Village Hotel Portsmouth — Hotel in Portsmouth

Considering the price of the hotel, I would say my experience was below average. I normally wouldn’t review such things but considering the price of this stay I felt some things are worth mentioning so that someone else goes into this knowing what they are getting.

Not the best experience. When booking was offered “bar and grill” credit. When looking into this there was no fine print about how this is to be used and how it works, I could not find any other information even in FAQ other than you get 10% off which sounded okay. It gave me amendable options to choose how much I wished to pay for, I chose £45 between myself and my partner. Upon arriving I was told I had £90 outstanding balance which was non refundable and not amendable to do with the credit. Unfortunate considering I explored the site to find any instructions/fine print for this credit and found none - this was only explained to me after booking at which point nothing could be done! Felt as though I was walking away being scammed.

When using the credit at the bar, the bar staff had to split the bill to use the credit vouchers separately. They seemed to have done so in such a way that £75 worth of credits did not cover a £60 bill (we were aware it would not cover drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) but were charged an 2 extra bills after the credit.

The room is okay. There are no plugs by the bedside, only 1 USB. There are 2 plugs by the desk only but the area is already overloaded with hairdryer, kettle, iron and heater so was a little cramped and difficult to use. The Dyson heater would have been a nice touch had it worked! The TV did not work upon arrival. My partner and I had to re-wire it at the back to get it working! The Wi-Fi (which we paid to be included in our room) cut in and out frequently when we tried to use so ended up having to use our own data to get things working. Our window in the bathroom had some sort of leak as when it rained water came in through the window and all over the windowsill and floor. Bathroom situation is super odd just like other reviews have mentioned. It’s lucky me and my partner are close!

The gym facilities were ok but not as great as mentioned on the website. There is 1 deadlift platform and not many benches considering the size of the hotel and people come just for the gym facilities. There are a lack of places to rack weights once finished with equipment so they are just scattered all over the floor. Only 1 pair of barbell clips. Deadlift platform was littered with other barbell equipment so it was actually quite difficult to use the platform for 1 person and I can’t see it working well to share with another - which would be needed during busy times as there is only 1 in the whole gym. The extra barbells are placed right in front of a mounted TV so seemed a little dangerous. The layout of the gym is interesting I would not say it was very efficient!! Considering the mess of the gym it seemed a bit cramped and dangerous - and I went during 3 different off peak times 3 times during my stay and each time felt “cramped” even though I would say this was a normal amount of people to attend for off peak times. Treadmills don’t have a great place to rest ur phone you sort of have to strain your neck downwards!! A lot of the equipment is not adequately adjustable - I had to make modifications to exercises/equipment to get my full range of movement on a lot of machines and I’m a normal sized human!! Not normally expecting a massively satisfying workout at a hotel stay but considering the way this hotel/gym was marketed, I thought this stay would make an exception!

The food was not worth the price even with the 10% off credit. It’s nice but very overpriced. They sometimes offer deals at the bar so maybe it would be worth it then. The bar staff were friendly and attentive.

I never expect my stay somewhere to be perfect and the staff were lovely. However, I feel considering the overall price I feel I should review to manage others expectations of their stay at this hotel / use of gym facilities...

Ok, the staff are very friendly and helpful. The place is clean enough and seems to be well run. That said, the way they’ve tried to make everything ‘online’ or cloud based is somewhat frustrating. The mobile signal managed to reach 3G at one point so I was forced to use their Wi-Fi. This uses a captive portal where you have to register but this one wants your name, mobile number, D.O.B. etc. and makes you sign up to their Village Hotels Member App. You do need the app if you want to contact staff or services from your room or order room-service. I was away on business and by myself for the last evening so wanted room service rather than eating alone in a public place. I found this particularly painful given that their free Wi-Fi was, as expected, slower than useable. It took me three attempts to load the page to enter credit card details. I tried this on two separate laptops and a mobile phone just to be sure (I’m a techie btw).

Once ordered, my confirmation email said to collect from reception. They advised me it would be, or may already have been, delivered to my room. After waiting my turn to ride the only working, slowest lift in the world, I found my order outside my door. It was cold by this point. I maybe would’ve made it back quicker if they would provide a simple stair case but I couldn’t find one that wasn’t behind a service door and inaccessible to guests.

The room is as you would I expect. Trendy and comfortable. There’s an iron, ironing board, kettle, hairdryer, Dyson fan, Amazon Echo Dot and air conditioning. All worked well. I would’ve like one of the bottles in the shower to have been ‘Body & Hair wash’ or ‘Shampoo’ instead of both just being ‘Body Wash’. Not an issue if you have no hair but I’m a bit of a poser so I like my hair fresh every day. The toilet paper….. well…..have you ever tried wiping with half a piece? I mean if you get a normal sheet of toilet roll and cut it in half, that’s the size of the toilet roll you get in these rooms and it has a tensile strength equal only to the thickest of vape cloud! (At least there’s plenty of ‘Body wash’ in the shower to wash you finger when it inevitably ventures slightly further than anticipated). Each day I returned to my room I found different things had been done and other not; the bed was made each day but the sheets hadn’t been changed. The towels refreshed and the complimentary tea, coffee and sugar replenished although the cups and spoons hadn’t been replaced.

