Constructive review

This is a constructive review in the hope the hotel management will take notice! The hotel was lovely set in beautiful grounds. The room was spacious, very clean and well refreshed each day of our stay.
We had one evening meal. The food was very good.
Service at the hotel was unfortunately pretty dismal. This is no reflection on the young staff who appeared to be trying their very best but it was plainly obvious they were inadequately trained. We were greeted by a young man who had a very laid back attitude (name badges for all staff would be a good idea). Despite taking credit card details he explained it was a pay as you go hotel. We said we had booked dinner for 7.30 but he had no record and said he could fit us in at 7pm. When we arrived at the restaurant there were in fact very few guests even beyond 7.30. We had a very enjoyable pre-dinner drink outside, (the young lady who served us asked if we wanted to add the drinks to our room bill and when I pointed out about it being pay as you go she just shook her head!). We then went in for dinner. The young man who served us struggled to get our order right and only seemed able to do so when we physically pointed items out on the menu and wine list.
The next morning we appeared for breakfast and the young lady pointed us to the buffet area but also immediately asked if we wanted to order a cooked breakfast at that point. We asked to wait. We had to ask for hot drinks, there were no plates left in the buffet area and no orange juice left. I asked for some and was assured it would be made available but after several minutes had to ask again. When asked what cooked breakfast we wanted the staff just could not get the order right and it seemed to be full English or nothing . One morning we were asked to repeat our order twice and the young man came again with pencil and pad to write it down - it was still wrong! We noticed other guests having the same experience.
On the last morning there was an older lady in attendance and she was clearly much more experienced as she greeted everyone in a very cheerful manner and immediately asked what drinks were required and just knew what to do.
I mention all of the above not by way of complaint but rather constructive criticism as it was abundantly clear young staff were not properly trained and just left to cope without anyone senior and more experienced being present for much of the time. I appreciate there have been huge problems in the hospitality industry but those aside and reading past reviews, it seemed to us that management were not in effective control and there was a lack of proper supervision and training. Get the staffing issues sorted and this would be a great venue for a break.

Weekend break

Booked a 2 night break including one dinner and two breakfasts. Good value for money. Lovely old building with beautiful grounds. Lots of character. We had a superior garden room which was enormous and comfortable. However, the electric heating kept cutting out when we needed it most, evening and mornings. The staff were very helpful but seemed to be doing at least 3 jobs at the same time. Sometimes had a long wait to be served. Food in the evening was OK but would have been very overpriced had it not been included. Various additional costs on the menu. Breakfasts were huge and delicious. Overall this was a nice hotel but could have been amazing with some attention to detail.

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The first night was amazing until the 2nd night no hot water or heating not good in January. The receptionist was kind to let us shower in another room but the night was cold. This should not happen in winter sadly. Hence I could not score the manor as excellent. Will come back if the heating is fix

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Handy for M4

This is a lovely house in delightful grounds but needs some tlc.
The staff tried to be helpful but needed more training in the booking system and welcoming. Our booking couldn t be found at first, when it was we were given a key to a room but not told where the room was.
We hadn t realised that Sunday lunch was the only available evening meal and although a welcome cocktail was part of the deal we had to search for someone to provide it - and the only option was espresso martini, no alcohol free or other flavour.
Breakfast was included in the price but when we looked at the menu we could only have continental, not the cooked breakfast we d been looking forward to.
Overall it s a useful stop over when travelling on the M4 but not the luxury birthday treat I d expected.

Slightly disappointed stay

We were staying at Stanton Manor to celebrate my birthday but although the room was excellent the food was disappointing. We were offered the Sunday lunch menu in the evening, with a very limited choice of a few starters, four mains and three desserts. My husband's main meal the mushroom risotto was enjoyable but I chose the Pork which was rather dry and although the roast potatoes were freshly cooked the other vegetables seemed reheated. The gravy was very tasty. The choice of three desserts were very similar all jelly or fruit fool type. We chose a Mango and Passion fruit with meringue pieces with a lot of whipped cream. We also weren't impressed by being charged a service charge for bringing a bottle of wine to the table and taking the bottle top off, not even pouring it, why not just add the charge to the price of the wine. Overall we weren't impressed.
The room was superb but you could hear the person above moving about and we heard their alarm about 6.30am which must have had a snooze setting as it kept going for about half an hour. We assume it may have been a staff bedroom above us. When we went for breakfast after selecting some juice and granola I asked for Eggs Benedict and was told that only Full English was included in our package so chose that. The bacon was inedible as it wouldn't cut with a knife, the scrambled eggs looked greyish and the mushroom unappetizing. The sausages were okay but small amounts of baked beans and tomato. My husband said it was the worst English breakfast he's ever had.

Short Break

We didn't find the hotel particularly comfortable with the furniture being quite basic. There was also a Wedding at the hotel and access to the drawing room was not available. Some improvements are also needed in the restaurant. We understand the hotel is under new management so hopefully there will be some improvements.

Stanton Manor

Room 6 Bates

Is e have written to Guest Relations Ceri Buist and Luke Jacomb s and are not satisfied with their response. We are looking at a refund for our stay.
No welcome cocktail on the first night, wasn t offered. Staff didn t appear to know what board we were on, or what was included in our booking.
Dinner on the first night for vegan only one option as there was no rice for the katsu curry - no protein served with the noodles, although tasty would have benefited from some protein such as tofu as was not very filling
Soup was lovely but served without bread, we had to ask half way through the service for this to be provided
Desert was extremely poor, the sorbet was like liquid obviously been left to melt or placed on a hot surface. The pastry was simply a base with tinned fruit. No edible
Breakfast - no vegan options for pasty, yogurt, dairy or meat alternatives for cheese and ham. This was extremely disappointing given the climate where vegan options are widely available
Vegetarian breakfast was served without the avocado. Hash brown of poor quality tasted cheap
Staff friendly but on the whole the choice and variety of menus was restrictive and a disappointing from previous visits
We upgraded for a superior room, nice view but furniture and facilities tied, furniture and carpet stains, bath facets didn t shut off or leaked
Second night - around 22: 15 we experienced knocking on our door, we asked who was knocking and what they wanted only to have no response. This continued with the person saying just answer the door. Eventually they went away and we called down to reception six times with sadly no response. We didn t sleep very well that night and locked the door internally placing the large chair in front of the door. We reported this to reception at 8:00 am and enquired what time the bar shut. We were told last orders were at 22:45, to which we responded outlining what had transpired and questioned why no one had answered the phone.
Reception advised that they had check the cameras, but didn t see anything. To which I responded are you stating that you didn t see anyone knocking at our door. Their response was there were no cameras upstairs.

In short we were very disappointed in our stay, the food wasn t up to the normal expectations, the room was tied and overall didn t feel secure.

We are requesting a formal response with the view of being reimbursed or offered an alternative stay.

Kind regards.

Room 6 Sophie and Dawn Bates