The Reserve at Chester Zoo — Hotel in Great Britain

We stayed at the Reserve for one night in September. Firstly, we were disappointed that we had booked a package to find that one thing was not on the list when we arrived. This should have been told to us before arrival! A lot of money for not a lot of experience. Secondly the week before our stay we were told via email, that the zoo would not open until 11 am due to a fun run. This could have been mentioned well before then. The Breakfast feed experience was one of the reasons for booking the Lookout lodge as opposed to the lake view. The first thing when we arrived was the reception staff made us feel welcome and helped us with a small ask, this was done with as much help as possible and resulted in our ask to be granted. Then on to the orientation lodge to be asked to wait until the manager was free to book us in. We both felt this was a waste of time and all the things we had answered could have been pre-booked in advance by us completing a simple form. Things like what time would you want dinner and breakfast, what time would you want the tour behind closed doors and the Giraffe kitchen and barn tour. This really could be done prior to arrival where we could discuss our wants as a couple to determine rather than just say whatever time and hope for the best. Then into the zoo, this was as expected really. We were given one (not each but single) beaded bracelet to enter the zoo at this time. At the time where we could actually book in, we went back to reception to book in and was asked to leave a deposit of £100. This is for breakages and mini bar use as well as any drinks we bought from the bar. We were given the key card and shown to the lodge by a member of the reception team. Once inside we had a great first impression of the lodge. We went out onto the balcony area to see the two Giraffe and one zebra and maybe 6 Blesbok.||To experience the 3 offers at the time of booking and to watch the animals at close range (one of the experiences did not happen! the other two, one was fantastic, but the kitchen and barn was a bit of a waste of time) Seeing the animals from the lodge lasted a very short time as well! We expected to have a high-quality experience which was not quite as high as you profess.|We feel overall the value of money was not met, one of the things on offer at the time of booking did not happen. The food offer was not great either, 3 starter choices, two of which were spicy and the third was not much better. 3 real options for a main, one fish and chips, one steak and chips and the third was Muscle linguine (I cannot have fish or seafood so both of them were out) I cannot remember what the vegetarian option was either. The steak was not cooked how I asked for it to be done and the chips were so over cooked they were inedible. Side order at £6 was excessive for some Broccoli. Breakfast was just okay the one Mushroom which was not much bigger than a 50p piece was laughable. The food came out so very quick it was pre-cooked apart from the Egg my wife ordered. Not great for the price! Staff were great very helpful, very nice and polite. Tv in lodge could not be watched from the seating area so that was an issue, the beverage tray is way to lacking in most things. Not enough to have a few cups each! We do not want to keep asking at reception for more of this or that! The rangers we encountered, Sophie and Fraser were absolutely fantastic on the behind closed-door tour! They were very very informative, and this tour could be a wee bit longer in our opinion. Would we come back? Yes, but not at the prices you charged for what we got. No welcome drink, poor food and not having one of the experiences we booked for was a letdown with no explanation either? That is the honest feedback and that is what we would put on other sites. The price is far too high as it is not a top end restaurant, the accommodation is good but could not say 5 star for the reasons mentioned above as well as the Doors being incredibly hard to open and I had to put the net curtain back on its hooks to close properly and give us the privacy we wanted. ||The rangers were great, one of the tours was literally a small talk about the feeding area and poop and then a session in the barn to put some browse into a feeder for enrichment. This is not worth it no real information or seeing anything other than a room or two? It would be better I should imagine if you had children as they may enjoy the enrichment ball stuffing.|We had a meal which was included in the price, this was a 3 course meal which equated to £45 4 spiced chicken wings, 10 oz steak, half an onion and a small pot of overcooked chips then a warm brownie, 2 strawberries and a scoop of ice cream. £6 for a side if added to the main. Bread, carrots or Broccoli type of sides. Tasty but not great chips so hard they were inedible and steak not cooked how I asked for it to be served?|The zoo is quite large and takes a good deal to walk around. For those with mobility issues, the accommodation had ramps to them in some of the rooms we saw. We also noticed a electric mobility scooter outside one of the rooms so they must be accessible.|Safety is not an issue it seems, as it has been designed to a good standard and has taken everything into account as it was only opened a few weeks ago.||The other point to the reserve is that your car will probably be moved to where you cannot access it. As it really is just a drop off area in front of reception. I think this needs to be looked at as I needed to ask if my vehicle could remain as I have medications in the car that I may need to get t without carrying them around all day. Be aware if you want anything it needs to be taken when you hand over your car keys.|The rooms were good but small tweaks would improve them. Tea tray for instance needs more products not different but more of each product. TV in our room was not programmed to use some of the channels and could not really be watched from the seating area only from...

We stayed 1 night as a group of 4 adults and 1 child as part of the savannah adventurer package split between 2 of the look out lodges.

