Village Hotels Omdömen 

What a stupid inept website, trying to book a room as a member is impossible.

Tried booking with village today and I was disgusted to find out I was not discriminated once but twice against my vulnerability of being disabled. A customer service manager called me after filing a complaint and offered me a free upgrade on a booking. Absolutely joking experience and I have never ever been treated like this before. CEO Gary Davis please listen to the calls I had today and please explain how this has happened. Gob smacked!

The Village Hotel Farnborough. Where to begin….

I chose the Village Hotel Farnborough to stay at given that I was travelling for work and had a long (over 5 hour) drive down from the north east and then back again later the next day.

When I arrived, it was roughly about 17:30, yep - prime gym time. This meant that after a monster drive all I wanted to do was throw my car somewhere, get to my room and get something to eat.

The car park had other ideas. There’s no dedicated space for guests staying at the hotel. It’s a free for all. After circling a few times I managed to squeeze into a space opposite some shipping containers. A space that others clearly found a bit too daunting. Later, because my room faced the car park, I would see anyone and everyone just throwing their cars, vans and motorhomes into disabled bays, not one displaying a badge. I’d also see young childless couples park in the parent and child spaces and skip into the gym without a care in the world.

Solution Village Hotels? A dedicated hotel guest parking area. Barrier it off and send guests the code on the day of arrival.

Next the reception. There was one girl working at the reception table (not really a desk, rather a bank of self serve computers), and she was debating the room occupancy numbers with three elderly ladies who clearly wanted to get away with having one room and not two. Thankfully the bank of computers were for checking myself in. No instructions, just had to take a punt at how it worked and hope all was well. I figured it out, however I feel the three ladies might not have found it as accessible. This meant however, no eye contact from the team, no hello, no here’s your key sir, no your room is this way, no breakfast served at this time here sir… nothing

Solution Village Hotels? Colleagues should be trained to acknowledge guests even if they’re busy. A simple smile and “I’ll be with you in a minute if you need help with the self check in” would have done. Also send round check in instructions before people arrive.

The room was lovely all the amenities needed (apart from a phone). And overall when it comes to aesthetics for the whole building the place was great looking. No issues here.

The information in the room was lacking. Because the trying-trio downstairs hogged the receptionists space, I didn’t know anything about the breakfast service. Ideally I like to pick what I want the night before and have it delivered to my room the morning after. Did they offer this though? Well it wasn’t anywhere in any of the leaflets and online it was a mix of yes and no that they did. Thankfully, there was a qr code I could scan for help. Magic! Or so I thought. It took me to a virtual chat… yep one of those. I asked three times to put through to an agent and finally it said it would. 35 minutes and about 10 ‘?’ In the chat later I gave up. And so my first call to the customer service team when I finally found the number online. Here they confirmed no room delivery and the times I had to go down.

Well time for food. Can I really be bothered to go down? No, I’ll do room service. So… I picked what wanted, ordered and waited patiently. And waited some more, and then waited some more. Ever wanted to go in the shower when you know foods coming? You can’t. After 1 hour of waiting I decided to ring my new friends at the customer service centre. Which went like this
- Call 1 - picking the automated service options it was supposed to put me through to the restaurant but didn’t. It put me through to the central team. I admitted it may have been my error and I’ll try again.
- Call 2 - definitely the automated system not working, so this time I asked if customer service could help. “Well we can’t put you through, but I can give you the number”. I’ll just try a different option I said
- Call 3 - “leave this with me. I’ll sort it out for you” wow. Finally someone who cares!
Although given my experience so far I wasn’t as trusting as I should have been so decided to walk down to the restaurant myself.

As I approach the bar staff, I could see what later I assumed to be the manager, flustered and scribbling on paper. I said to the first person on the bar “I placed an order over an hour ago for room service and it hasn’t arrived”…. The chap with the paper in his hand piped up “oh is that the X” “I’m going to speak to the kitchen team now. We will have it to you in no time at all” “oh by the way, there’s no bottled water left, do you want me to bring tap water and ice” to which I replied yes please. And off I toddled back up to my room.

Not enough room to finish review… breakfast awful. Didn’t get any water, didn’t get a refund for it and still haven’t.

Parking = 1/5
Greeting upon arrival and check in = 1/5
Room = 4/5
Room information = 2/5
Customer service = 1/5
Room service = 1/5
Sleep = 4/5
Breakfast = 0/5
Check out process = 4/5
Overall = 1/5

Do not stay here if you’re travelling for work!

I wish to describe my experience of the Village Hotel Newcastle. Its a throwback to 1980's. The staff are great, but the facilities are awful.

I always try and stay in Village hotels where possible as they are usually a cut above the rest, offering modern rooms, air-con, super fast wi-fi etc. The Newcastle hotel is more like Fawlty Towers, but as I said, not due to the staff who were lovely.

