Best Western Priory Hotel

I booked this hotel as a birthday treat for a friend and we stayed for 2 nights in Oct 19. To say the stay was a bit of a disaster was an understatement. We booked a standard twin room. The room was basic, uninspiring but warm; but the main issue with the room was the beds. 2ft 6 beds where the mattresses have not been turned, means you end up trying to sleep on 1 ft of bed or else you fall out. We decided to try and make the best of it as we were only there for 2 nights. The restaurant was another disappointment. The first item we ordered was sold out. Fine. Went for a healthy option instead (a large separate section on the menu).. When it came, there were 2 small overcooked haddock fishcakes and a huge pile of lettuce covered in french dressing. Nothing healthy about it at all. Breakfast was buffet style and the hot food was cold. The next morning we were woken at 7 am by the fire alarm. As instructed we went to the allocated point but no one else arrived. Eventually we went back to our room. That evening we went to the restaurant again. The first three things we ordered were unavailable and the white wine came warm. At this point we asked to see a manager and met Ewan, the restaurant and beverages manager who did his best to put things right, even going out to get us some food for our meal. He spoke to us the next day and asked us to give them another chance with a repeat complimentary stay. All we had to do was phone and book at dates to suit us and we would be offered a free upgrade to our room as well. What a lovely gesture we thought and accepted. We rang up to book the stay and the receptionist said, sorry we don't know anything about it, We will phone you back. No-one phoned. Rang again. Different receptionist - same response. Eventually we got through on the third phone call to the manager, who booked us in. Last week we went back. We arrived and were given an identical room to the previous one - no upgrade. We were even given wrong directions as to how to get to the room. (Renovation work meant the entrance was not obvious). We rejected the room and were told the hotel was full so no other room was available. We explained about this being a repeat visit because of the issues we had had before, and the young receptionist said there was no record of any issues. (Why were we getting a complimentary stay then?) I asked for the manager and was told he was not on site, but the head housekeeper came and immediately sorted the problem. She offered us another room - presumably a superior room although the only difference in the two rooms was that the second one had 3 ft beds, not 2 ft 6 in beds, - the rest of the room was identical. A real disappointment but we accepted it as we needed somewhere to stay. We went to the restaurant. The first thing we ordered arrived with part of the dish missing and another part stone cold. We rejected it. The rest of the meal was fine. Breakfast was much improved as there was no longer a buffet, but we could order individual dishes which were very nice, The second dinner we had was fine. All the food we wanted was available until we came to the wine - they had run out of Pinot Grigio white wine. Most of the staff were lovely and very helpful but on the second night, there was not one manager working and for an hour the bar and restaurant was run by a 17 year old whilst his superior went on her break. The hotel has a lovely main building, nice location, nice helpful staff, but at the moment it has too many issues to warrant a return. I was grateful that my friend whose birthday treat it was, was able to laugh throughout the whole 2 stay experience. We were very pleased to have been offered the second stay, and we were so hopeful that our previous experience would prove to be a one-off, but it wasn't. So disappointed. less

Only decided to go away day before booking, got to Hotel and they couldn’t find booking but then realised I had booked wrong dates!! No drama though as they fitted us in - thanks to Shirley and lovely girl on reception. Originally booked executive room but our standard/classic room was absolutely fine. Clean and comfy. We ate both nights in the restaurant, food was really nice. Shame was not very busy considering hotel was full, atmosphere could have been better especially Sunday night when no background music. Breakfast Monday was ordered off menu so nicely prepared, Monday was a buffet, and could have been better. Few grumbles from a couple of guests but overall ok. For a 3 star hotel was pleasantly surprised. All the staff were pleasant and friendly, especially Shirley and Hannah and receptionist (sorry didn’t get her name) who sorted out room for us. Would go back and recommend for a reasonable priced comfortable stay. less

Having stayed at the Priory hotel previously and knowing it had been refurbished, when I saw an offer on Groupon for afternoon tea I bought the option for four thinking it would be a good way to see what changes had been made. One of our party is gluten free so I emailed the hotel to ask them to make one of the afternoon teas gluten free. I received an email back from the general manager saying that was no problem and they had made a note of this for our visit. On arrival we went in and they have relocated reception to the front entrance rather than down the corridor (there were two entrances but I suspect they may now have made the rear entrance/parking staff only). The ‘new’ reception was previously the bar which was very odd so definitely much better. We were greeted by a nice man (not sure of his name) who directed us into the garden room where our table was and said he would bring our Prosecco through shortly. We went into the garden room (previously the dining room) and our table was obvious as the only table set up. What surprised us was that this room immediately reminded us of an old people’s home as there were probably about 15 armchairs at the other end of the room (see photo). We were going to look at the changes/extension but decided to wait until after we had had our afternoon tea (in hindsight I wish we had looked first as we would have asked to sit in the new bar area). After a few minutes waitress came over and asked if we would like tea or coffee. When she came back with these I double checked that they had made one of the afternoon teas gluten free so she said she would find out. The guy from reception then came through and said they didn’t know one of us was gluten free and they had nothing in for afternoon tea that was suitable. He was very apologetic and said the chef wasn’t being very helpful. He suggested the GF person chose something else off the menu instead and also said we could have the whole bottle of Prosecco due to the error (not received at this point). We poured our tea/coffee and found the tiny milk jug had just about enough milk for three. The waitress then came back to take the order so we asked her for some more milk and could she fill it to the top (she said she had changed the milk which is why it wasn’t full last time but went away and filled it up). She asked if we would all like our food together to which we said yes. We asked if we could have the Prosecco that was part of the deal and were told the guy from reception would bring shortly but was just showing some people round. It appeared there were only these two and the chef as staff. It probably took about 1/2hr before we got the Prosecco. Once the food was ordered it did come out quickly (although as we were the only people in there apart from those being shown around you wouldn’t expect much else). Afternoon tea and sea bass were very nice. Only thing missing was other guests and/or some background music. We then went to have a look at the extension and the new restaurant is lovely, very light and airy overlooking the garden with a bar on one side which also services the bar area on the other side. We then looked at the bar area and again, this is lovely, overlooking the garden. Background music playing in both. At this point we agreed it would have been much nicer to have had our food in there - not sure why we were put in a room with no atmosphere. Overall we did have a laugh at the events that ensued and enjoyed the food. I would go back again to stay and use the restaurant (have always eaten out on previous stays as old restaurant was stuffy and dated). The changes are a definite improvement with the exception of the garden room which needs something else - sofas & a TV maybe? Or somehow knock through from reception to make a much larger reception area (although old fireplace area between the two rooms that’s no longer use could make this difficult. With a few changes this would be a lovely place to stay and dine. less

Just had a very pleasant afternoon tea at the priory hotel. All the staff that we met were very welcoming and helpful and we had sufficient sandwiches with nice fillings, lovely scones and small cakes and ample coffee. less

8 of us got together for an afternoon tea at this hotel. All staff we came into contact with were smart and friendly. We were shown to our table which was already laid and prepared for us. First of all the waitress took our tea/coffee orders and we had a pot each. They supplied 3 cake stands between the 8 of us with a selection of finger sandwiches which were fresh and tasty. There were sausage rolls, fruit scones with jam & cream, fresh cream eclairs, chocolate brownies & shortcake biscuit, and everything was very nice. We stayed chatting for a while and were offered more drinks. All in all I would recommend an afternooon tea at this comfortable venue. less