The Devonian, Douglas

The devonian is a friendly, clean Guest House on Broadway,.. a central position on Douglas promenade.

The good points of this Guest House are an excellent Breakfast menu, with plenty of variety and good sized portions. the rooms are clean and well serviced.

Indeed,. if you are very much looking for somewhere just to put your head down, eat breakfast, and then come back to sleep again, then the Devonian will serve you just dandy.

The bad points however include no public areas in the Hotel whatsoever,.. no guest lounge or bar. In addition,there is no restaurant or facility for an evening meal.

The rooms are clean and tidy, however I was very disappointed with the functinality of my room (room12),.. There was a directors chair, a bed, a built in corner rack of three shelves incorporating and open clothes rail,.. and two small bedside cabinets. There was no table, desk or writing surface and i found myself kneeling on the floor at a window ledge to write a postcard !!

A small portable Tv is perched on top of the clothes rail,.. with very poor reception of only 4 terrestrial channels available,.. The top of the clothes rail unit was also thick with dust,. although this was the only housekeeping issue that I had during my stay.

The establishment advertises free wifi in all rooms which was a key element in my choosing the Devonian as I need to submit work whilst away in the Isle of Man.. however,.. it proved to be very disappointing,.. frustrating and ultimatley a major inconvienience as I had to source alternate internet access within Douglas on frequent occassions during my stay.

The connection is very poor in the Devonian,.. I was on the 3rd floor of 5 and was only hitting 2 bars very infrequently. many times I could not connect at all which was infuriating.

WiFi is becoming increasingly important to the traveller and it is misleading of the devonian to advertise a service that is actually the ability to tap into the proprieters home service, which i would imagine is located in the basement flat.

It should also be noted that I arrived to major building works on the first floor that i had not been told about prior to arrival,.. these were room re-cons and I believe i should have been for warned of the noise and disturbance.

The Hotel is also used extensively by visiting builders and tradesmaen to the island,.. the breakfast room was a sea of soiled work clothes and hi- vis jackets during my stay,.. I am no snob,.. but did not wish to spend my holiday in a builders yard.

The final negative ? well if you are unlucky enough to be allocated a room to the rear of the building, then keep the windows shut. The Devonian is two doors away from an Indian restaurant,.. the smell from their kitchen is very strong during the evening hours and if this is not palatable to you,.. you need to keep the windows shut.

In closing,.. The Devonian could be great,.. but at most is adequate. designate a public lounge,.. sort the wifi,.. re-dress the functionality of the rooms,.. offer a later bite,.. and sort out some decent TV's in the room and the score would be much higher.