Beatles themed hotel hit with zero star hygiene rating - ‘urgent improvement’ necessary

The Hard Days Night Hotel has received a zero star food hygiene rating, after being visited by Liverpool City Council’s inspectors last month.

The only Beatles themed hotel in the world is extremely popular with tourists and has a Google rating of 4.4 stars, from over 2,000 reviews. However, the latest food hygiene report suggests it is not operating as well as it should be, with ‘urgent improvement’ in regard to hygienic food handling.

Environmental health inspectors visited the city centre hotel on April 19, and improvement was deemed necessary regarding the cleanliness and condition of the facilities and building where food is served.

About the hotel: The Hard Days Night opened its doors to customers in 2008 and was sold to international hotel chain Millennium Hotels & Resorts (MHR) for £13.8m in 2015.

Food hygiene report: The full details of the inspection have not yet been released, but information sent out with the zero star rating showed improvement was necessary in a number of areas.

• Hygienic food handling: including preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage - rated as ‘urgent improvement necessary’.
• Cleanliness and condition of facilities and building: including having appropriate layout, ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control to enable good food hygiene - rated as ‘improvement necessary.’
• Management of food safety: System or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat, evidence that staff know about food safety, and the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future - rated as ‘major improvement necessary.’

A spokesperson for Hard Days Night said: “Hard Days Night Hotel, Liverpool, prides itself on a previously gained 5-star EHO rating for Food Safety. The recent result from the EHO inspection does not reflect the standard of food hygiene in our kitchens and was in fact given due to a preparation utensil being mislabelled.

“The hotel management team has booked a retesting and we look forward to once again re-gaining the 5-star rating. The Hard Days Night Hotel team is dedicated to providing an excellent service for its hotel and restaurant guests and will continue to improve food quality standards.”

Further hotel inspections: Environmental health teams carried out a similar inspection of the new Radisson RED venue on Lime Street. Earlier this month, the hotel played host to a number of presenters and acts taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest being held at the city’s M&S Bank Arena, after the assessments were carried out.

However, major concerns were raised around food hygiene handling and safety, with the business handed a one out of five mark and ordered to make improvements. Another Radisson venue, the Blu Hotel situated on Old Hall Street, was also hit with a one out of five mark when it was inspected last month.

Major improvements were also ordered at the Mercure Liverpool Atlantic Tower Hotel, again focused on the management of food safety. Handing down another one out of five score, inspectors said they had issues with how the hotel had systems or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat, evidence that staff know about food safety, and the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future.