The Milestone — Hotel in Huntingdonshire

Pros: Very convenient location, clean room, comfy bed, easy check in, quiet hotel, cheap.

Cons: Overpriced poor quality restaurant, parking charge, late breakfast, slippery bathroom floor.

Just finished a 3 night stay at the Milestone for a wedding. It was reasonably priced for a clean, spacious room. I wasn't expecting much but honestly, very good value in terms of somewhere to sl;eep.

The hotel is let down by the lack of staffing. How is one person meant to man reception, the bar AND wait tables? Whoever decided on those staffing levels wants their head shaking. Some staff are friendly, most will walk by you without returning a smile and look bored to be there.

Charging for parking at a motorway-side hotel, when the carpark is massive and never even half full during our stay - daylight robbery. No alternative either - you have to pay as there's no street parking. AND you need to download an app.

'Free wifi' basically tells you it's going to sell your data, so felt like another way the hotel was making money off of me. No sign in password needed either.

Not sure why but the bathroom floor was very slippery, as if it had been cleaned with something oily. Even in bare feet, no socks, it was dicey, and I'm not unsteady on my feet. Also saw a fair few woodlice in there. Room full of suffocating cheap air freshener on arrival too.

Most disappointing given the lack of walkable alternatives, is the hotel restaurant. £8.95 for a fishfinger sandwich (plus extra £2 for chips) for sliced white bread, birds-eyes 'finest' and a handful of shredded lettuce. Couldn't bring myself to eat it. Waited 25mins for sandwich and had to return to the bar to ask for my chips, which took another 30mins to arrive, those were the sum total of my dinner. Barman (who was also taking food orders and delivering them) seemed to not care whatsoever.

2nd night I wasn't there, but my parents ate at the restaurant again (why I have no idea). Pie and mash with 'seasonal veg' and gravy, but the seasonal veg was SALAD??? Fish and chips - the kind of frozen fish fillet we cook at home, plus a mix of fries/chips and half a plate of salad to bulk it out.

£3.50 for a bottle of coke at the bar btw.

My Dad stopped off at the bar for a scotch and ginger, was asked by the barman 'how many of them it would take to get him drunk' very weird interaction which made him uncomfortable.

Every day at breakfast I'd be halfway through getting some food and a staff member would demand my room number - because they were doing 3 other jobs and not taking numbers as we entered. Some breakfast items (fried egg, black pudding) had to be 'requested from staff' but there were never any staff around and it felt like I'd be waiting ages so I gave up.

On the final day we decided to hit the road early and were down at 6:32 (website and check in informed us that breakfast was served at 6:30) we were prepared for things to not be completely setup, but there was nothing out at all, and hot food didn't emerge until 7. Staff said that was when breakfast started, despite website stating differently.

Considering it's August, the busiest time of the year with holidays etc. This place felt like it was understaffed, with a half-empty freezer, desperately trying to make it through a bleak and underbooked December.

The hotel part of the stary was good, but honestly the restaurant was abysmal and though some staff are clearly working hard, there's just not enough of them, other seem like...

Where to start, so 3 of us stayed while working at the horse show, We arrived at 20:30, the receptionist was on a video call when we arrived & barley acknowledged us until he ended the call, We checked in & asked what time the kitchen closed he told us 21:30, So we dropped our bags in the rooms & went to the bar/restaurant, this is now around 20:45, we waited to be served for some time despite there being 2 behind the bar, when we asked for a menu the lady said "the kitchen was closed & the oven was off" we said we were told 21:30 was the kitchen closing time to which she said that was incorrect and it closes at 21:00, to which we said well its not 21:00 yet we still have 15 minutes, but she was adamant it was closed, as we were having this discussion food was still being taken out to tables, asked why & she said they had ordered some time ago, So we left to find a takeaway and returned with food around around 10pm, we wanted a drink & a table so we went back to the hotel bar, we ordered 3 drinks which took them nearly 10 minutes to get ready, but while we are waiting there food is still coming out of the kitchen, so we asked why as we were refused food as the kitchen was supposedly closed, the same lady said the food had been ordered before 21:00 remember we had been told the kitchen had already closed before 21:00 and its now roughly 22:00 & food is still being served, The lady behind the bar was rude & dismissive & spoke like a blunt child, We took our drinks & takeaway to a part of the restaurant that was empty, on our way through the restaurant there was still many customers eating & the tables that were empty had dirty plates & glasses still on them, We sat down to start eating our takeaway, almost instantly the same rude lady showed up & said we couldn't sit there because that area was hard to clean & we wernt allowed to eat our food there, her whole presence & attitude was awful so we asked to speak to the manager to which she said she was the manager & accused us of being rude & refused to tell us her name, then she asked us what rooms we were staying in, why would she need to know that? We refused to give her our room numbers because at this point we felt like if she knew something bad would happen, we got moved to another part of the restaurant to eat our takeaway, & after eating we went to our rooms, the hotel hallways are shabby and look very similar to a hospital or prison, while walking to our rooms there was dirty unfolded bedding outside one of the rooms we passed which was still there in the morning, The double room 2 of us were sharing was so hot like the temperature had been cracked up & the security windows in room only open about an a centimetre, So after unpacking we decided to go out for some fresh air and hope the room had cooled down before we returned, while outside we could see into the restaurant & there was new food on some of the tables this is nearly 23:00 at this point ! As we went back to our rooms the staff were staring daggers at us, gave us such a bad feeling my colleague even put a chair up against our door for more security, Avoid this place , find somewhere else or sleep in your car this...

Mistakes happen, but how to action them can make a huge difference, ignoring customers isn’t the correct way.

We recently visited due to an event we were attending, upon check in ( a family room) we were given the key card to a double bedded room. We raised this with reception and was told this had happened due to a booking error, we were offered another room so we could all sleep, when we entered the first room none of the light except a lamp worked. Again reception offered us another room, it as this was at the other side of the hotel and my 2 children where going to use that room I didn’t feel comfortable being so far away, so we kept the room with no light and the kids had the functioning room. After an ok meal and drink in the bar we went to bed, 12.30am the room door flung open and all the lights, which didn’t work where turned on, a member of staff stood there! The cheek to ask us what we are doing in this room, we shouldn’t be in it! Obviously in a sleep daze my response was as expected, the staff member exited the room leaving all the light on and slamming the door behind him with no apologies…. What would have happened if the light worked and my children were in that room?!?

This concern was raised the following morning at reception and an email for the hotel manager was given.

Initially she was very understanding and accommodating. A stay and breakfast was offered in the near future. As this was a one off stay and due to the events we do not wish to return we thanked them for the gesture but requested a refund due to the issue… since then nothing, email silence. Being ignored is not great by any means

I wouldn’t recommend this hotel to anybody even if you’re desperate for some...