all my heart that we will ultimately achieve a successful outcome. I only wish that Brexiteers (note the neutral term) could move on and join the rest of us in trying to make the best of it. Having listened to the dreadful Alan Sked on the radio this morning, I am not optimistic.
I thought this article was about The George. People seem to be using it as a platform the air their other grievances.
I hope anyone visiting this ‘seaside’ hotel isn’t too disappointed when they find out that the ‘seaside’ is 3 miles away…..
There is a recent trend in newspaper and online articles to describe Rye as a “seaside town”. I have challenged this on a number of occasions, without much success. However, one tour company did respond, saying the town was “only a few minutes from glorious sandy beaches”! A few minutes by what mode of transport or at what time of day they didn’t say.
There is something going on here; I don’t know whether the Rye tourist people are marketing themselves as a beach holiday resort or whether it’s just copycat reporting that has snowballed. Whatever the origins of this false claim, if I worked in hospitality in the town I would be embarrassed at having to explain the truth to the hordes of disappointed visitors, buckets and spades at the ready. I just hope that publicity material issued by the George Hotel doesn’t perpetuate this falsehood.