First the good stuff: the lodges, location, staff and experiences were all great. The rooms were very nice with highlights being the bed, space and terrace with copper roll-top bath and an amazing view of the animals. The staff were lovely and very helpful, from our first arrival greeted by a couple of rangers, to the main building staff who took our luggage to our rooms and checked us in etc. and everyone at the restaurant. The evening tour with ranger Ellie was excellent and kept the children in the group well entertained whilst also being really interesting for the adults – it was also nice to see parts of the zoo when they were completely free of crowds, as well as some of the behind the scenes stuff like preparing the giraffes’ breakfasts. Aside from all of the above, there were a few issues we experienced, most of which can probably be blamed on the fact that The Reserve had only been open a week and should therefore hopefully be fixed in due course. • One of our lodges wasn’t ready at check-in: not the biggest problem but when check-in is already pretty late at 3pm and the lodge ends up not being ready until nearly 4:30pm, it is frustrating. Luckily we had a second lodge that we could go to while we waited (especially helpful with a tired 5 year old in the group) • Improvements could be made in the communication before and during the stay 6 calls were made to the contract number and multiple voicemails left but with no response An email request for timings/itinerary was responded to but we never received the promised information At the restaurant for both dinner and breakfast there were quite a lot of items that were unavailable and this wasn’t communicated upfront Small but important details like the meeting point for the tour and duration of some of the activities were either not given or were a bit inaccurate which lead to some rushing to not miss them (thankfully we didn’t but we were late to one) • The food itself was very nice but the breakfast in particular seemed quite poor value for money (it was included as part of our adventurer package, but if we’d had to pay the menu price we would have said something) • Also the continental selection could be improved as there seemed to be only 1 type of bread available (white sourdough) and the fruit juices were constantly running out (they were kept in small jugs that could only fill 2 glasses before being empty), and it was also difficult to tell what each juice was as there were no labels (orange, tropical and pineapple all look very similar). • Substantial queues at the reception desk when we both checking in and out: as we were leaving we counted 20 people in the queue with only one staff member behind the desk at 11am • To make things worse there are so many details covered during check-in that the process takes ages. Some things are unavoidable (checking reservation details and providing credit card details etc.) but things like arranging tour times could (should?) probably be handled in the orientation building. Likewise luggage and car keys could be handled by a separate desk. Lastly dinner and breakfast reservation times could be arranged either with a tablet or with the restaurant staff (especially during the quiet period between breakfast and lunch). • The final issue was with the no doubt brand new electric car chargers, not only do they have no instructions on them at all, we were told by the staff in the building that all but 1 of the chargers was not working which meant we had to park in the main zoo car park where thankfully we were able to get a space at one of their chargers. Overall we had a great time and hopefully these minor issues will be resolved soon as they did cause some frustrations during our short stay (where you’re keen to make the most of your time). The foundations (buildings, location, staff and experiences) are all very...

We stayed at the Reserve for one night in September. Firstly, we were disappointed that we had booked a package to find that one thing was not on the list when we arrived. This should have been told to us before arrival! A lot of money for not a lot of experience. Secondly the week before our stay we were told via email, that the zoo would not open until 11 am due to a fun run. This could have been mentioned well before then. The Breakfast feed experience was one of the reasons for booking the Lookout lodge as opposed to the lake view. The first thing when we arrived was the reception staff made us feel welcome and helped us with a small ask, this was done with as much help as possible and resulted in our ask to be granted. Then on to the orientation lodge to be asked to wait until the manager was free to book us in. We both felt this was a waste of time and all the things we had answered could have been pre-booked in advance by us completing a simple form. Things like what time would you want dinner and breakfast, what time would you want the tour behind closed doors and the Giraffe kitchen and barn tour. This really could be done prior to arrival where we could discuss our wants as a couple to determine rather than just say whatever time and hope for the best. Then into the zoo, this was as expected really. We were given one (not each but single) beaded bracelet to enter the zoo at this time. At the time where we could actually book in, we went back to reception to book in and was asked to leave a deposit of £100. This is for breakages and mini bar use as well as any drinks we bought from the bar. We were given the key card and shown to the lodge by a member of the reception team. Once inside we had a great first impression of the lodge. We went out onto the balcony area to see the two Giraffe and one zebra and maybe 6 Blesbok. To experience the 3 offers at the time of booking and to watch the animals at close range (one of the experiences did not happen! the other two, one was fantastic, but the kitchen and barn was a bit of a waste of time) Seeing the animals from the lodge lasted a very short time as well! We expected to have a high-quality experience which was not quite as high as you profess.We feel overall the value of money was not met, one of the things on offer at the time of booking did not happen. The food offer was not great either, 3 starter choices, two of which were spicy and the third was not much better. 3 real options for a main, one fish and chips, one steak and chips and the third was Muscle linguine (I cannot have fish or seafood so both of them were out) I cannot remember what the vegetarian option was either. Breakfast was just okay the one Mushroom which was not much bigger than a 50p piece was laughable. The food came out so very quick it was pre-cooked apart from the Egg my wife ordered. Not great for the price! Staff were great very helpful, very nice and polite. Tv in lodge could not be watched from the seating area so that was an issue, the beverage tray is way to lacking in most things. Not enough to have a few cups each! We do not want to keep asking at reception for more of this or that! The rangers we encountered, Sophie and Fraser were absolutely fantastic on the behind closed-door tour! They were very very informative, and this tour could be a wee bit longer in our opinion. Would we come back? Yes, but not at the prices you charged for what we got. No welcome drink, poor food and not having one of the experiences we booked for was a letdown with no explanation either? That is the honest feedback and that is what we would put on other sites. The price is far too high as it is not a top end restaurant, the accommodation is good but could not say 5 star for the reasons mentioned above as well as the Doors being incredibly hard to open and I had to put the net curtain back on its hooks to close properly and give us the...