This used to be our hotel of choice when staying in Winchester but not anymore. On arrival we were curtly told come back at 3 and in the end, we couldn’t access our room until 3.20pm – I know a lot of hotels state 3pm but 99% of the time the rooms are ready much earlier. On going to our room there were no cleaning staff, or any staff in sight, so I’m guessing this was just a tick box exercise. We asked to book breakfast and were told that breakfast was from 7.30 and 9.30 so I said 9.15 and was told that slots were hourly, i.e. 8am or 9am so I chose 9am – I’m not sure how would you pick 7.30 then?
I note that the hotel is now run by London Rock Partners and the staff are obviously not happy apart from the odd shining light trying to maintain a smiling face, but you can tell even those staff are feeling despondent and stressed. Nothing like the calm, efficient and pleasant staff before the takeover. I blame management for failing to energise and encourage the staff after the takeover. Some obviously need training with regards to customer facing roles, but the whole atmosphere is one of staff floundering around under zero cohesion and leadership.
I would say this hotel is now run akin to the budget chain hotels with lots of petty rules.
I emailed London Rock – The Hospitality Experts (NOT) but had no reply.