To start with my "club room" was strategically positioned directly above two industrial fans that were so loud, not even closing the windows blotted out their drone. Even if they did, keeping the windows closed wasn't an option, as the room was so hot, due to no air-con and it being summer and all.

Dismayed as i was, things got worse after being moved to another "club room", as my hopes were dashed once more by the 1990's paced wi-fi that topped out at an impressive 65kps.

Every other Village hotel i've stayed in has superb wi-fi, so good in fact that away from the prying eyes of my beloved wife, i take my gaming laptop with me and relive the joys of my youth to engage with online gaming. Sadly, the Village Hotel Newcastle has even denied me this pleasure, clearly substituting modern super fast broadband for a hamster and its wheel.

I won't even go into the Marx Brothers style room directions that tell people several rooms, one of which was mine, are on the first floor when in fact they're on the ground floor.

Imagine my puzzlement when i took the lift to the first floor, walked the length of half the hotel then down a flight of stairs to my first/ground floor room.

All in all, its a shockingly poor hotel and i think i'll be going back to Holiday Inn express as at least they have air-con.

We paid £150 for a stay that was full of letdowns and zero value for money.

The hotel is located right opposite a hospital that gives strong negative vibes, which isn’t shown clearly on their website or even indicated on the provided website map. Transparency clearly isn’t a priority.
At check-in, we were just pointed towards the tablet on the table to help ourselves, saw on the tablet that parking would cost £5 — which was never mentioned beforehand. When we asked the nearly non-existent reception staff, they casually said it's only free on Saturdays and Sundays for in-house guests. Wow... so generous, aren’t they?
No proper check-in info, no warm welcome, nothing. The check-out was clearly ok we don't care about your experience you can walk out. (Both the time we did try communicating our concerns to the staff for constructive feedback)
The room was very dim and lacked the bare minimum: no bath mat (we had to clean the floor ourselves after showering), no bottled water to drink, no shampoo, and half-used toilet paper. Dispensers were just filled with generic hand soap.
No phone in the room, so I had to physically go to reception late at night as a female guest just to ask for essentials. Not okay.
We’d requested paid room decor for a graduation celebration — instead, we got a random bottle of wine which was religiously inappropriate. we would have rather preferred them communicating that it wouldn't be possible. We request for a room with bath 2 weeks in advance and we were turned down claiming subject to availability but weren't offered the option to upgrade either
Checked in at 11:30 PM with no mention of food availability. Nothing open, no guidance.
Morning peace? Nope. Loud housekeeping by 8:30 AM in the corridor.
All in all, this stay was beyond disappointing. Absolutely no value, care, or proper service. I completely believe in getting the money back— and I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone.

Don't oversell rooms! My mate Jason was nearly stranded yesterday due to this silly policy.

Booked an overnight stay, booked the train, train gets cancelled due to a big fire next to the train station, the hotel won’t allow me to transfer the booking day or refund me my fee so just basically gave them £109. Take it for what you will.

We have our works do at the Walsall branch every year because the location (with a huge car park, close to motorway links) are just perfect. We had a summer do on Friday night (disco through the decades) that was just wonderful. The food was great, the prices reasonable, the staff an absolute pleasure to deal with, the DJ was brill. Our team had an incredible time and we owe the Village a BIG thank you!! Nothing was too much trouble - everyone was so pleasant and understanding

Went to Swansea Village Hotel Bar & Grill for a birthday meal. The Bar & Grill Manager, Sophie, went out of her way to make the birthday meal one to remember. She placed balloons and a banner on the table and even bought a cake, lit candles and sung Happy Birthday with the other staff. Such a kind gesture from Sophie and her staff. We had starters, mains and desserts and it was all delicious.

Worse value than a travelodge, when they’re essentially the same.
Satisfactory room, it was clean and the room had more space than a travelodge equivalent.
That’s it for the good.
If you are not using the hotel for the gym then it’s pointless and I’d have preferred sleeping in my car. Oh and the car park is free on weekends.
The swimming pool and gym close early, not 24/7 which was a huge surprise frankly.
There are no vegan options for food or drink at all. Apart from tinned fruit salad in the continental breakfast.
There is no alternative milk, vegan or otherwise.
The lift was a joke, 1 lift that can maybe fit 3 people in at any time in terms of space.
The room is the same as a big travelodge room for double the price.
The food is so overpriced it hurts.
Not only do you have to have a room to get discounts but you also need to pay to be a member. And even then the value is awful.
I’m not sure how much more I can say, the windows open about 3 cm, the noise outside kept us up until about 2:30am when the screaming match between Dolly Parton and Brian Blessed finished.
I cannot stress this enough:
1 unless you are paid to stay here and you have no dietary requirements,
2 you will use the gym and pool between 10am and 7pm,
3 you are deaf or can sleep through an earthquake
Then avoid this hotel

Stayed at Village Newcastle. The company took 2 incorrect and unauthorised payments from my card over the weekend. I asked them to rectify these twice. First time I received an apology and was told it would be sorted. Second time I did not receive an apology and I felt that the member of staff was quite confrontational from the outset. I was told they have the right to take any payments they wish as part of their T&Cs. The duty manager did acknowledge that these were taken in error and said she would refund the incorrect amounts but wouldn't give me a receipt or email confirmation so that I could check this went through correctly. I was then told I didn't need this as the company wouldn't try to steal from me. I had not suggested anything of the sort, but I also wanted to have a record that it had been rectified. I am waiting for the payments to be refunded which could take up to a week. This has added a huge amount of unnecessary stress and upset to our weekend away.

