Bedford Swan Hotel and Thermal Spa — Hotel in Great Britain

AVOID THIS HOTEL AT ALL COSTS I bought my mother into the Swan Hotel for a 3 night stay. It is a dreadful hotel and I really would warn everybody not to book themselves in, if you can ever get hold of anybody on the phone Two months before our trip, we asked for a disabled bay for my mother’s disabled vehicle. We were told that the hotel didn’t reserve spaces yet when we arrived at the hotel we were told that there was one reserved for us. Oh joy! We parked, as instructed, only to be approached by an aggressive member of staff who told us that we would have to move as it had been reserved for another guest who had booked the previous day. So having been told two months ago that we couldn’t reserve spaces, we are now told that you could book. And the space had been booked by a guest the day before There are steps from the car park to the hotel and a ramp that we were told doesn’t work so my mother had to travel in her wheelchair from the car park round to another hotel entrance. We booked one twin room and the disabled room for my mother. The disabled room is on the second floor. In case of an emergency, we were told not to use the lifts. But there is absolutely no other route for my mother to have been evacuated in case of fire. Surely this isn’t legal? The bedroom was totally unsuitable for a disabled guest. There were no handrails by the bed or indeed anywhere in the bedroom. It was a normal double bedroom. The bathroom had been designed by an able-bodied person and was totally inappropriate for a disabled person. The basin was incredibly small with a levered tap that hung over the sink making it almost impossible to use the sink. There was no shelving whatsoever in the bathroom. The tooth mugs were on the cistern of the loo – not hygienic or within distance of the sink. We had to set up the ironing board in the bathroom as a makeshift shelf. The disabled suite was a joke. The twin bedroom was adequate although the window was broken and couldn’t close fully so we had the sound of the air-conditioning each night. There was loud building work going on in the room next to my mother’s, the noise starting at 8am. Why on earth didn’t the hotel inform us? To get to the in-house restaurant, my mother had to exit the hotel and travel 5 or so minutes round the front of the hotel along the busy road to enter via a terrace door of the restaurant. We were put on a table next door to the function room and the live band made it impossible to converse so we asked to be moved. Because the access to the in-house restaurant was virtually impossible, we cancelled the next two evening meals that we had booked but having had a horrible meal of rubbery lamb, dry pizza and over-cooked fish, the decision to eat in an accessible restaurant with good food turned out to be a great decision. We had to fetch breakfast from the restaurant and take it up to my mother’s room. It certainly wasn’t the vision she had for her much anticipated trip. Clearly the hotel and their in-house restaurant the Pen and Cob don’t care about disabled customers. This has been noted in previous reviews but they still haven’t bothered in doing anything to make their in-house restaurant accessible. Shame on you! On the second evening we asked for room service and after a lengthy wait for our call to be answered the call was answered with a an abrupt question asking if we had pre-paid credit – not a particularly warm greeting There is house keeping every alternate day. We have never experienced this. Newspapers cannot be ordered and the nearest newspaper shop is quite a long way away. Surely this would be easy to organise. The pillows are lumpy and the duvets are thin and cheap and there are no blankets provided. Oh, and if you were mad enough to book this hotel for your stay in Bedford, be prepared to wait a long time for your call to be answered. The Owners of the Swan Hotel just do NOT care about guests with disabilities. ...

DO NOT STAY HERE!!! Woodland manor is just up the road, fraction of the cost and the staff are impeccable.

Please see below the complaint I sent to the manager. After 3 weeks they did come back to me and agreed to refund the £100 I was charged for ‘smoking’ in the room which I did not.

All in all, they offered me £50 compensation for the absolutely vile service I received, not sure how I’m wanting to escalate this of yet but thought I should post in the meantime.

I will say that the location and the building is amazing. Really wonderfully decorated for Christmas, but I guess anyone can put a bow on a turd.

See below:

Please see below concerning my stay.

