ROOM: Having looked at all the photos of the rooms we opted for an 'Executive' room as the photos showed big beds (some 4 posters etc) with spacious rooms and modern decor. However, once we checked in we were given room 204, this was downstairs through a filthy corridor with dubious brown stains on the carpet with an overall feel of a gloomy throw back to a 1970's rough travelodge.
The room had a nasty blue leather sofa that I would never think of actually sitting on, plus 2 chairs that had seen better days and a very small double divan bed with no headboard. The carpet was stained and there was a smell of a freshly used toilet in the room. This looked NOTHING like any of the pictures I had seen of the executive rooms and even looked much worse than the advertised photos of the standard rooms.
I had double checked when we arrived that we had actually been allocated an executive room and was assured that we had. I'm sorry but adding one sachet of instand hot chocolate to the coffee/tea tray/shelf and one small bottle of water does not warrant the £105 we paid for the room, a 'standard' room could have been booked for £57! There is not even a mini fridge or any of the other basic things you expect from an 'executive' room.
All the furniture looks like it has been there since the early 1980's , the curtains were not hung properly, and the remote control for the tiny tv would not even work from the bed.
The room itself is sandwiched between 2 function rooms, one below and one above, there had been a lunch function in the room above , which had finished by the time we checked in, and all we could hear was the scraping, banging and clattering of furniture being moved around, I mentioned this to reception at 3.30pm and they assured me that it would stop soon, however the noise did not stop until nearly 9pm.
I understand this is a dog friendly hotel and this is one of the reasons we booked it as we have a very small, well behaved quiet dog but the people in the room next door also had a dog but theirs barked all night long !
The bed was very uncomfortable and the pillows felt like concrete so adding a barking dog to the mix meant not much sleep was had!
If it wasn't for the fact that we had prepaid for our stay I woud not have stayed there, as it was we took breakfast as early as possible and then checked out!
FOOD: We ordered room service which arrived with the plates uncovered, I have never experienced this before as it is normal to have closhes covering the plates to stop contamination. The food was bland but ok, not worth the price we paid but hey ho it is a hotel and you expect to pay these sort of prices. Breakfast was also ok, (it was taken in the bar as we have a very small dog) the food was hot and there was an adequate choice, however the deep fried sausages were a bit strange.
SUMMARY: All these problems were mentioned at checkout and all I was told was that the receptionist would pass the comments on to the Manager. However after reading reviews for this very same room going back several years, it appears that the Management seem to thing this is ok and none of the problems have been addressed.
I feel like we have been duped into paying for a top class room and have been actually been given a very poor, sub standard basic room. However, if this is the standard of the executive rooms I dread to think what the standard rooms are actually like ! less