Brooklands Hotel

“Fab”

Really enjoyed my stay here, hotel was clean & comfy with a lovely bathroom. Spa was nice with the outdoor hot tub with track view a great touch. Then dinner service as 1907 was fantastic. Each server was polite, prompt & knowledgable about my order… even if I ordered from one server & they cleared… lisää

Really enjoyed my stay here, hotel was clean & comfy with a lovely bathroom. Spa was nice with the outdoor hot tub with track view a great touch. Then dinner service as 1907 was fantastic. Each server was polite, prompt & knowledgable about my order… even if I ordered from one server & they cleared a course away the next would immediately provide missing items & understand the menu in consideration. The food was great too Makes for a seamless dining experience.

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“Rooms could be better, great food, shocking service. Lucy saves the day.”

We booked a dinner, bed & breakfast package here as we had previously booked a full day event at the Brooklands museum. We booked the hotel through Secret Escapes which was £179 in total, compared to £182 per person if booked direct with the hotel. First impressions are that it's a very modern, pop… lisää

We booked a dinner, bed & breakfast package here as we had previously booked a full day event at the Brooklands museum. We booked the hotel through Secret Escapes which was £179 in total, compared to £182 per person if booked direct with the hotel. First impressions are that it's a very modern, popular & well kept place. We were offered an upgrade on check-in - £30 to upgrade to an Executive room which would have given us extra space & a lounge area with a sofa. We declined as we were only there for one night. The guy who checked us in was very informative & gave most of the information we needed. He mentioned that the package we had booked included a pre-dinner glass of prosecco at the bar, but said that if we wanted to take the drink with our meal to just let the waiting staff know when they took our order. We were given a room on the 2nd floor overlooking a car-park to the rear. The AC in the room had been set to 18º & although it was particularly hot outside when we arrived (around 34º), as we'd been in the air conditioned hotel reception for around 20 minutes before going up to the room, it felt particularly chilly, so we put the temperature up to 22º. The room looked ok at first, but as time went on we noticed a number of annoying issues which pointed to a lack of attention to detail. The wardrobe was very poorly lit, facing the entrance door. It was ok & big enough for an overnight or weekend break, but not really big enough for any longer. There was an iron & ironing board provided which was a nice touch. The bathroom was mostly nicely decorated - but the bottom edge of the door looked like it had been trimmed with a bread-knife & obviously not sealed as it was swollen where it had absorbed moisture. Just unsightly. When we checked for towels there were 2 bath sheets, but only 1 hand towel. Not great for a room for 2. Good points were a heated mirror which stayed clear when the room was steamy & a switch to turn on a speaker in the ceiling which played the TV sound, so no missing anything if you had to nip to the loo whilst watching the TV or listening to music. Backing on to the wardrobe was a shelf above the tea / coffee & kettle area. Unfortunately there was only 1 sachet of coffee & one of hot chocolate, again not great for a booking for 2 people. Early evening we both showered & changed for dinner before heading down for our 20:30 reservation in the hotel's highly acclaimed 1907 Restaurant. We were seated quickly & the waitress asked if we'd like to order some drinks. We asked for a wine list & also asked for our glasses of prosecco. You'd have thought we'd asked her fo a free bottle. In a very 'teacher telling off a pupil' manner, she told us that we should have ordered those at the bar as an aperatif before we came into the restaurant, even when we told her that her colleague who checked us in had said we could ask for them at the table, she insisted that it would have been clearly noted on our booking confirmation, but that on this occasion she would go to the bar & have them sent to our table, as if she was doing us a favour. She reappeared a few minutes later with the menu's & a wine list. She explained that the package we had booked had only a certain number of options on the menu included & that if we wanted to order anything else there was a supplement to pay. For starter we could have soup, hummus & pita or feta stuffed filo, for mains it was fish & chips, a burger or caesar salad. Everything else was an additional cost. Whilst she was still explaining the menu, a waiter appeared at the table & as soon as the girl had finished speaking, he asked if we'd like to order any wine. We hadn't had chance to look at the list, so we asked him to give us a couple of minutes. Around 20 minutes later we had to get someone's attention & ask if we could order some wine & our food now. Starters came out fairly reasonable time - I had the calamari at a £6 supplement. They were slightly overcooked & starting to feel a little rubbery & chewy, but were tasty & well seasoned. My wife had the fate stuffed filo which was very nice, but too big to finish & the ration of feta to filo was too much. The waiter who cleared our starter plates asked if the food was ok, to which we replied that it was. Again, the mains came out in a reasonable time (around 10 minutes). I'd ordered the baby BBQ ribs at a supplement of £10.50. I have to say they were one of the best rack of rib's I'd ever eaten. My wife chose a rib-eye steak at a supplement of (I think) £22. It was ok, cooked mid-rare as she'd ordered, but was a little tough. When we had finished, the same waitress who had seated us took our plates. