The Wood Norton

Disappointed

We had been looking forward to our three night stay at this hotel after a family holiday in Scotland. It s location near the M5 was ideal. We arrived just as the hot weather started. Wood Norton sent a detailed email before our arrival giving all the COVID precautions taken by the hotel. They omitted to tell us that they would not be servicing the room unless requested . This was only disclosed by another detailed paper handed to us on arrival. We had to ask for more loo paper and clean towels and bathroom was not cleaned.
Our room (107) was spacious with a very large bathroom. The air conditioning was efficient and kept us cool in the day and through the night. This was much appreciated as temperature was so high outside. The bed was very comfortable and the location quiet.
We loved the south facing terrace outside the restaurant where drinks and food were available. The view is amazing and the weather made sitting there.perfect.
We ate breakfast and dinner at the hotel every day. Restaurant service was extremely slow at dinner the first night and breakfast the next morning. Took forty minutes to get our second course. Restaurant was very busy and they didn t seem to have enough staff. Many of the staff seemed inexperienced and I think they were new. All the staff were pleasant but seemed overwhelmed by the numbers. Things improved at dinner on day 2 but deteriorated again by the end of our stay as the hotel seemed to fill up again. We made allowances as we knew that it has been difficult to recruit staff after lockdown.
Unfortunately, we felt very let down by the fact that we did not have any hot water for the duration of our stay. I only found this out when I was in the shower after a hot day sightseeing. I rang reception afterwards only to be told that yes, there had been a problem but the engineer had been that morning and was coming back at 6pm. Apparently I should have run the water for longer until it ran hot. I suggested that we should have been told about the problem before I got in the shower. We ran the water for 15 minutes the next day but not hot. Terrible waste of water. We complained again the next day only to be given the same news that the engineer would be there soon. We never did get any hot water. We complained again when we left.
So, poor restaurant service and room servicing left us very underwhelmed.

Shocking

Here's a timeline of our experience at The Wood Norton:

1. Not greeted/welcomed by receptionist upon arrival.

2. We arrived a couple of hours before checkin (around 1pm) and the receptionist didn't check if our room was ready or offer to keep our bags somewhere she instead just bluntly told us that checkin wasn't until 3pm and turned back to her computer.

3. While we waited for 3pm to roll around, we had some lunch. When our lunch arrived I asked for some ketchup which then never came. I waited for 5min while my lunch got cooler until I eventually went to search for it myself. After asking a member of staff for some I then waited around for another 5mins or so for someone to go on a hunt for some! By the time I sat back down to eat my lunch it was stone cold.

4. At no point did anyone come to check on us to see if everything was ok, if we wanted any drinks etc.

5. When 3pm arrived and we attempted to checkin a second time, our booking from OPL "hand't gone into the hotel's system" so we were without a room. The Receptionist called down the Manager and the Manager then tried to fob us off with a standard room and 20 towards our dinner. I had paid for a "Luxury Country Getaway - Feature Room" on OPL's site which was supposed to be their top end "feature room", and include 30pp towards dinner and 20 towards this "offer" from the Manager was absurd and of significantly less value. I told her as such and we were asked to go and have a complimentary drink at the bar while they sorted things out. My wife and I had already had a couple of alcoholic drinks with our lunch, but we were sobering up with a coffee thinking that we might have to turn around and go home. Eventually they managed to move some things around and get us the room we had paid for, but it was a really poor experience.

6. When booking the hotel through OPL's site, I also booked dinner and breakfast and let them know it was my wife's birthday. Much like the room this "didn't make it through to The Wood Norton's system" (even though it was in an email in their system that I could see on their the dinner plans I had requested were also in vein.

7. When we sat down for dinner both wine glasses on our table were filthy. The waitress replaced them with two different glasses didn't match. When asking a number of questions about the dishes the waitress had no idea and kept having to go back and forth to the kitchen to ask the chef. She then told us that she had just got back from self NONE of the staff were wearing any masks! For a "gourmet restaurant" with mains costing between 30 and 80 in the midst of a pandemic this is just unacceptable.

8. The burger I had earlier at lunch was then repeating on me, so the combination of the filthy wine glasses, lack of any kind of obvious sanitation or protection with masks on the staff, made us feel very uneasy about what we were eating and the cleanliness of the environment and was a massive distraction at dinner.

9. Breakfast in the morning was an absolute shambles. Once again, we weren't greeted upon entering the Brasserie instead the maitre d grumpily took us to a table right by the entrance to the kitchen so we had staff going back and forth next to us. We sat for about 30m before anyone took our order. During that time we saw the maitre d "clean" a table by removing the plates and then swiping the crumbs and debris onto the floor! She then relaid the table without first spraying or sanitising it and sat someone down at the table! All around us people were finishing their breakfast and leaving and NONE of their tables were being cleared or cleaned. By the time we gave our order we were surrounded by messy tables. When our toast was brought out to us it wasn't on a was just lying on the rubber tray with the drinks and the waitress just tossed it onto a plate on our table. I kid you not. We were utterly shocked. Clearly I could go on and on, but the short of it was it was a shocking service.

10. We were planning on having Afternoon Tea there, but with the experience we had at lunch, dinner and then the appalling breakfast, we didn't want to waste any more money and decided to just go home.

11. On checkout the receptionist didn't ask us how our stay that we owed some money for the wine we had at dinner and that was that! I was ready to give her an earful, but at that point I just couldn't be bothered and we just wanted to go home.

Without question this was the worst birthday surprise I have ever gifted my wife and the worst hotel we have ever stayed at.

Such a shame because it's a beautiful old manor house, but the collective staff are undertrained and lack any kind of experience or due care and attention in hospitality.

A bit disappointing

On arrival there was nobody on reception and then young lady appeared who addressed us as guys and carried on with this throughout registration. When we got to our room we were rather disappointed as the only views we had was of a rain stained wall and neighbouring chimney pots if you stood on tiptoe. I asked if we could have another room as this was our 51st wedding anniversary. I was told that we would be called in five minutes to let us know if another room was available. After half an hour I made another trip down to reception where other guests were complaining about their room so we had to keep the 'cell'. Dinner on both nights was an ordeal as the waiting to be seated, being given the menus and taking of orders was extremely slow. The same at breakfast. The food was fine but with an allowance of 30 pp it was difficult to have a starter and main within this budget. The toilet seat was broken and dangerous as it was secured on one side only and moved in use. This was reported but nothing was done during our stay. The room was very dark and I found a handbag in a drawer left by a previous occupant. I went to open the windows and the handles fell off. The bar was bizarre as the wallpaper depicted various species of fish!