Looking forward to staying here after a wonderful experience at its sister hotel in Stafford, I have to say we were disappointed. Check in was friendly and we were offered a choice of floor. Parking is good and there are eating choices nearby. Unfortunately, we did not enjoy our stay for a number of reasons.
The juice at breakfast isn't. I'm not too sure what it is but if I had to, I would say that the 'orange' is extremely weak squash. Service at breakfast was almost non existent. No staff around when we first arrived and when one did appear, all she did was rearrange a nearby chair, leaving the mess on the table. We did then see another member of staff but no greeting or from the main desk ( the guy had his head down and wasn't acknowledging anybody). Such a contrast to the other hotel.
We found the hotel's location extremely noisy. It was very intrusive due to it being on an industrial estate with associated traffic. During the night, we were disturbed by the courier depot opposite. It seemed to be a 24 hour operation so there was the beeping of reversing lorries and the noise of them moving around. Couple this with the noise from all kinds of vehicles approaching the large roundabout in front of the hotel from early in the morning and you get the picture. This was with the window closed. It was far noisier than being next to a motorway. Perhaps the other side of the hotel may have been quieter but I doubt it.
Our room was ok but the large shower cubicle in the bathroom meant that there was very little space in it. The actual sink would have been more appropriate in a cloak room rather than a bathroom and the towel rail was too small to hang towels on. There was also very little shelf space. OK perhaps for one night but no more.
Be aware, the hotel has smoking rooms (think the whole chain does though). Although the area around our room was non smoking, you could smell smoke all along the corridor. This even though the smoking rooms were around the corner and through a set of doors. Heaven only knows what the rooms smell like. It puzzled us because we thought it was against the law to smoke in hotel rooms but presumably not. It did concern us from a safety point of view - for example, don't think these rooms can have smoke detectors, can they?
As we were only staying for one night, we decided not to mention our disappointment unless specifically asked. Unfortunately, trying to check out, we found there was no-one on the desk and no sign of any staff in the breakfast area (again). After waiting for a good few minutes, we gave up and placed our key cards over the counter on the desk. Hope they got them ok..
A big disappointment, I'm afraid.