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. The restaurant dinner waiting staff seemed to have disappeared, meanwhile a bunch of other staff had appeared & were clearing all the tables around us & setting them for breakfast. We understand that this had to be done, but to have been left & ignored after having our main course plates taken whilst staff around us are obliviously setting other tables for breakfast was extremely frustrating. We had read that a booking for 2 was given a reservation time period of 2 hours. By this time we were approaching 1 hour 40 minutes & we hadn't yet been given any dessert menus, never mind actually ordering. Around 25 minutes after having our main course plates cleared, one of the waitresses who had been setting the breakfast tables (Lucy) approached the table & asked if everything was ok. I told her that the food had been great, but the service shocking & the communication between staff obviously non-existent & that she was the first person who had approached our table to actually ask if EVERYTHING was ok since we'd been seated. She asked if she'd like me to call a manager, I declined as by that point I failed to see how they could make amends for the poor service. Lucy asked me to explain some of the issues so I told her. She said she would go & speak to a manager anyway & see if there was anything they could do for us. Whilst she was gone, a waited came over to the table & asked if we'd like any tea or coffee - we declined & he went away. Not less than a minute later, Lucy came back & said she'd spoken to her manager who has said she could offer us complimentary tea or coffee. You really couldn't make it up!! We explained that this was another example of a lack of communication, that we realised it wasn't her fault, but that we had literally just declined tea & coffee after being offered it. We also remarked that it was unusual to be offered hot drinks before we'd actually finished our meal - she asked had we not had our dessert's brought out yet, to which we replied that we hadn't even ordered them yet as we hadn't seen a menu. She apologised & had menu's brought over straight away. After we'd ordered & had finished our desserts, Lucy came back to our table & again apologised that the service hadn't met our expectations. We had a brief conversation during which we mentioned that it was our anniversary & she asked if we'd had our anniversary plate yet. We explained that we hadn't specifically booked it as an anniversary meal so no one would have known, but she asked us to give her a couple of minutes & she returned with a plate, scribed with' Happy Anniversary' in chocolate piping & with 2 small pieces of cake. So for whoever is reading this from the hotel, your reception / check-in staff need to communicate with your senior waiting staff if they give guests advice that differs from what's written on their package confirmation and in turn your senior waiting staff need to take a leaf out of Lucy's book as she pretty much saved the day after being the only person in the room to notice the frustration we must have been displaying when we were looking round for someone (anyone) to bring us some dessert menu's after a considerable time since our main course plates were cleared.

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“Weekend visiting family”

We stayed here for convenience as family live close by. We knew before we arrived you had to pay to park and you had to pay for the spa so this was not a surprise. The room was clean and the bed comfortable. We looked out over all the dirty laundry and bins which was not very nice. The food was e… lisää

We stayed here for convenience as family live close by. We knew before we arrived you had to pay to park and you had to pay for the spa so this was not a surprise. The room was clean and the bed comfortable. We looked out over all the dirty laundry and bins which was not very nice. The food was excellent and the restaurant was busy. What was disappointing was even if you went to bar to buy a drink and carry it to your table service charge was added! Always happy to pay service charge when served but since when have we had to start paying for a bar person to pour you a drink is this not what they are expected to do? It was a sunny day but you could on,y sit and have a drink inside or in the car park! The pictures showed a terrace but this is actually part of the spa so unless you pay £42 each to sit on the terrace then pay for your drinks this you cannot sit there! As I said bed comfortable and food good but I wouldn’t stay again for the reasons stated.

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