I visited the hotel restaurant in Beeston Nottingham for brunch.
Paying £10 each for two minute dishes comprising 5 fish fingers and a dip along with 3 small pieces of chicken and a dip. No salad and served in tiny dishes. Food tasted ok but hardly qualified as worth £10 each. Would definitely not recommend having a daytime snack there.
Anywhere else will be better value for money.

Just tried to book a stay in one of their Hotels filled in all the information, authorised the payment on my App, then was told they couldn’t authenticate my account and to try another payment method. Tried again and the price had gone up by £30. What annoys me most is they blamed my card when it was their fault. Never Again.

Booked a room on their website. Was charged to my bank account. The booking has not been made. Gave them a call, they can't find the booking in spite of me paying for it. Was promised a call back to resolve, no one has contacted me. I'm now stuck - out of pocket and no room booked.

I use the swimming facilities very regularly but the lack of hygiene at the pool is deteriorating. A big group of gentlemen, also regular users, use the sauna and walk straight into the pool to wash off the sweat. One even takes the towel that he uses in the sauna to dry off sweat, to the pool to wash it! Invigilating staff do not even notice this behaviour. I’ve raised the issue with desk and shift manager staff but nothing has been done to change this behaviour.

We went to village Blackpool and had a brilliant time we booked into the hotel and took our stuff to the room and then proceeded to the pool and sauna which was great.Later went to the bar and grill and enjoyed our good afterwards went back to the room for good night sleep and got up for breakfast which we enjoyed great stay shame that the Village hotel Wirral cound be as good.

After 20 days of chasing up a cancelled room and taking to 3 separate individuals; none of whom felt it necessary to inform me of how my issues were being resolved (Village customer service and the hotel at Leeds south itself)I’ve finally been given an apology and a refund.

My initial phone call to cancel was due to unforseen circumstances which the lady understood, agreed and checked it was ok to refund and cancel, relieved and relaxed assured all was sorted.

8 days later no refund and no call to explain ! Spoke to an advisor (zillah) via email who didn’t help and took up to a week to reply.

So rang the hotel direct, was told I’d be called on Monday - guess what? No phone call.

Emailed zillah again asking for an update, in the meantime I raised a bank cancel of the payment as I’d grown tired of waiting for a phone call or an email.

Absolute lack of care for the customer and 3 people along the sorry chain of events have; from a customer service pov been nowhere near the standard I’d expect from a chain of hotels.

Caveat the refund, communicate, value the customer and respond efficiently and effectively as a prerequisite.

Very disappointed- will avoid and ensure colleagues and coaches who travel the country avoid also! We had a 30+ booking in July as an academy i am involved with have a tournament in Sunderland, we won’t be staying with VH

Ben

stayed at the farnborough branch a few days ago with a friend (fwb), second time staying at this hotel and have to say it was a pretty decent experience. Only thing i could complain about is the staff members talking loudly in the hallway very early in the morning

Amy baker shocking response booked and no one cared !
Brought my daughter down stairs to swim around 5 pm after spending over £280 a night no one cared told sorry our guests don’t want any kids this time
Offered a free swim in morning couldn’t wait to leave NOTE lady who runs gym reception really needs looking at I was told by lady on checkout they have many complaints about her horrible

Village hotels are modern, well designed and comfortable. Their swimming pools and sauna are good. However, their back office systems are not fit for purppse. I initially booked on the village rewards app. I was only able to book for 1 person and 1 breakfast, not 2 people. 1) The app is flakey.
Then i got a phone from village asking if i need to do any changes .. i asked to book for 2 people with total of 2 breakfasts. 2) when i arrived at the hotel i had to check in myself. Why do i have to do this? Didntvlike this. The staff should check in for me.3) i was presented with a bill for £60 .i said ive already paid whats this four? They replied they had 4 breakfasts on theit system. It took them 20 minutes to fix the issue. Stressful experience. 4) when i came down for breakfast the next day the guy at the desk said i wasnt on their system. He had to go to the main reception to check. The breakfast was good. I should also mention that village managed to screw up my booking a few years ago at the portsmouth hotel. The receptionist was rude after a standing argument for 20 mins the nanager came and apologised. Stressful. Anyway ive identified 4 major failures in back office systems. I normally charge out my time for consultancy but you got it for free.