Swindon Blunsdon House Hotel, BW Premier Collection

Good 4 star hotel. Great spa and gym . Late check out could be better priced.

Staff in flame restaurant need training in manners, general ladies toilets very dirty, leisure facilities good but not very relaxing

Overall a great experience!

Our room and the bathroom were both large, and there was a balcony. The decor was tired and the bathroom did not feel luxurious at all. Water pressure was not good, the shower itself was plastic and dated and the toilet was very difficult to flush. I would date the decor to around 30 years ago. There was air conditioning and it worked. We had a meal in Carrie's. It was very hot, and I think the air conditioning was off. The staff were very young and completely disinterested in the guests. No personalities showing at all. I had fish and chips which was very average, the sort of meal that would be served in a cafe. For a four star hotel we had an extremely disappointing experience, and two basic main courses and two drinks came to £50. There were three events in the evening, two birthday parties and a wedding, and we attended one of them. The food was average, they ran out of knives and there was bread but no butter. When I asked for some, Flora margarine was brought out. Again the staff seemed very young and stood around looking bored. The beer in our bar was warm so we were going to the main bar for drinks. Breakfast was fine. There was a constant background noise of crockery and cutlery, which demonstrates a lack of finesse from the staff. good hospitality requires a bit of control of this sort of thing. At no point in the 24 hours that we stayed at Blunsdon House did I have the feeling that there was a sharp manager on the ball, overseeing the detail and geeing up the staff. The garden has a lot of planters without plants in them. That is a metaphor. I am so close to leaving two stars, but it wasn't terrible. It was just a disappointing experience without panache. The job was done, but that was it.

The hotel is clean generally with a decent outside area to sit and have a drink on a warm evening. The rooms (ours was an executive double in the pavilion block) were clean but a bit in the basic side. There was air conditioning but this was at best tepid even on its highest setting. A lot of our party, all said the same thing, so it seems to be an issue in this hotel. Horrible hairdryer in the room! One of those that is attached to the wall and blows gentle warm air down the hose. I was glad I had bought my own! No sockets by the beds! Why has the hotel not retro fitted these or at least provide a decent extension cord so you can charge your phone and have access to it overnight if needed? Decent coffee machine in the room and a dressing table with a good sized mirror. Also a long wall mirror, these are the plus points. Our party had a pre booked meal in the Flame restaurant, the restaurant had more of a cafe feel than funky modern vibe, but the food was very good and I was pleasantly surprised. So overall not too bad, the hotel just needs to fix the air conditioning, hairdryer and socket issues in the room.

The girl on reception was unprofessional The room was a really a good size nice views Unfortunately on the day of our stay there was a wedding reception which took over the hotel in the evening. We ate in the flames restaurant my wife's food was good but I had the chicken burger which the roll was burnt and the chicken was as well , very dry so it was sent back. The gentleman on the table next to us said he had the same and it came out the same. we only had dinner and it took about 45 to 50 minutes to come out and the excuse we was told was that it was because they were busy because of the wedding party, the restaurant at the time we was there only had a handful of guests in. The hotel itself is really nice, but unfortunately with the experience we had we would definitely not go back. I would recommend if you are booking check to see if there is a function on first.

The breakfast was awful. The food had been left out to long, it was cold and of a poor standard, we left our cooked food. Managed to eat some pastries but they were not fresh, stale. The food area was grubby, heated trays especially. The whole room was just not up to standard expected, marked walls, worn deco! Very unpleasant and disappointing.

Although we enjoyed our stay there were a few things that would have made it better. The room was VERY warm and although we were offered a fan, there was air con in the room but apparently it wasn’t working as it wasn’t summer (we were told). This made sleeping difficult - even with our balcony door open. The restaurant wasn’t open every evening and we weren’t informed on booking - although you could get food in the bar (which was also very warm). The room was nice but the toilet very difficult to flush and the shower head had a split in it so water shot out sideways. For an Executive Suite it had the cheapest thinnest toilet paper ever! Breakfast was ok, although to make a cup of tea you had to add water from an urn (same sort of thing the coffee was in) and the water must have been in one that had been used for coffee previously as the tea had a distinct taste of coffee so didn’t drink that as I don’t like coffee. Parking was good and most staff friendly.