Village Hotel Solihull

Check-in is a DIY affair where you do everything yourself on a screen, not at all the welcome you expect. To reach my room I had to exit the lift on the floor below and walk up the stairs to the next floor. At no point had I been told this would be the case and it was luckily I have no disabilities otherwise this would have been impossible. Extremely noisy, echoey restaurant with absolutely nowhere to have a quiet drink. The food menu is fairly uninspiring and the food itself was bland and flavourless. Breakfast ends at 9am on weekdays which is very early. I arrived at 8.55 to be looked at scornfully by a staff member who was already clearing away the buffet despite people still at tables. I could only get a coffee and a croissant. Staff on the whole were not very welcoming or accommodating apart from one or two. Having a Starbucks shop in the foyer is very tacky, not what you expect in a 4* hotel. I will avoid this hotel in the future.

Nothing

What really caused me a problem was the air conditioning in my room. I arrived in the early hours of the morning and couldn't be bothered going down to reception to complain. However, the aircon unit sounded like a tractor or a generator in my room and the controls for the aircon weren't working so I couldn't even switch it off. Not good and not much sleep at all.

Breakfast was really poor. Very limited options. We booked a room for a couple and a child and yet only two towels. We asked for an additional towel at reception and it never came. Also asked for waterproof bedding for our son's bed and nothing was changed. The only lift was out of order which was frustrating on the 4th floor. Guests smoking directly outside the entrance wasn't great. Also, the bar area is very busy on weekends in the evenings, including the need for security staff which was off-putting.

There was work ongoing which we weren't made aware of, but had little impact on our stay.

Currently under renovations so some rooms had workmen outside but it’s needed for improvements.

Not a big thing but the TV didn’t work.

There is major building work going on at the hotel that I was not informed about prior to booking, at the time of booking or upon arrival. I could not open the blind covering the only window in the room due to scaffolding and workers being right outide my window and there was constant banging and drilling going on. I was meant to stay for two nights but checked out after the first, having had to stay out of the room all evening due to the noise, as I was told it was expected to continue until 8pm. When I spoke to the manager to complain, she told me that it had been a company decision NOT to inform guests in advance or after booking which I think is shameful. There was also a used towel left in my bathroom, hidden behind the door and 'remnants' of previous guests in the bath. There is a car park at the hotel but you have to pay to park there, which I wasn't overly happy about either, especially as it was very difficult to actually find a space, due to the large number of visitors to the hotel to use the gym facilities. This was the first and will be the last time that I will stay there.

The air conditioning was on working in our room