Best Western Chilworth Manor Hotel

We chose to stay out of town for our pre cruise stay last month, at Chilworth Manor, and was not disappointed. Check in was extremely friendly and welcoming. Great room overlooking the terrace and gardens. We had a suite so there was plenty of room. Lovely comfy bed, bay window with window seating. Dining table and chairs. Flat screen wall mounted TV. Separate dressing table/writing desk annoyingly with no mirror above. Lovely big mirror above the tea making facilities which isn’t ideal, but it looked good none the less. Cosy bathroom tucked away in the corner with shower over bath. Décor was contemporary, very clean and possibly recently refurbished. Bathroom was spotless. The hotel was very busy with various conferences which did make parking at the front of the hotel difficult. After dropping luggage off and putting it in the room, hubby parked the car in one of the many overflow car parks and bought it back round to the front later when conference attendees had left. The man bar area of the hotel is hopefully next on the list for a bit of a refurb because it was looking a little dated. Some new upholstery and carpet could give it a real wow factor. None of this distracted from the service though which was very good. We chose to have a light lunch of sandwiches which were made fresh to order and delivered with a smile. In the evening we opted to eat in the hotel restaurant and this was excellent! Far exceeded my expectations. A good hearty bowl of soup followed by possibly the best battered fish and chips I have ever had! The batter on the fish was so golden and crunchy I could have eaten a plate full of it. The fish was white fresh and flaky. Just outstanding! Breakfast the next morning was equally as good. Buffet style service but all of the food was hot and freshly cooked. Very impressive tree lined drive up to the hotel from the main road. We went for a walk in the grounds and I dont think it matters what time of the year you visit, the ever changing scenery will delight. Hubby is a keen photographer so he was in his element with the colours of the trees and the lake, even saw a deer. The hotel grounds boast one of the largest Cedar of Lebanon trees, and I can confirm it was impressive! Chilworth Manor does offer a very good Park & Cruise package with transfers to and from the ships terminal. We didn’t use it on this occasion but would consider for a future stay. It looked well organised from what I saw of others using the service. All in all a very good pleasant stay. I did have to keep reminding myself that it was only 3* AA rated, because in many areas it delivered more 4* or 5*and with a little more attention to detail it could easily be achieved. less

Good location and standard of hotel for short or medium stay or weekend break. Facilities are good especially the fitness center, although this is not directly attached. Car parking can be an issue especially when conferences or special events are being held . less

Really pleased with the hotel in general and will be back again. Car park was packed but that goes with Xmas time and parties. Gym / pool is a short walk from the hotel so would recommend trackies and trainers to be packed. less

Six people booked for a pre Xmas lunch in early December. Having been before and been relatively happy we were totally surprised at how bad it was. There was no atmosphere in the room, no music, and the meal was very poor. The crayfish salad had too much Marie Rose sauce, the main course of lamb was very fatty and badly carved and presented although the beef was good. We thought some of the vegetables were frozen not fresh. The carrots were cut in huge unmanageable chunks and the whole plate of food looked as if it had been thrown together. The dessert was pleasant but much too big as I personally had chosen a child's portion. Both the main and the dessert were the regular size - not what I had pre-ordered and wanted. less

I booked 2 rooms for their Christmas Party Night. Beautiful looking hotel with long drive. Our room was very spacious as it was a disabled room on the ground floor with quite a large bathroom with double shower but being a wet room the water went all over the floor! I particularly liked the heated bathroom mirror to stop it steaming up but found nowhere to hang a long dress except on the mirror as there was a shelf in the wardrobe. My friends in the other room said it was quite small. The meal was very good with good service. The braised beef and chocolate dessert were delicious. The main problem was that we ate the dinner in one room and had to walk across the corridor for the disco and so lacked atmosphere. The disco was very disappointing mostly playing to young girls on the dance floor and not the rest of the guests so we ended up at the main bar area which was packed as it was very busy with lots of events going on at the same time. The pool was quite large but got wet walking over to it and not very well lit up at night. Breakfast was very good. This hotel is not far from Southampton which has an excellent shopping centre. less