The Wood Norton

No obvious management to be seen and no covid measures present as had been emailed previous day

We booked this hotel because of the location and the luxurious rooms as a rare treat for our wedding anniversary. We arrived in reception to be greeted by no one after a 3 hour journey - hip hop music was playing loudly in the next room and a man appeared saying he didn't work here!! Within a couple of minutes we both honestly felt as if we had intruded into a teenagers house party!! After around 10 minutes, my husband went to try to find someone - a man behind the bar gestured to the bar-seated young woman dressed in leggings and casual top to see to us. Our keys were handed to us and we were told we were not booked for dinner, although I had actually done this weeks before! Our room was beautiful, but had thick dust over the wooden panels and cobwebs. The whole hotel needed a good vacuum and the only time we saw a cleaner was when she knocked on our door an hour and a half before we were due to check out! The very young staff were clearly worn out with their "13 hour shifts and 7 weddings in a row". Maybe the 2 staff on per wedding didn't help? I know we were not alone with feeling inferior to wedding guests and the whole feel was really unprofessional due to a complete lack of management- we had no idea who to complain to!? Beauruful house and grounds, but the experience was as far away from luxurious as you could get. Will not be returning - and they have still not responded with their 24 hour response which I sent to them 5 days taking 600 of our hard earned money - never again!!

Sad reflections

Good location and lovely building and grounds
Restaurant very very poor
Understaffed with poor menu and poor quality food
Room good but bathroom shelf missing
Dining room excess billing very inefficient for our group
Surly unhelpful male in charge ( bar man) two nights in restaurant
Very slow service and so disappointing

Faulty Towers. Don't believe the restaurant reviews!

Hotel building was very nice. Views were good. Nice terrace Bar. However the bad points from three night stay: (Sorry we really don't usually leave bad reviews but this time thought we should warn others).

Room was very nice with a great view. However Air con not up to scratch and needed fan.

First evening ordered the cote de boeuf medium rare. Came up moowing, sent back to go back on the heat, still undercooked and not best quality meat especially for 85 or so. Veg and other items 5 each.

Standard of restaurant service not good. Very young waiting staff obviously untrained. Little things like proper cutlery or even a steal knife and napkins that were not the little black tissues from the Bar should have been expected from a 4 start hotel restaurant. We struggled at night 3 with unchanged limited menu, no specials etc. God help the vegetarians with only two basic veggie options.

Day 1 woke to no hot or COLD water at all! After calling reception we were told engineer had been called, had no notice or bottled water delivered to us for toilet or to even clean teeth etc. Fixed two hours later but still had no hot water. After complaining engineer came to room and advised it could take 40 minutes leaving the tap on before hot water available! Not helpful when you want to get out on hols and explore. Also didn't sound like a one off.

Breakfasts where good, however again little things like little paper black napkins, no orange juice and felt like we were taking liberties asking for condiments. I know its rightly covid rules to ask but they should offer or at least some them ready.

Last night I had a Childs meal served up by mistake, young waiter came back ten minutes later and just took it away, no doubt passed to the correct child in the end! They then brought my wife the wrong meal, again felt we were taking liberties mentioning it with huffs and puffs from staff especially when we had the cheek to ask for the broccoli and chips we had ordered at 5 a pop to go with it!

All in all nice building with potential, but I would not book again and definitely not the deal with 30pp per night in the restaurant and 20 per room for drinks as there are really good restaurants a 25 minute drive away in Stratford Upon Avon or even much closer in Broadway.