Best Western Chilworth Manor Review

Disappointing. The take out bag was there on arrival and remained there for 24 hours... The breakfast was as appalling as the waiting staff who clearly didn't want to be there. No hash brown with my full English (although my partner did get More

Very nice but got in late so couldn't really avail of facilities

Very impressive building with helpful staff. But bear in mind no lift to upper floors. And found access to pool and facilities restricted because of our children.

We came to this hotel and spa for a girls weekend. All was fine until 5.30am on the Sunday morning when we were all woken up by a large group of teenagers running and shouting in the corridor. We phoned reception to complain and they were spoken to by a member of staff. Then at 6am it all started again. A couple of us came out of our room only to be verbily abused and threatened by the teenagers. E mailed head office and got a pathetic e mail back on how the staff did what they could. Would NEVER stay here again....

Peaceful walks. Nice swimming pool and spa.
Busy on Saturday Eve and Sunday breakfast but staff worked well. Could do with more waiting staff on Sunday supper.
Thanks

Lovely hotel stay with the added benefit of a gym. The food was also very good. This was my first stay with this chain and would definitely stay here again.

Good business hotel. Friendly staff. Special mention for Chloe at the Meetings and Events Desk. Great friendly attitude and very forthcoming.

Room


Staff
One from the bar particularly rude, Receptionist trying to be helpful but basically setting the scene for a bad stay restaurant busy due to wedding you re in the quiet part bar food only .

Food


Location
Ideally placed for Paulton Park if going North but from what I can see there s better options.

It's a nice older building but it's a bit quiet and removed from the main drag.

The parking has for years been problematic. Insufficient. Poorly lit. And chaotic.

Good place to stay, better than its 3star rating! Food excellent but a bit pricey

Lovely grounds, beautiful building. Good food and great service

Good service, but in need of some serious TLC. Could be superb if invested in.

Only stayed one night but room was light, airy and very comfortable. Dinner in the restaurant was delicious (home made chicken & ham pie), and breakfast was a superb cooked buffet with a wide choice of cereals, toasts, and cold selection too.

We had our WI 70th Birthday event here and everything was first class. All the staff were so efficient and very welcoming and made our special day a memorable one.
Well done to everyone involved.

I would like to thank all the staff at Best Western Chilworth manor for an amazing evening event organised by Rachel Stewart and Rachel Denham for us at my daughter's film premiere. Their attention to detail was phenomenal, their hard work and customer service unparalleled. From the drinks - custom made at our request - to their understanding of our needs, the unstated but available staff support, their ideas, their flexibility and meeting our team prior to the event in order to get it right. We shall be ever grateful and can't rate our experience highly enough. The public rooms for our reception were perfect and the helpful staff were always on hand to help with the technical set up we required. Thank you. Nothing was too much trouble and we really appreciate all your efforts on our behalf. The hot spiced punch was delicious and the layout was just as we asked - all in all you made what could have been stressful - into a relaxing and totally enjoyable event for us all. Wonderful. Thank you.

Hotel itself was good except that I was charged twice for the on line booking - no refund received as yet - should have been immediate in my view

Not as good as it's advertising....rooms were average....menu for dinner limited....breakfast bag takeaway!!

Very relaxing. Good Spa. Good location. Lots of history to see and places to go.

This is our second visit - excellent lisure center. Exceptional friendly staff. We had great deal by booking direct with the hotel

Lovely coffee and mince pies after a brisk post-Christmas walk

Worth the money, we were lazy and never got up for breakfast however looking at the venue im sure it was amazing. My girlfriend is a bit weird so she didn't like the pillows but the bed was fantastic. Tele works with chrome cast as long as you have two devices, one sharing hotspot. Shower and bath was good, the bathroom in general was very modern. The gardens are beautiful, couldn't find a way up to the terrace probably because of the one way system for covid-19. Regarding the Covid-19 safety measures, everything was professionally handed. Always felt safe. General great experience. Definitely recommend

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, nice grounds, kept to Covid rules, so felt safe

This is a beautifully restored old manor house. Rooms are cosy & comfortable and staff are pleasant and polite. Downsides are that there dont seem to be lifts and no assistance was offered to get out suitcases up to our room, and the floorboards squeak so neighbours both along the corridor, and on the floor above will disturb your rest.
It does bear repeating though, that this is a beautiful hotel.

Average food with poor service. Rooms clean and comfortable.

From check-in to check-out we were made to feel very welcome. Travelling with a 10 week old baby had us feeling nervous but the staff, facilities and accommodations were excellent! Will definitely stay again.

