Donnington & Co — Hotel in Great Britain

Stayed here as a base camp for a UK autumn break. Lots to see and do in the area - would recommend the local walks and museums, the windmill theatre and the living rainforest for a decent day out.

Felt very safe at the hotel with proper restrictions in place such as face coverings, sanitising stations and the removal of room servicing however felt things could be improved for example by having an 'order at the table app' for food and drinks to take the pressure off the waiting staff and improve social distancing.

The Spa facilities and staff were excellent with the sauna, steam room and aroma room all being open but unfortunately the jacuzzi was closed for maintenance. Nice big pool with loungers to relax in. At one point during our stay we witnessed a customer being rude and abusive to a member of the reception staff due to a mistake with booking which the staff member handled very professionally but it was unfortunate to hear from her that she was "used to it". Perhaps a sign stating expectations on customers to not be abusive towards staff would help with this issue.

The food could be improved as it was very much hit and miss dependent on what you ordered. The fish supplier seemed to be excellent so would recommend along with anything deep fried which tended to fair well with the chips being a winner over the fries for us. The steak was cooked as requested and good value with the deal for 2. Unfortunately two things let the food down: the bread was extremely stodgy and tasteless whether that be in the breakfast muffins, the burger buns or the bagels and hard to digest; the meat patties were poor quality, tasting bulked out with flour as the burger and breakfast sausage were very chewy and glutenous so steer clear of these foods if you can. The 'breakfast in a bag' was perfectly fine and an innovative idea. Some things could be improved such as swapping the fruit salad for fresh fruit or swapping the bagel to a bread roll with individually wrapped cheese and butter and maybe some fresh coffee bags to help with the habitisation from the usual bar breakfast.

The rooms were bright, clean and large. We stayed in a superior room which came with a separate shower and bath. I enjoyed a very comfortable bath in the large tub however the noise of the decommissioned speaker that buzzed when the light was on became irritating after a while. The heated towel rails could not be turned on which was a shame as it meant drying your swimming costume was a tricky task especially as the changing rooms with air dryers were closed to hotel guests. The bed mattress was very comfy although could do with two pillows per person rather than the 1 to reach that 'I have arrived' feeling (especially given there were none provided spare in...

Nice relaxed hotel with friendly staff and excellent breakfast. Good spa/pool area with over thirty sun loungers. Nice to be able to get food and drinks around the pool but it did get very noisy in the afternoon so best avoid it at that time if you want to relax. Negatives about my weekend stay at this hotel were that our bedroom was so hot the first night I couldn't sleep and we couldn't get the air conditioning panel in the room to work. The maid the next morning said it was broken but after speaking to reception we were told that it's connected to the rest of the hotel so you can only have heating or air conditioning on in the whole hotel one at the time and you can't control as a separate setting in your hotel bedroom which I find very odd especially as there is a control pad in the bedroom!!! So on the second night we had to sleep with both velux windows open which made the room cooler but we then had a lot of noise from the road, guests leaving the hotel and wind and rain. So although we had a lovely big comfortable bed unfortunately we struggled to sleep both nights. Food we had in the hotel was overall good but the afternoon tea I had in the spa lounge was very disappointing, the scones were nice but I couldn't eat the sandwiches as the bread was hard and not freshly made (seemed like they had been left out for a while and dried up) the selection of sweet treats unfortunately weren't particularly tasty either. I did tell the lady who served me but I was still charged full price!! (£15.50) And lastly the restaurant in the evening is nice but lacking in any atmosphere even though it was busy. Service at the start of our meal was good but once our main course was finished it was hard to get a dessert menu or bill. We waited 15 mins for the man who offered us a dessert menu to bring it but it never arrived (later found out he was management) so we asked someone else then couldn't get anyone's attention for our bill. It felt like all the staff had disappeared to the function that was on in the next room which was holding a very noisy party. I also didn't like the fact that I was sat at a table which had a view of the staff serving area so eating a meal while watching staff scrap food into a large bin etc wasn't particularly nice, a simple screen in front of this area would solve this problem. So overall we had a nice weekend at Donnington Valley but it was let down by a few things that could be sorted out by management. The best bits of the hotel are the breakfast especially the waffle maker and the little white company products in...

As a regular business visitor to Newbury I generally stop in hotels I know but wanted to try this one based on reviews and that they have a gym/pool.

I arrived in the hotel around 5pm on 20 Sep '23 and was handed my key to room 111. After dropping my bags and getting changed into sports kit I headed to the gym.  The gym itself has plenty of new hi-tech CV equipment but does lack sufficient weight training equipment especially in the free weights section however, this is a hotel gym so I'm not expecting it to be on par with something like JDs. The pool area looked nice and clean but I didn't have time to use.

The problems started when back in the room.  The toilet was covered in poo stains under the rim, the sink and bath water drained so slow it was hard to use the basin for washing.  Upon investigation the bath plug was clogged with what would appear to be many weeks/ months of hair.  In addition to this the room carpet was stained and wallpaper peeling of the wall but these are minor issues compared to the bathroom.

Moving into the bar area it is pleasantly decorated with lots of seating.  The alcohol prices are slightly on the high side for the location (£6 for a pint of standard larger) but what amazed me was that a service charge of 10% was added automatically every time you order a pint! Nice business if you can get it! I ordered a chicken burger and chips which cost just under £20. The food arrived on a very small chopping board with barely enough width for the burger and the chips in a tin coffee cup. The food was OK,  nothing special at all but given the small board, when eating,  the burger dripped grease onto the table.  I don't understand this need to put food on anything but a plate,  a plate was literally invented for food! Anyway,  it is what it is.

Now for breakfast.  Typical buffet style hotel breakfast with semi-full English, cakes,  cereal,  fruit etc. This will set you back £15 whereas in other hotels in the area it's about £10.

I informed the management of the room and bathroom issues who quite rightly knocked off a significant amount from my bill and promised to sort out the issues as well as suggesting I bring the family down for a weekend.

Overall, if they sort out the rooms and pay a little more attention to the food it'll be a 4* but at the moment the rooms are 2* at best and as a business user where room comfort and cleanliness is more important than hotel facilities I'm not convinced I'll stop there again in...