Marwell Hotel — Hotel in Winchester

I got married nearby and stayed at Marwell Hotel alongside with many of my family as we were allocated 10 rooms and received a discount for our booking. The experience was stressful, disorganised and caused lots of headaches which was not needed the day before my wedding which they knew about as I had also booked a conference room for my bridal party to get ready in, the day after we checked in.

First off, there was no acknowledgement or welcome when we walked in, so we were already felt unwanted due to the poor customer service skills. The table we say down at in the lobby, was extremely sticky and we mistakenly put our handbags down on the table to when we went to pick them up, it sounded like pulling velcro.

Then I, the bride was booked into my parents room who were weirdly booked into the bridal suite for 2 nights which then after unpacking was told that I needed to change room and I was actually meant to be staying a twin room then to checkout on the day of my wedding then check back in for my bridal suite. They tried to play it off that it was confusing as my parents and I have the same last name but we clearly have different first names and my name was clearly listed as the bride.

They expected me to check out and check in on the day of my wedding which they looked confused about when I told them that I would obviously be busy in the morning getting ready and I would be at my wedding for the rest of the afternoon so I could not check in. They begrudgingly agreed to do an early check in the morning of the wedding and luckily my now husband did this for us as he had time in the morning.

My sister in law was giving a room she could not get into, then had to move to a room in a different block from the rest of the family. My husband's aunt was put in his cousins room which they paid extra to have instead of breakfast. Instead they were put in a smaller room and not compensated then told they would still need to pay for breakfast. Then when they complained to the manager and asked for a refund so they could go somewhere else, the manager laughed and apparently told them why should they refund them.

The pool had alot of dead moths in so not clean and there was dead birds dotted around the premises that have clearly been there for a while.

The rooms itself was alright, not special but I was really annoyed to find the bridal room that I went into was significantly more dirty and tired looking compared to the bridal room my parents were put into, which none of us understand still why they had a bridal room. They also had air conditioning and my one didn't as it was broken.

The customer service is very poor at establishment and the whole hotel can do with an remodel. The first warning sign of this hotel was that some people in front of us checked out not long after they checked in as they were not satisfied with the treatment or cleanliness of their rooms.

I was disappointed with this experience and it caused me and family more stress around a time we were meant to be celebrating, simply due to the disorganisation of the establishment. When I booked the hotel a while a go, the rating was high for this hotel and I didn't understand why it dropped significantly over the last year or so, but now,...

4 Star Prices - 2 Star Service

Seeking a late summer break my wife and I were delighted to find Marwell Hotel was available. The price seemed quite high but it looked like a nice hotel in a pleasant location. On arrival our first impressions were very favourable, despite a large wedding reception being in progress, and we were greeted by friendly staff who directed us to our room. Unfortunately nobody available to help with our luggage but we coped (we are both pensioners). On arrival at our room we were surprised at the dated appearance, but the room was warm and clean and had lovely views into the woods where the hotel is situated. From this point there began a catalogue of niggling little details that somewhat marred an otherwise enjoyable stay. No provision of soap in the room, only one shower gel and one body wash provided for a double occupancy. Although there were two bedside lamps only one was working, with no socket available for the second one. No spare toilet roll provided. I had to ask for decaffeinated coffee sachets, which for some reason the cleaning staff removed the next morning and replaced with normal sachets? The cleaners only seemed to do the bare minimum in refreshing the room - i.e. the bed was made, but the bath mat was removed and not replaced crockery items were not taken from the room and the shower gel and body wash were not replenished. .Included in the price was breakfast, however this was a shambles - on our first morning a running buffet was provided but the food was cold, with the scrambled egg being more like raw egg, the sausages were barely cooked and the hash browns were very greasy. The second morning was better, with breakfast being "cooked" to order (I believe the breakfast is provided by an outside caterer). The third morning was a repeat of day one, with all the food being cold and some of the items being unavailable. On our last morning we reverted to ordering our breakfast, only to be told that the chef could not provide a mushroom omelette as they only provided what was available from the "full English" choice, which must surely have include eggs and mushrooms! The hotel offers "free Wi-Fi" but that is a joke. Signal is fine in the reception area, but in our room the signal was at best intermittent and we had to regularly reconnect to the service. In the year 2020 this is completely unacceptable, especially at the price charged and needs urgently being looked into.

Overall impressions are that this hotel definitely has room for improvement, the staff are very friendly and helpful but appeared to be overwhelmed by the volume of custom. The décor needs to be freshened up and they definitely need to employ a qualified chef in the mornings at least. A porter would be helpful, but the demographic appears to be mainly young families visiting the next door zoo. I do not believe this hotel offers fair value for money, with other options readily available nearby. It seems ideal for a one night stay when incorporated with a visit to Marwell Zoo but any longer than this I feel would...

Possibly the WORST hotel I have ever stayed in, I think it’s fair to say that a budget premier inn hotel provides a nicer experience than this one overly priced ‘hotel’. My partner and I booked a ‘family’ room here over a year ago and specifically stated we are a family of four and will need a ground floor family room due to having a pram. On arrival staff looked miserable and weren’t at all welcoming in the slightest, we were faced with poor communication skills, poor customer service and to top it off, some very shocking management. When we checked in we were told that our room is located up down the corridor, down a set of stairs and then up another flight stairs… I was NOT impressed to say the least, I argued my point that we specifically need a ground floor room, the lady behind the desk said there’s no ground floor rooms available.. and no lift to get up the stairs.. not a great start to our stay and put us in a negative mood. Eventually got into our room, which was very cramped, there was no bath despite it being a ‘family room’ and when we had finally finished unpacking I decided to get a shower later that evening. To call this a shower is quite frankly embarrassing on the hotel’s part, no pressure to the shower and was just dribbles of water. What a challenge it was to get two children aged 5 years and 8 months to stay in the’shower’ with no pressure. They were COLD and unhappy! There was only two towels for the room for us to use, despite there being four of us. Breakfast food was wasn’t the best, raw sausages and over cooked hash browns. Every single staff member we encountered were incompetent and rude! Bar staff… what bar staff? Whenever we went to get a drink from the bar I was left waiting for over ten minutes at one point until a staff member finally decided to come out of the cupboard and serve me and when I asked if we could borrow some washing up liquid for the room so we could wash our baby bottles up! The member of staff simply frowned at me and rudely questioned why would I need this after I had just explained. When I took my children swimming it was unsafe and unsanitary, smelt like urine in the female changing rooms, no safe space/ safety seat&strap to put a baby in whilst I got changed and sorted my other child out, I had to catch my daughter from hitting her head on the concrete floor as that’s the only safest place I could put her however clearly not safe by all means! In the swimming pool itself, there were no safe stairs for children to use to get into the pool, only a ladder which my daughter REFUSED to use. The pool itself had dead flies and felt unclean.

From start to finish it was an unpleasant stay and probably contributed to why I felt so stressed whilst being away for a family wedding which is supposed to be nice and relaxed. I think it’s safe to say I shall not be visiting Marwell hotel again in the future. Truly overpriced for what it actually is worth, premier inn or a travel lodge would’ve given me a better...