Great place to stay before a cruise good value for money

Rubbish place. Not worth the money. Would never stay at a best western ever again.

Dated decor in need of serious modernisation or just a deep clean, extremely slow restaurant service with no appreciable atmosphere and waiters that mumble in thick accents. Over priced.

The room is very nice and the staff are friendly but the free Internet doesn't always work

Good location, potential to be much better; let down by small issues. Not that impressed, but price paid was at budget hotel or traveller chain.

A great stay during this hard time staff are excellent. Room very nice and comfortable
Very clean
Breakfast good served at the table.
Restaurant good food and good portions
Highly recommended

Stayed for a wedding. Service and attention from staff very good, professional and friendly.

Staff are very helpful although in the main bar area the two members of staff were serving coke out of the draught without the correct mixture so didn't taste very good we told them but they didn't seem very bothered. Parking is available but limited if a wedding or conference is on. Rooms are OK and generally the same with the facilities. Food is very good indeed and the facilities for conference and weddings are fantastic. The wedding staff and restaurant staff were excellent.

Beautiful manor house in massive grounds with walks through nature reserves. They have a large pond with Koi Carp and golf course. the rooms are well equipped and spacious. lovely views and comfortable surroundings. Would definitely stay here again. loved it!! Thank you To my beautiful wife to be. xxx

Lovely setting with great gardens. The drinks are reasonably priced.

Nice venue, with lovely grounds. Beautiful parkland and ponds. Children loved the tree circle

Went to chilworth manor for an outdoor movie night. Very well organised and lovely grounds to sit in. X

Very nice setting, but average hotel with below average service. Overall I would stay again for a functional, if not good, stay.

Excellent value for a one night stop before going on a cruise in Southampton.

I'm a regular here and the staff are great. Some of the rooms do need modernisation.

Half Travelodge and half faded-glory old-world Manor House. A bit of a confused mess, really. A building that could be the base for a 4-5* hotel, but is providing 3* service and 2* rooms. This place doesn't know what it wants to be.

The building has great character and potential, and while the 2016 renovation made strides in affording the building a base-level of cleanliness, it serves only to highlight the shabbiness of carpets and furniture in common areas (the chairs and tables in the lobby/bar would be rejected by even the roughest of pubs). It all appears a bit cheap (lots of notices on A4 printer paper blu-tacked to walls and cheap conference stand advertising a plethora of discounts).

The rooms have benefitted from a refit, and are now solidly 3* quality. The quality of bathroom towels deserves commendation, as does the fact that windows open fully (the rooms are fantastically hot and have no air conditioning), however while the hotel provides fans these are feeble. It begs the question why ceiling fans weren't considered in the redesign of the rooms?

The layout of the hotel would benefit from an ambitious revision. Reception, for instance, is hidden behind pillars not conducive to queuing. A cluttered and messy staff room opens out into the lobby (the door is rarely closed). One has to go in search of the terrace (one of the hotel's great assets), the door to which is hidden in a corridor behind the bar - this should be a grand feature with the layout filtering people naturally towards it.

The staff are either dismissive and far too casual (reception), lacking in confidence (restaurant and bar), or incompetent (as the disgruntled guest I encountered being woken by a breakfast delivery at 7:30am he hadn't ordered; it was for the room next door). Where service worked, it still lacked a culture of customer service - this is the 21st century and a 1970s approach cannot prevail.

How an English hotel bar operates without cask ales on hand-pump is astonishing. Staff don't know how to pour Guinness, and a glass of tap water came without ice and in a hot glass. Things like this matter: pouring Guinness properly may not be noticed, but not doing so certainly will. A glass of tap water with ice in a tall glass might not be noticed, but warm water and a warm glass certainly will. No drinks at the bar come with coasters or beer mats. Two pints of Guinness were served in different and non-Guinness glasses. Doing these things properly is easy and not doing so lends the place a slap-dash and uncaring atmosphere. Again, if the hotel decides it's to be 2* then don't worry, but it is clear it has auspices of grander things and this doesn't wash at the moment.



Competition is strong in this locale. There is a Hilton Doubletree nearby, and a superb gastropub less than 10 minutes walk away. This hotel needs to decide what it wants to be, and up its game accordingly if it's going to get repeat guests. Maybe it doesn't care - there's plenty of students and cruise passengers looking for a cheap night when in transit.

2nd night stay out of 4. Food service is abysmal! Over 55 minutes waiting for a burger! What is going on? Plenty of staff running around but service is rubbish.

Lovely building and grounds, clean and comfortable room. Food was good. Recommended hotel.

