The Wood Norton

Unsatisfactory

The room was smaller than expected. A very loose toilet seat was reported on the first night but never attended to even though it was reported another couple of times. The service in the restaurant was extremely slow and at times poor. We do not expect black possibly ten inch paper serviettes. We presume that there had not been a linen delivery but an explanation would have been acceptable.
The food in the restaurant was delicious.
This was a birthday treat and, although the break was good, the experience was not.

Below offpeakluxury standard previously experienced over many years

Over the last 8 years we have booked quite a few hotels through offpeakluxury which have been excellent .
Sadly we were very disappointed with the Wood Norton . Lovely hotel , beautiful location but it fell short of previous experiences
Our room was small , dark and standard.
The staff were ok but weren t particularly helpful .
We stayed 2 nights .. our bins in the room weren t emptied and toiletries not replenished
Waiting staff in restaurant on our first night was terrible . Whilst in the restaurant we were shown to our table . We waited at least 20 minutes and no waiting staff took our drink or food I had to ask them at the desk for service .
I had the impression the staff were very busy and they were doing their very best .
The food on both nights was ok except first evening we had to return our starter as it was cold

All in all it was ok but fell below our expectations as experienced before through offpeakluxury

Such a shame. It should have been better

The positives first: it a lovely old building full of character in a wonderful setting. The quality of food was a high standard.
The negatives: our bathroom (room 106) had dirty grout - something we wouldn t allow at our own home. The bedroom furniture was cheap and nasty which spoilt the feel of the wood panelled room. The wardrobe only had 4 hangers (when I requested more I was told by reception that that was all we could have and there were no spares). In addition to this the whole hotel felt undermanned so that made service unacceptably slow. When this was mentioned we were told Brexit & Covid (when will that stop being an excuse?). What probably had the biggest effect of our 4 night stay was the fact that there were weddings everyday which impacted in enjoying the grounds and getting served at the bar and even on being able to get a space in the car park.

I guess another Brexit/Covid impact is the reason you have to ask to get your room serviced. If you don t ask you get to come back to an unmade bed and no coffee/ teas supplies.

Nothing wrong with being a wedding venue but it doesn t work when you are trying to be a holiday venue at the same time.

In summary this hotel does not deserve the rating it has. It is closer to a three star. We will not return.