Best Western The Hilcroft Hotel

We stayed in Apr 26. Booking was easy, however, the writing was on the wall from early on during our stay. The cups in the room were ring stained, like they were washed out, not washed up. When we asked for a clean cup; rather than changing the dirty cup for a clean one, staff made a point of inspecting the cup and saying it was rinsed but maybe not scrubbed. Yeah, hence why it's dirty, because it's not been cleaned. Our first night was terrible. We were both woken at about 0300 by other guests. The next hour and a half were spent being kept awake by loud talking and shouting (curses) by guests in the corridor as well as constant banging of doors. We tried to speak to the guest ourselves to no effect, so we phoned reception. Approx 20 mins later the porter came and spoke to the guests who quietened for about 5 mins before starting again. A further 2 calls later, about 0500, the corridor quietened. By this time we were fully awake. The next morning we spoke to a member of staff called Scott. We made a complaint outlining our experience. Effectively we were told the guests weren't staying the next night so we should get some sleep that night. Not for us as though as we had a 2am check out before a 14hr journey back to Cyprus. We were told 'the porter dealt with it, what more could we do'. Well, quicker reaction & soft close doors would be a good start. Regarding the doors, we were told they were fire doors and are meant to slam shut. More notable was that not once were we offered a hint of apology for inconvenience. Just a rude, defensive, care less attitude. Regarding 'what more could we do', which felt like 'not our problem governer'. The porter could have intervened sooner, he could of stayed in the area to monitor the situation. A second warning could have been firmer. He could of warned the guests on return to keep noise down. We could have received an apology as a minimum. Regarding banging doors Scott told us they had to slam closed, could not have soft closing mechanisms as we suggested. Again, i may not be a builder, but i do know fire doors absolutely do not have to slam shut to be effective. They need to have a self closing fitting as per BS9999 1.6.1 (d) which states "hanging devices, securing devices, self-closing devices and automatic release mechanisms... [should] operate correctly." A slamming fire door on a self closer is not operating correctly. Usually a closing door mechanism has two setings one that regulates the speed the door closes for 90% of the way then a second setting that regulates the speed of the last 10% of travel. This means the door will close quickly but the last couple of inches will close slowly and quietly. lt's just a case of them being set up properly. Acceptable standards include: EN 1154 & EN 154. You are welcome for the 10 min research to maybe aid you improving your establishment. Whilst a small number of staff tried to be helpful (Chris and Jason), Scott was challenging, demeaning, unhelpful and would benefit from some customer service training. To not even say something akin to 'really sorry you had such a bad experience' is totally unacceptable, and if it were received now would be too late and incongruent. The frosty, shoulder shrugging receptionist with him is clearly also in need of customer service skills training. As a member of the armed forces this was meant to be a relaxing break after our base was attacked. I was back working in an operations centre the day after travelling and was not at all well rested following our experience. So.. thank you for being so understanding and showing a little compassion [sarcasm].

I've never had such a bad breakfast before. No choice. The only sausage option was cooked ham. No eggs. Muesli was only available in packets.

I recently attended a reunion at the Hilcroft and can't say enough good things about it. The entire staff were wonderful - helpful, friendly, and courteous, going out of their way to make our event such a great success. The food was good both at our gathering and in the restaurant. The rooms are exceptionally comfortable, clean, and well-equipped. All twelve of us at the event agreed that the Hilcroft was an excellent choice and we look forward to future events at this location. Thank you to the wonderful staff.