Grabbed a bargain and loved it.

Our last night away before baby two and managed to get a great deal on secret escapes for mail meal breakfast and double room.
Fantastic value for money and best of all the food is fantastic.
I was very surprised by the outcome considering it is a best western which really turns this lovely location into a more budget feel almost comparable to a good travel lodge.
Would be five stars if not for the few areas that let this place down. With a bit of investment it could be as good as a Burley Manor weekend away although this hotel has much better food.
Would recommend but not sure about paying full price.
Find a good deal and have a lovely few nights away.

Nice old hotel, food was good and accommodation fine. It's a bit out of the way and has some nice walks in the ground.

Considering the price. it was a good hotel, friendly staff. Food was good... Albeit pricey. Would definitely go back.

Impressive looking establishment, room was good and they were flexible enough to add two children's beds to the double room booking, so many places fail to accommodate such simple requests. Thank you.

Lovely hotel, a little more expensive than we normally pay as cost comes out of our profit.
Would stay again, but hopefully for more than 6 hours next time.

went to a wedding fair. great place and love there rooms. can nit waot to get martied there

WOW! This place is simply amazing. Staff are all super friendly, food amazing and the ground are stunning. Will 100% stay again

Hotel very good. Restaurant over priced and uninspiring

Hotel location really good.

The restaurant is a big disappointment. The chefs only know how to cook the usual food. I asked for something vegan and it was some tasteless liquid rice with a few pieces of bell peppers floating in it, the worst restaurant food ever.

Wish I'd have taken more pictures. Such a beautiful place. Very friendly staff and a really nice place to stay. We had two double rooms and only stayed one night so didn't get to explore the facilities properly but every thing seemed to be available in spades. Everything worked in the rooms and they were both lovely and clean and well stocked with the usual bits you'd expect from a four star stay. Beds were super comfortable and it was great to see a decent size tv on the wall!! We would definitely book again. Highly recommended.

Beautiful building and grounds, interior also very well maintained

I was dubious about the food after reading reviews but I was hugely surprised! The staff were fantastic, evening food was very good and breakfast was great also! Room was clean and the Hotel was lovely, more than worth the money.

Escaping London to find some rest and celebrating an anniversary and a birthday......
What a pity, we ve been given a room facing the bin with a kitchen extractor and a spotlight under the window.
Couldn't sleep for 2 days....
The Chef or let s say the cook should review their standard, it s a shame that Alex the Restaurant Manager is having to work with them cause he s great.
Probably the only one with Alice behind the bar.
The evening receptionist on duty on thursday at 18:30 is probably the rudest, scrafiest and unprofessional one i met in my life.
Most of the staff faced seems to not care and spend more time having fun between themself than looking after the guests.

As a restaurant manager myself i understand this job can be hard but honestly, if you can t do it, don t want to do it and have no real understanding of what mean hospitality just get yourself an other job, as you may ruined some precious moment. (And making them waist their money)

Thank you for ruining an important moment for my girlfriend and me!

It's sooooo pretty! I should imaging it's great for weddings especially in May. The rhododendrons are amazing!!

Excellent hotel restaurant food extremely good too, will definitely stay here again

I really enjoyed my weekend stay here back at the start of February as I never been before. The forest area on the other side of the M27 was spectacular. Plus, the snow which came shortly before my stay really made my day as the South doesn't get that much. I would really like to go back

Went to a business related talk. Good facilities, friendly staff.

Beautiful Hotel couldn't ask for a better place to stay. Amazing breakfast and Staff were very polite and hard working thanks for a lovely time..

Went there for a funeral wake so only really used the reception area and function room. All was very nice.

We had a very pleasant stay would definitely recommend this hotel

The manor hotel is in beautiful surroundings. The food in the restaurants was good and great portion sizes.

Reception desk staff were very friendly, attentive and welcoming!
Beds were comfortable, room was basic modern-ish, large TV, heating to your liking, bathroom clean and spacious (plenty of towels).
Breakfast was lovely, and a wide variety of choice.
Location is beautiful, and the driveway leading up to Manor House was beautiful.
I'd come here again as it was very good for money and family friendly! Only thing I'd say for feedback is I saw 3 cleaning ladies all eating whilst cleaning rooms, which I think they could have at least waited til behind a closed door! Slightly unprofessional, considering the type of establishment this seems to be. It's not good for guests to see staff stuffing their faces on the job. Nonetheless, this doesn't affect my rating because I can put that aside as it was a lovely stay.

Nice hotel, friendly service, tasty breakfasts, clean rooms, I recommend