The Wood Norton

Excited upon arrival, disappointed after leaving

DISCLAIMER: We are giving the property the benefit of the doubt because of Coronavirus, but some things were really not OK.

Let's start with the positive:
We were very excited upon arrival and our first impression at the reception was very nice. The room was in great condition and exactly like described on the pictures. Stunning hotel from the outside, too.

And now the negatives:

Oftentimes, we felt like the staff was bothered by us asking them for things, like for example for a parking space or if we could have a hair dryer or breakfast in the room. This is not very nice and doesn't make you feel good.
The selection at the bar was very small and they don't have a menu on what is served there, so, we had to ask the bartender approximately 7x until we stumbled upon something they would serve (no Aperol or Rhubarb gin, only 1 kind of tonic and so on).
In the restaurant, they only have one person taking orders, one bringing drinks only and one bringing food. We ordered things we never received because they forgot and we are still not sure if we were charged for them in the end. Forgetting can happen once, or twice, but by the end we could just laugh about it and accepted that although we had some credit left, we could probably not use it all since we would just not get served.
Probably the biggest no-go: They do not change the menus (the things on the menus). We were there for three nights and had to eat THE SAME FOOD. Only 3 meat mains, 2 fish mains and 1 vegetarian, my vegetarian partner had to settle to eat fish because you cannot eat a dish three times in a row and I had to take the same menus too. Also, the menu for the breakfast does not change, but this is ok.

Sadly, none of the staff was wearing a mask nor a visor or complying to any social distancing rules, which was quite shocking to see. Although clearly written in the email prior to our arrival, they did not really clean any chairs and re-used the menus multiple times.

To sum up, we got the feeling that the hotel took the Coronavirus as a bit of an excuse to let themselves go, not complying with the rules and yet using it to not have to do any room cleaning and similar. Although we need to be friendly and nice to each other during these times, it was not worth the money we spent (and it was a lot, in my opinion). We will definitely not return, but I am sure there are many other beautiful places on this website that offer better service.

Disappointing stay

Looking forward to our visit to the Wood Norton but very disappointed in many areas. First greeting was that the lift was not working. I have bad knees and we were on the first floor! The room was not luxurious - the bed was lumpy and had very creaky springs. Room not very warm. Bathroom was superb - best part of the stay. The restaurant was not welcoming (rather empty and not very warm). A very limited menu was offered - labelled brasserie. Being between Christmas and the New Year I suspect visitors were down and choices and staff were both reduced. I had a sirloin steak which was fine but it was not very warm and the plate was tepid. My wife had fish. She wanted Monkfish but it was not available - she had Hake, again not very warm and the leek vegetable was so undercooked that she could not cut it. We did complain to the staff but heard nothing from the management (if there was any) either day. The next night we both had the steak and pleaded with them for hot plates, which we got. Unfortunately the steaks were over-cooked! The girl on reception did offer apologies and said she would report it to the management but nothing happened. The breakfast was OK.
The lift still not working, A member of staff brought our cases down and we left. Our overall feeling is one of huge disappointment. We do not know whether that was the normal way the hotel is presented or whether it was short-staffed and under-managed due to the holiday. We would like to think that someone actually looks at this review and gives us an answer. It was nowhere near to the standard we had expected.

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