Best Western Salisbury Red Lion Hotel

Hotel is quite central, lots of character, some fixtures are a bit tired. Staff pleasant and friendly. Room 34 was across an open courtyard, on the first floor, quite small for all the furniture and fittings, unfortunately a chair had protruding nails which aligned perfectly with the right thigh, I was lucky it was only my clothing that got punctured and not me, so no blood. The bathroom had very nice fluffy towels The breakfast was excellent on departure day. less

The location of this hotel is good & in the town center. Room was comfy, shower room was very good. We were allocated room 10 on arrival - caution - this is directly facing the main road & as such the noise from the surrounding which included pubs & clubs went on until at least 2am - so sleep isn't guaranteed! Room 10 is a small walk from reception & up a set of steepish stairs - not great for myself as I am recovering from a knee operation - the stairwell is relatively narrow, floorboards make a noise & guests passing our room to go up to the rooms above were noisy, swearing & knocking into our door - if you are offered room 10 then maybe ask to be moved! We appreciate that the building is old & accept the "building" bangs & creaks but some of the guests should have a little more respect. The breakfast is of a good standard, cooked, cereals, breads & cold items - guests sitting in the breakfast area should also remember that shouting & swearing in front of other guests & children should be stopped - it's not nice & not acceptable. In general most staff were helpful but could do with a little more customer relations - not the happiest bunch! Parking in this area is a complete joke - the hotel only has 6 spaces which were allocated. The larger car park at the back of the hotel was totally full so after calling the hotel to find out where we else could park we ended up having to use the multi-storey in Culver Street - cost £8.90 for a full day, luckily Sunday charges have been suspended for the time being otherwise that would add. We would return but not to room 10 or any room roadside! less

We came in for lunch as we were in Salisbury Christmas shopping. 4 cheese and chutney ciabattas and 1 tuna sandwich with a portion on chips. The chips were the best thing about the meal. The ciabattas had the tiniest bit of grated cheese in, they were also stale. The sandwich had also seen its best before! Disappointing considering the price was on the steep side. less

We stayed two nights in December with friends. The hotel is very old, 13th century but the decor is bright, modern and clean. There is a seperate small bar, a lounge where you can sit and order coffee or drinks. We used this as the bar dies get quite full. The dining room is quite large, although we only used it for breakfast as there were many Christmas parties going on and the dining room was full every night. The breakfast is good, it’s a buffet style with pretty much everything you could want. The price of drinks is quite reasonable and the staff are polite and helpful. None of the rooms appear to have air conditioning. Security is quite good as there is a door with a keyed entry number that you need to go through to get to the rooms which are key card locks. There is no room safe. I think the best thing about this hotel is the location. You can walk to pretty much walk to anywhere in Salisbury from here including the Cathedral, and the market square is literally 100 metres away. If I had one criticism it would be that on both nights we were there they had a visitor who used their lounge who we could only describe as a bag lady. She had a trolley with her containing all sorts of papers and carrier bags and she positioned herself in the centre part of the lounge and took up 5 seats around a table so that she could spread out her coats on the back of chairs to dry out and various newspapers and other papers on the remaining chairs. She was also quite smelly. She did order food but sat there for the whole evening not talking to anyone but taking up a sizeable amount of space. She did walk like she was drunk but she could have a walking impediment, it was difficult to tell. Despite the fact that there were people standing in this area around the bar as there was no seating available the staff at no time asked her to move to a smaller area or even ask her to leave. We were not sure what was happening here or if she was a homeless person using this hotel to get off the streets for the evening, and it did seem a very strange situation. Would this stop me from going back? I’m not sure, it might do as there are many other hotels also centrally situated. I would have rated this hotel with 5 stars had it not been for this situation. less

We've just had the worst meal out for 30 years. We waited three-quarters of an hour for the most pathetic offerings to appear. They were meant to be main meals costing £15 to £20 each. They were the size of starters and mine was burnt with some of the vegetables missing. The red Rioja we were served was so poor and cold that we left it half drunk despite our long wait. Ruined our traditional Xmas shopping day in beautiful Salisbury. less