London Chigwell Prince Regent Hotel | Signature Collection by Best Western — Hotel in London

I heard rumours about previous Christmas parties at the Prince Regent Hotel and how dreadful they had been. unfortunately our group booked for 16th December.. For £40 per head you would expect to get a decent meal but that was not the case. Firstly the room was drab, the staff looked exhausted and the Christmas tree in the corner was not even lit. The bar was under staffed so you had a queue between 10-15 minutes at least. The starters were pate, - dry edged pink mess on limp rocket. Soup - i was told tasted disgusting, Tai Fishcakes - mine was burnt on one side and the taste was no bland. Now comes the main. Roast turkey. It was dished up pilled up like the old school canteens used to do. The mini sausages were grey in colour with no distinguishing . sausage taste. The The turkey looked like turkey roll and tasted of nothing. The salmon was chucked on top of the vegetables the same as the turkey meal with a tomato sauce on top! Not sure who had the veggie option but if it was like the others God help us!. The dessert was Christmas pudding which came up like a slice of black pudding in a light custard . The trifle was served in stainless still bowl like you used to get for a scoop of ice cream, The mess that arrived was a flat white top with a couple of red lines going across to the other side. When the spoon went in there appeared to be nothing under neath that could be classed as a trifle. I complained and the manager on the night would only say that someone would contact us on Monday. We had a party of 22 hard working people who had paid for a meal which in my humble opinion was not worth more than a fiver at the most. I have asked for at least 75% of our total monies to be refunded. Watch this space! Re-train your kitchen staff and the 1 star was for the your poor waiters and waitresses.So very very disappointed with the night which should have been spectacular.

11.3.17 Update : After the night our party planner HM contacted the complaints team at the hotel. Unfortunately there was a delay in getting back to her so she managed to find the Directors details which was not easy. However, they contacted HM almost immediately which started restoring our faith, a bit. We wanted our money back but this was not an option they were willing to negotiate. They kindly offered us all a 3 course meal and drinks in their restaurant to see if our opinion could be changed. I was not sure but I did attend as did the others last night. What a difference!!! We were met with smiles in a private dining room. The staff were really nice especially the head waitress, who must have been worried about our return. The food looked and tasted good, everyone cleared their plates. All I can say is "you have redeemed yourself". Lets hope your Christmas menus and staff can mirror last night. Thank you HM you...

Horrible place. Stay away! The entire place needs to be done over. Everything is dated, dingy, and old including the elevator which ultimately broke down and led to an emergency situation for us. Will get into details about that issue below. First problem: I ordered a superior king, but got a double and they couldn't make changes cause they were booked up. Was too tired to ask for a change anyway but should have gotten what I paid for or at least charged the cost of the lesser room but whatever. Backstory is that our family had booked multiple rooms to attend a family event and pretty much were occupying most of their rooms. Can't imagine how much we much have spent at this hotel to be treated the way we were after a series of unfortunate and deeply concerning incidents.

As mentioned earlier, the hotel elevators are visibly old obviously needing serious renovations. Not-so-shockingly, on the first day, several family members became trapped in the elevator for over 40 minutes.By the time emergency services pried open the elevator doors, ppl stuck inside had overheated, we're dehydrated, and experiencing panic attacks. We were so glad everyone was safe that we didn't even make a complaint and were told that the elevator would be blocked off to prevent further incidents.

To our disbelief, the following day, the same elevator malfunctioned again, this time trapping younger family members. We discovered that the tag blocking the elevator had been removed, and our elderly uncle, who is wheelchair-bound, could have faced a life-threatening situation.

In a state of panic, we began looking for the hotel staff because no one was around or at the desk to offer any reassurance that they were working hard and doing their best to get our family members out. Where was the staff while we were losing our minds out of worry?? hiding in an office. Not kidding. They finally opened the the door let us know not to bring our issues in there to them. Lmao! The callousness was so heartbreaking. No one was providing updates so we were left pacing the halls worried after being told the fire dept response would take 30minutes!!!! Apparently, they didn't relay to 999 that it was an emergency, only that that elevator was stuck so we had to call by ourselves, to let them know it was an emergency!

Mechanical failures happen, we get that. But the additional indifference just made things worse. Our family event was delayed, our makeups were ruined and the whole thing just deflated our enthusiasm. Instead of enjoying our occasion we were left anxious, distressed and exhausted. The kids stuck in the elevator were fine but this should not have happened. Best Western should not have it's brand name affiliated with this place.

Don't let them ruin your special day. Stay away!

Obviously I DO...

So disappointed. This is not a cheap option at £270 for two nights. But frankly, it's worse than a Premier Inn or Travelodge. The former in particular is always super comfy and I would rather stay there.

The older parts of the building are lovely from outside. Inside it's the most bland and boring corporate blankness. The rooms are pretty basic, though do have what you need. But entirely devoid of charm and 5 star touches. The bed was a bit firm and not a patch on the chain hotels. No air conditioning at time of writing ("we're waiting to get it approved") so the room was a bit stuff and warm. And the towels didn't dry as the towel rail never came on, so for all their imploring to reuse them, I couldn't.

The carpet throughout is absolutely horrible and the corridors smelled strongly of those disinfectant blocks you put in urinals. Astringent, chemical and highly unpleasant.

Everywhere there were signs of a poor finish to decor. LED strips not properly hidden or sagging. The most basic B&B dining chairs. A lack of flair, thought and design. Cheap crappy "art", a bar that doesn't match anything. Long empty conference centre corridors.

Staff went through the motions of welcome but appeared more bothered to be disturbed than genuinely pleased to help. I resented another twenty quid to park, but they did at least waive that. We booked breakfast online as an upgrade but they had no record of that and we had to go through the motions of proving it both mornings and the guy sounded like he was doing us a favour by charging us the price we booked it for (side note - if breakfast is a tenner it's a tenner. Stop milking guests by changing it to £15 after you check in).

Breakfast itself wasn't even very good. Rock hard bacon. Cheap sausages. Tiny cheap pastries. Even the yoghurt was clearly the cheapest catering tub. And if you're going to use crappy Brakes Brothers honey, at least decant it out of the squeezy bottle they send it in.

We had dinner for ease one night. The "garlic" butter on my schnitzel tasted if nothing but it was otherwise fine. Basic pub fare you might get in a half decent beer garden, not four star hotel fare.

Nothing about this place screams '4 star hotel' and in the unlikely event I find myself in Chigwell again, it will be bottom of the list of places to stay.

PS - half the country is under a hosepipe ban. No need to have a sprinkler going for two days on a nondescript patch of grass at the far corner of...