Best Western Salisbury Red Lion Hotel

Situated very near the centre of Salisbury, a few minutes' walk from the Cathedral, this hotel really is very good. Our room was impeccably clean, warm, quiet and comfortable, and it was a reasonable price. The staff were excellent. Very helpful indeed. We used the public car park nearby. Very reasonable rates. Breakfast was the standard buffet-fare one finds in large hotels, and, as usual with these buffets, the bacon could have been cooked a bit longer.CHEF - TAKE NOTE! 😀 Make it more crispy! But that's a minor quibble. I believe the hotel is an old coaching establishment. Lovely old building. Highly recommended! Will use again. less

I see on the TripAdvisor page that there is "paid parking on site." However, when we arrived late at night, we were told to go to the parking lot that was free from 8 pm to 8 am. So I got up in the morning to pay for parking after 8 am, but the maximum stay was 3 hours. So I was told by the morning staff that I should move it to another parking lot, where it was £8 all day. No one mentioned any parking on site. I wish we had stayed at the Mercure Hotel around the corner, because they indeed have a big parking lot on site. Parking isn't easy otherwise in that area. Street parking is only for an hour. As for the hotel, it is in a good location. It's an old historic building, with the scariest lift (think "The Shining") and meandering narrow corridors. The rooms were very comfortable, except for the bathroom, which lacked a shower or shower curtain (although there was a sign saying to please use the shower curtain when showering.) We had two rooms, so we used the shower in the other room, but it was terrible, and only had a trickle of water. less

We have been into the Red Lion many times for a coffee or a drink in the lovely courtyard but yesterday we decided to have lunch there. The dining room is dull and dingy and lacks any atmosphere at all. The staff were pleasant enough, just OK. The food left a lot to be desired. The jacket potato with tuna was tasteless and only just warm. The triple decker BLT was aweful. Cold overcooked bacon, a piece of something that was supposed to be gammon, stone cold, limp lettuce etc. The whole thing was dull and uninviting. We will go to the Red Lion again for coffee or a drink but we will not eat there again. less

My husband and I stayed overnight at this hotel after attending a concert at The City Hall. We arrived on Sunday afternoon, parked in the main pay & display car park behind the hotel and on checking in enquired about parking on The hotel premises only to be told spaces were limited and charged at £15 per night. Since the pay & display was free on a Sunday we left the car where it was! We had booked an “ Executive King Room” and took the stairs up to the first floor to find it, the decor in the public areas is tired and dated and the room, though perfectly clean and spacious was in a similar state. An uninviting tea & coffee tray with a very limited selection. In the bathroom a few cheap toiletries just plonked on a shelf. The shower was a trickle and the hot tap on the sink was the same. We decided to eat out and after a lovely evening walked back to the hotel, we got back at 10.30 and found two other guests waiting to be let in, it was raining by this time. Surely some sort of key for guests would be a better arrangement than leaving people on the street waiting for someone to come and open the door? We decided to have a drink in the deserted bar, the lighting was terrible, extremely bright lights, cold and no atmosphere. The barman asked me if I’d like him to “ stick the telly on?” We decided we would rather not!! Retiring to bed we found the bed linen cheap and the mattress saggy. Breakfast was good, we were down early and there was a good selection of hot food and a nice cold buffet, it was a help yourself affair and the waitress kindly brought us our hot drinks. The dining area for breakfast has some fabulous original features but again lacks any atmosphere and felt cold. Overall we found the staff friendly and helpful but would not stay again based on our experience. The Red Lion could be fabulous but looks and feels like a very tired and dated hotel struggling to keep going. Thank goodness it was one night only! less

We stayed here for one night for our first Anniversary which was complimentary as there had been a fair few issues with our wedding when we had it here and apart from the room we stayed in we were left very disappointed again. We had the seamstress suit for the night and that was lovely. Dawn who is the receptionist (or was last time we were there) made some lovely personal touches in the room rose petals on the bed, bottle of prosseco, chocolates and a lovely card. We had dinner here in the evening and were disappointed that we weren't able to have a nice table in the Vine restaurant. My husband ordered the bangers and mash and I ordered the lamb shank. The sausages were juicy but lacked seasoning and flavour the gravy on both dishes was bland and to be honest I hate to say this but Wetherspoons does a better Lamb shank then the Red Lion and its cheaper. Breakfast in the morning was shocking. When we went down there was hardly anything out. There was a severe lack of communication between the front of house staff and the kitchen staff. The hot food came out in dribs and drabs so if you wanted to have a full english it took about 15mins to half an hour to get everything you wanted. What they really need is someone keeping a constant eye on the hotplates then letting the kitchen staff know when the food gets below a certain level. less