Marwell Hotel Winchester South

The fact that we booked the hotel in a heat wave and did not realise the pool was being refurbished since January. Could see it was being used as a store room and no work going on in the pool room what so ever. Yes when you look deeper on the web site in small print it says the pool is closed but we witnesed multiple familys with children go through the same dreadful experience of finding out the pool was closed. Our 4 year old son was heartbroken just like many other children and familys.
On the day of checking out I returned to my room at 9.30 to find people in my room after putting some bags in the car? My phone charger was missing and my sons toothbrush and toothpaste was also taken. I asked the tresspasers who they were and they told me they were staff come to clean the room? I had not even checked out! I did have a new bucket in my room also which I had used to fill with water after buying my son a paddling pool and putting it outside our room in the grounds of the Marwell Hotel to cool him down after our long walk around Marwell Zoo. The bucket was never returned? I headed straight to reception in shock that my privacy had been violated and items in my room taken. The receptionist explained the staff should have waited until I had checked out,and went off and then came back with our personal possesions. I witnessed two workman put up a long ladder up against the roof of the hotel to fix a fault on it. One workman climbed up the double ladder to the roof and thenwalked up the roof the the top ridge line where the chimney was whilst the other shouted instructions from the ground. My son was playing nearby and I quickly called him incase materials or God forbid the man fell off the roof. No scaffolding was used or hook over ladders used to scale the roof in compliance with Health & Safety Regulations. These workman put themselves and the customers of the hotel at risk from there unsafe working practises What a dreadful experience to go through.

No mirror in the bedroom. A choice of fresh fruit at breakfast would have been preferable.

We only saw 3 hotel staff at any given time who all seemed to be alternating positions between the front desk, the bar and the restaurant and kitchen, often took over 5 minutes to find a staff member. The food in the restaurant for dinner was not of a good standard and not worth the money paid. Sadly the breakfast offerings were poor too, not of good quality and often not replenished until you asked, more than once.

Food was a disappointment, most of the menu was unavailable and breakfast wasn't great. and swimming pool close for maintenance.

The outside needs TLC and staffing seemed very low which affected the efficiency of the staff dealing with you to order drinks, food, clear tables, set up tables and replenish the breakfast food and drinks or check out.

It is all a little tired

Not enough pillows to have a choice.

Lack of towels in rooms, one towel to share and listening to other guests in the hotel we were not the only ones. Breakfast was not worth the money, bacon was tasteless and boiled, sausages were tough. .

Unfortunately the materasse on one side of the bed was VERY uncomfortable, like overused and super soft. Fortunately I was alone and could use the other side. Despite the renovation of the bathroom, the setup is just not practical. The light was super weak above the mirror side, you could not see anything. The water pressure is very weak and the shower knobs were difficult to adjust, plus the water was shooting everywhere. The breakfast was tasty but unfortunately not a big variety of choice available, for example some veggies like tomato or mushroom would have been very nice to have, and some things were not available if you arrived too late or too early.

No heating, freezing room.
Breakfast was freezing!!
And we were next to a pair of newly weds and they were loud till about 3am