We recently had occasion to visit Christchurch and chose the Waterford Lodge because of their website presentation. The place looked nothing like the photo's on the website, a lot of "photo-shopping" had obviously been utilized, it is the last time I let the home page picture help me decide on a hotel. The shower was blocked, there was only one bath towel for two adults and the bed was so hard we both had back ache the next morning. I had pre-booked a table in their restaurant online for 7.30pm. We went down at 7.25pm and were finally shown to our table at 9pm. It was like something out of Fawlty Towers, the way they took one table in at a time and served 3 courses before inviting the next table into the dining room. On the plus side, the food was exceptionally good but the service was exceptionally slow. I had to laugh when checking out the next morning. After listening to my list of "irks" the receptionist replied he would look into it as soon as he got a moment. He was reading the newspaper at the time. I sent an e-mail to the Best Western head office listing my concerns and have yet to receive a reply. At £140 per night, it was an expensive lesson. Best Western can do without our patronage in future.

Stayed here for 1 night whilst on Business in the area. The room was very large think it must have been a family room.

Was clean and tidy

The hotel is fairly dated but provides a resonable stay

Did not eat in the restaurant so cant judge the food

Stayed here after booking at the last minute as my husband suddenly had to work over the bank holiday weekend. Arrived not expecting a great deal especially after reading some negative reviews on trip advisor. Check-in staff very friendly and welcoming. Arrived in our superior room which was very light and bright and even had a massage chair which was very welcome. You could lie back in this chair and watch the clouds through the glass roof above (don't worry only the very front of this room has a sloping glass roof - different and very welcome as it makes the room so bright) - very relaxing. Had breakfast the following morning which was nice with plenty of variety. Reception was again efficient and friendly. Would happily stay again if we were in the area.

Room was really good as were the reception staff but the restaurant lets the hotel down, at best its mediocre. The hotel make a big play of all food freshly cooked and that you will have to wait around half an hour, so based on that you do have great expectations. Sadly the restaurant doesn't live up to them as the food can be good one night and poor the next.

We will use the hotel again but will certainly eat elsewhere.

The menu is limited and is changed once a week with no daily specials and during our stay there was no fish on the menu. An irritating point was that if you are on DBB terms and want seasonable vegetables with your meal then its an extra £2.50. Some meals do have a small vegetable garnish included but the Pork tenderloin with creamy mash ... was just that. No veg no nothing LOL

We did gently complain about the food but to no avail ... we also complained when a plumbing problem meant the toilet self flushed from 2am until 7am. The response was "Oh lovely thanks for letting us know" ... I was totally lost for words by then.