De Vere Carden Park Hotel

arrived 2.45pm room ready .bootle of wine on ice, box of chocolates, bowl of fruit and upgrade to executive room .everything spot on as promised in special deal. nice pease and quiet,no traffic noise.set in 700 acres of countryside.staff very friendly and efficent.had 2 breakfasts and 2 evening meals in 2 different restaurents. would well recommend a break at this hotel

Oh dear- apart from an excellent New Year's Eve party and rooms which were perfectly acceptable, our three night stay was marred by shockingly poor service. We were required to notify the hotel of our wine selection a month ahead of our stay [Why? This is supposed to be a four star hotel] and our party of eight were booked in for dinner on each night and yet there were problems finding us a table and the waiting service was amongst the worst I have ever experienced anywhere in the world. Why this should be given the extremely limited choice on the a la carte menu and the table d'hote being a carvery that would be easily outclassed by the average works canteen, one can only speculate. On our final night the service was so poor that, sick and tired of waiting, I wrote down our orders myself and sought out and physically put them in the hands of the restaurant manager. Even then they managed to lose my wife's starter which turned up ten minutes after everybody else's. To their credit, the management apologised and gave us a huge discount; however, our party was not the only one which was suffering due to poor service. Rather than the apology and discount, I'd rather they got it right in the first place- after all, isn't that what hotels are there for? How a place of this supposed calibre can get it so wrong is beyond me. Would you go back? No. Would you recommend this hotel? Definitely not.

This should be a good hotel. I arrived early and had to wait for my room - no problem with that but after being assured I would be told when it was ready, when I asked it had been avaliable for over an hour! Perhaps if the reception staff spent less time flirting with each other, this wouldn't have happened. The room was ok, bit scruffy - upmarket travel lodge. Food: Disappointing, pate looked like it came from Asda - tasted like it too. Not good value for money. Overall, they have everything - but it misses - needs good firm management