I’m all for saving the planet and reusing towels, bedding, etc. but having to wash up a cup in a hotel bathroom without the proper items isn’t sanitary (please refer to my previous mention of the app required to make contact).

There was a wedding reception at the hotel when I returned from work. The car park and reception were utter chaos with kids and drunk guests running riot in their party dresses.

Half the breakfast tables were blocked this morning too making it difficult to find a seat - many four-seater tables with only one person sitting at them and everyone too polite to sit with a stranger.

The restaurant, car park and facilities are for public use and not solely for guests. This does cause issue when busy and I feel some degree of priority should be available for guests, rather than leaving them to fend for themselves in a seemingly cut-throat fight for the very resources already paid for and, therefore, expected.

Would I stay at a Village Hotel again? If there wasn’t a convenient alternative then of course I would. Although, I would bring some supplies next time to make my stay more comfortable.

I think once you’ve experienced a Village Hotel you would be better prepared for your next visit. There are some areas that could be improved but I guess these would impact profit margin, which it feels is more a priority than the guests themselves. I know profit is the aim of any business, but other hotels manage to hide this and make me feel like more than a necessary side-product of being in business.

These three stars are purely for the staff I...

The rooms: Pro: Very modern room with interesting transparency shifting glass for privacy to the bathrooms, very large comfortable bed, large flat screen TV with the ability to stream from your phone, AC unit works great. I stayed in two different club rooms on the 5th floor and one of them came with an Alexa. Room comes with all of your stander amenities (ironing board, kettle, hair dryer, dyson hot+cold fan, USB outlets, good quality soap and shampoo)

Con: The room is lacking a mini fridge. Huge issue especially for me who stayed at this hotel for 2 months.

The cleaning staff: Pro: very sweet lovely ladies, I opted out of daily room cleaning and anytime I did specifically need something or wanted my rooms cleaned I would find one of them on my floor and it would be done right away. They where all very great, professional, and friendly.

Con: None

Starbucks: Pro: Very friendly, happy, and helpful staff. Every time I seen any of them they all said hello and they all seemed to work hard. Nat was specifically great.

Con: None

Gym: Pro: the reception staff was extremely friendly and the leisure crew(grey shirts) where always on top of everything. The facility overall is incredible, very well maintained, great free weights, great machines, and great functional area. I toured the lap pool, Hot sauna, and steam sauna but did not use them. They appeared to be in great order. The gym offers personal training, spin, and outdoor fitness classes. All of which seem to me organized very well.

Con: for whatever reason either the gym or the hotel has an issue with working out outside unless a staff member is present. Working out in the small opportunities for Sun in the UK should be authorized in my opinion. Hotel members should also be allowed to workout after 10pm.

Reception: Pro: Extremely friendly, helpful, and understanding even after the 10th time you forgot your room key in your room. Charlotte specifically was always very helpful and a great representative for the reception.

Con: none

Pub/grill staff: Pro: ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC PUB STAFF! It was a great pleasure to be served and mingle with Lauren T, Jess, Joe, Sarah, Dani, Demi, Niamh, Amrit, Lauren C, Sam, Belinda, Jack, Lucian, Chloe, Lou, Kallum, Toni, Elle, and Libby! They where helpful with drink/food selection, attentive, hard working, and seemed to enjoy customer interaction. Can’t say enough great things about this branch of the hotel. Special callout to both Laurens, Jess, Joe, Dani, Niamh, Amrit, Sam, Belinda, Lucian, Kallum, Elle, and Libby! Breakfast, lunch, and dinner your service was great and honestly made living in a hotel for 2 months extremely enjoyable. Thank you. You all specifically saved the day when I couldn’t find a place that was showing the Joshua vs usik II fight and I had 12 Ukrainian students with me wanting to watch there local hero absolutely wreck Joshua….. again!

Con: Prices are high.

Grill: Pro: Lunch and dinner food is prepared quickly and served quickly. The menu has some interesting options and they have Franks Red hot so that’s a win!

Con: I didn’t have a bad meal but the food is definitely average. There is zero flexibility to the menu which makes me assume that it’s probably pre made meals. Still tasted fine but I’m willing to bet that the actual chefs in the back, if given freedom to actually cook, would do a much better job making much better meals. I was also able to have breakfast every day at the hotel before work and it was eatable. Would definitely recommend skipping it if you can. It’s always the same thing which you would assume would makes you very good at making it but honestly if it wasn’t already covered in my stay I would have not paid for it.

Overall would highly recommend The Village and if you’re looking to have some good drinks and a good time the Pub...