Best Western Priory Hotel

Lovely staff hotel in excellent easy access to Bury st Edmunds …food very good ,and although near traffic very quiet …would well recommend ….One of the best afternoon teas we have had served by a smiling young. lady and no waiting around would thoroughly recommend less

After many delays over these last eighteen months, we finally got the chance to celebrate our wedding/anniversary all thanks to the manager Frank who planned, co-ordinated and organised the venue even down to the guests staying overnight. We can't thank Frank and his wonderful staff for the hard work in bringing this weekend together. Our family and friends were most impressed with the level of service. Would highly recommend this hotel to hold venues, with its beautiful gardens. If it was possible to give a 10 star rating, we would. less

Good value hotel and we were very thankful to be offered breakfast as an upgrade, which we accepted and were very glad we did. The breakfast was excellent. The grounds are very attractive and meals can be eaten outside in warm weather. The parking is easy and it’s a just a short drive into Bury St Edmonds, although we needed sat nav to navigate the complicated one way system. less

We selected this hotel as we are keen members of the National Trust and this hotel was ideally situated to enable us to visit several NT properties within our stay. From the moment we arrived we were impressed with the staff all of whom were very welcoming and helpful. The building is a good mixture of old and new which works very well. We stayed 3 nights in the new wing and found the room very spacious, clean and well appointed and even had an iron and ironing board. When booking it was pointed out that due to covid and the well publicised shortage of staff (throughout the leisure industry|) that there may be a limited menu and room service. However, based on our experience over 3 nights we found the "limited menu|" was more than adequate for our tastes, indeed we did try an evening meal at an adjacent pub / restaurant and found that the hotel meals were of a better quality (and price) and so ate in the hotel restaurant for the rest of our stay. The reduced room service was no problem as if you needed anything you only had to mention it to the receptionist and it was immediately dealt with. The breakfasts were great and offered everything you could wish for, from a croissant to a freshly cooked "full english". The food was served hot and promptly and the staff always had time to exchange pleasantries and nothing was to much trouble. Like many people we were due to be in warm and sunny climates at this time of year, staying in (without sounding snobbish) in a 5 star hotel, and overall we have to say that we doubt that we would have received any better service from the staff or accommodation than that which we received at the Priory Hotel less

Having stayed at the hotel before | was looking forward to a further visit, I will admit as it was so hot we did not have breakfast previously. Now for my current visit, booking in was Ok and we had the room I requested. The only point was there was a dirty used razor on the shelf in the bathroom, and only a small rubbish bin, I feel it would have been a good idea if there had been a large bin outside somewhere, so that we could have emptied ours. Now for the high light or should I say the low light – Breakfast I wanted an omelet no omelets so I thought would have an egg Benedict none available both these items were on the internet menu in fact one morning the kitchen was in darkness. I have never seen brown scrambled eggs before but they had been out for long the bacon was dry and again over cooked and cold I sent the eggs back as they were hard the young man brought out a try of fresh eggs and put them on the buffet and then decided to bring us ours by this time they were cold. Now for the cleaning the tables, the crockery and cutlery was taken off one at a time never on a tray and the table was wiped but the condiments were never moved just wiped round. I have never seen such poor waiting staff and I have stayed at hotels all over the country. During our three night stay we only ever saw two people in the dining room for an evening meal, I am sure you must wonder why – let me tell you people want more choice not seven types of burgers. Like us they were going across the road to the Tollgate which had a first class menu. All I can say it is such a pity things are so run down as the grounds are lovely and is an easy run into Bury St Edmunds. less