Was told I had flooded the room below me and that it was my fault. Surely I am not to blame for your poor plumbing. They said I shoved tissue down the sink to cause a blockage but I couldn’t have used more than 2 tissues as per my skincare routine. When I spoke to another guest they said they were on the same floor as I and had problems with the sink draining. Is this also my fault in the hotel’s opinion? The lady I spoke to was staying with a female friend, I didn’t manage to get either of their names. The floor was absolutely sodden and I wasn’t offered an alternative room.

When leaving I spoke to a gentleman guest when I was waiting for the lift who said the service is not good (not the language used but I’d like to use politer terms.)

I paid the £100 fee for my ‘smoking’ as to not incur any argument nor lose my bed for the night, I would like this refunded. I have issues with my bowels so when I came in from smoking outside I put what I was smoking on top of the bin as I didn’t want to put it into my pocket. You could check the cameras as I was smoking outside the front of the hotel near the main road. The member of staff that came to discuss this with me was an absolutely stunning lady with a neck tattoo, unfortunately I cannot remember her name.

In all, I would like the whole thing refunded. For such a lovely building it is a shame how poor the service is from the majority of staff.

I am now at another hotel where I have been shown so much compassion and kindness. Funnily enough one of the members of staff here previously worked for your hotel and advised how much the hotel has gone downhill over the last year or so.

Also, I booked the spa which I only used roughly 1 hour. As a guest this should have been charged to my room but instead I was refused entry and had to go out in the 8am cold to try and arrange cash to pay for a mediocre spa experience. As a beautician and masseuse myself i have worked in many lovely spas from champneys to house of Elemis in Mayfair and the standard of cleanliness in your spa was just so poor that I could barely spend an hour in there, I would like this refunded also.

I will say that both gentlemen that helped me check in and the lady that checked me out were really lovely and a credit to your hotel especially when compared to the rest of your staff.

Apologies for not emailing sooner but I have had a great deal of stress having recently been made homeless, partly the reason I booked into your hotel seeking refuge in some of my darkest days and instead...

Our experience with the hotel has some conflicting. We have stayed 4 nights there and we found it really comfortable. We had a couple of situations that make us seriously doubt whether to stay here again. The first was that when we went to check in we had to pay an extra fee for our dog and sign a fairly extensive letter of rules about how our dog should behave (do not bark, do not climb on furniture including the bed, do not leave it alone in the room etc) we consider that are the basic rules of coexistence when you go on vacation with pets, although we understand that it is good that the rules are clear from the beginning, but we found it a bit abrupt and rude as a welcome. It could have been just a piece of paper we signed but then I get pretty upset (I'll come back to this later). Once in the room we found it cosy, a bit noisy, we heard the footsteps of the guests above, boilers, etc., but the first thing that caught our attention was that although we paid extra for the dog, we did not see how that was reflected. Extra expense rather than a right of entry: no treats, no bed for the dog (especially considering the dog couldn't use any of the furniture), we felt we'd like to see the extra payment for our furry friend on duty reflected, to be a Pet friendly hotel you need to be more friendly with pets. The next problem we had, which if it had been handled correctly would not have been a problem, is that the hotel was very active during the weekend with events: weddings, baby showers, birthdays, etc. Getting to host up to 6 events simultaneously, incredible. But in more than one event it happened that the participants were not satisfied with using the room they had reserved, they also felt that they had the right to use the hotel corridors, corridors that lead directly to the doors of the rooms! We had people literally sit outside our door having a drink and chatting, kids running and screaming: running through the halls, people screaming and singing (maybe a little bit drunk) at our room door. We called the reception several times to ask them to do something about it but there was no answer, until we decided to interrupt our rest, go down and talk in person. The response we received was: "oh yes, there is noise, there are 6 events, it will continue like this..." This cannot be an appropriate response from a 4-star hotel. You can organize all the events you want but you have to have the corresponding staff to keep it in order, when someone makes a reservation for an event they rent a salon, NOT the hotel corridors. On the other hand, how was it that if my dog ​​barked or bothered other guests, you had the right to ask us to leave the hotel? Are manners and rules of behavior only for dogs? Because as a guest I am much more annoyed by the people who sat at the door of my room talking about how Katty was getting a divorce... If you are going to demand manners from my dog I would first start demanding...