Best Western Parkmore Hotel & Leisure Club

Whilst service at reception was delivered efficiently with a smile, sadly the room and food was very disappointing. A musty smell throughout the hotel including the bedroom, which was in need of updating. A comfortable night’s sleep none the less. Wi-fi hit and miss. Felt a bit cold in the room too. Breakfast was pretty much self service with help yourself tea which had been standing for quite a while and therefore wasn’t the piping hot cuppa I would have liked. The ‘make your own’ toaster was also not switched on. Serving tea and toast would have made the experience much nicer for me and given the handful in the breakfast room should have been possible. My breakfast was also not freshly cooked and therefore a bit leathery. I wouldn’t choose to return but thank the staff for their service. less

We just returned from 2 days stay here after visiting the Croft Circuit for Caterham Racing and before anything else I want to thank the staff we encountered on our visit - so friendly, efficient and hardworking !! . I picked the hotel really due to the pool and gym and our daughter was very happy with the facilities on that front, as was I for a budget hotel stay I can’t complain at all. So, yes it’s a bit of a dated hotel and as expected at this level their were niggles. shower in the room was not fantastic and don’t put a little one in there on their own as the slightest turn can make it boiling or freezing. It also takes a good while to heat up so turn it on and let it run, don’t stand there in a towel waiting though pop your feet up on the bed for a bit. Hairdryer is pants so take your own. beds were comfy enough (although of course that’s personal taste) and we found the pillows to be fine. You can’t control the heating by a thermo in the room so it was cold on arrival but heated up nicely to a point we needed to open a window so all good. Now,dinner was disappointing in that the food although tasty was cold in parts of it looked like a timing issue which we forgave at that point- waitress was lovely. Breakfast time and the waitress was absolutely fab. Attentive, friendly and welcoming. Worth noting that actual restaurant is having a refurb so meals are in a events suite. We had full English and we were so disappointed - I have never seen mushrooms so shriveled and they were stone cold, the black pudding was crispy, the bacon had been grilled on one side only on and obviously overlapping when cooked and it was cold - baked beans and sausage were ok but that was it. We did complain as and our waitress could not apologise enough and was obviously really embarrassed and we were not charged.so I am unsure if it was the same chef on Friday night and Saturday morning but if it was some training could be useful. We ate out at the Shoulder of Mutton in Middleton Tyas on the Saturday night as we had been burnt by now a couple of times at PM - dinner was fab there but that’s for another review!! Apparently PM close in August for a Million pound refurb one of the locals told us, not sure how accurate that is but if true we shall certainly come back as that on top of their first class FOH, waitresses and cleaning staff we encountered it should be a great place, although we will probably eat elsewhere!! less

Room (137) was disappointing. We asked for a twin room and were given a room with a double and single bed. The single had no bedlight. The double had a bedlight but was so high on the wall, one had to get out of bed and kneel on the bed to operate it. We asked for a bedlight for the single bed and were given one with a broken bulb. On Saturday we arrived back at the hotel about 12 noon and the room hadn't been serviced. This was fair enough but the towels had been removed and not replaced, so we couldn't even dry our hands. It took ages for the water to run hot, and on Sunday night it didn't come hot at all. The pressure was so poor from the bath taps that we had to fill the bath with the shower head. On two occasions the room key did not work and we had to return to reception. It had not been kept near a mobile phone. On Friday night at about 11.15, the fire alarm went off. We went downstairs and the night porter told us everything was OK and switched the alarm off. We had no sooner returned to our room than it went off again. Again we went downstairs but were told to return to our rooms as the problem had been resolved. We got no satisfaction when we asked what the problem had been. Reporting all those problems (card 2, lamp/bulb 2, towels 1 and fire alarm 2, meant we were up and down the stairs 7 extra times and we are quite elderly. Our adult son joined us for Sunday night (room 140) and he had no hot water at all on Sunday and had to wait till Monday morning to get a shower. In all it was a very disappointing experience. We visited Parkmore about 4 years ago with another 3 couples. They were also in the Stockton area last weekend, but decided to go to a different hotel because of previous problems with the Parkmore. We decided to give it another go, but this will be the last. less

After arriving I quickly found out I had been wrongly advised on booking that we could use our meerkat deal. But we very much appreciated that they offered to honour it , as that was the only reason we booked there as had never been before . The set menu was ok , 4 options per course , adult size and children’s size. No separate children’s menu . Then when arranging the bill they became very awkward not honouring the deal fully ( not allowing my parents who had only two courses each to pay separately to us who had 3 ) and even charging the two children’s meals as adults ! ? when asked why the answer I received was .... “because the children didn’t specify when ordering that they wanted the children’s size meal rather than the adults” my two 9 year old’s and us , apparently should have specified that the two children wanted children’s size meals rather than the adult size ? What ? Being heavily pregnant and my birthday , I didn’t have the strength to argue ! so we just paid and left , and won’t be returning , was a lovely setting some what quiet , but it Would have been a lovely day if it hadn’t been ruined my incompetent awkward staff . less

Lovely sunny afternoon on the terrace. Food very good. Spent a couple of hours in the hot tub/pool/sauna/steam room and hydrotherapy pool. Excellent. A bit dated but most enjoyable and had everything. Only gripe were the lockers - told to take a padlock which we did but were far from big enough. Will return soon minus any valuables! less