Billesley Manor Hotel, Exclusive Hire

Unkempt, unloved and dirty is how I'd describe this hotel. If you look at how the manager responds to complaints you'll see what I mean about his attitude, he pays lip service and says he's grateful for feedback and things will change but nothing has, he has a pretty standard response to everything, not an asset and does not seem to support the overworked staff. Booked this through Virgin, we were celebrating an anniversary, it's a mixed review. Management are defensive and hide away leaving the young staff overwhelmed, the manager I spoke to seemed overblown with his own self importance. Breakfast this morning was a shambles, no eggs available for 10 mins, unfortunately eggs are at the last station so forced to eat a cold breakfast if you wait or you go without, the manager said they were doing their best - at this price that's not good enough - at a budget hotel I would understand this more. Yesterday morning a woman approached a member of staff to ask if the bar was open, she'd been waiting for 10 mins - she was told there were two staff working, they'd be around somewhere? We were in room 70, don't choose this if you don't want a view of the air conditioning. The room itself was nice, check the toiletry pumps for the shower, we had no shower gel in ours and had to transfer hand soap into a glass. Complimentary robes were good and you can use these in the spa. Young man at the spa was fantastic, really friendly. Pool good, sauna and steam room very small, steam room wasn't working well, not hot and hardly any steam except for by the ceiling. Seats outside with the green cushions absolutely filthy, you can't help birds soiling but you can clean it off, this was there the whole 2 days we visited. The hotel pushes the Shakespeare link everywhere which is it's USP so understandable - the As You Like It room is lovely as is the bar and the Stuart dining room with beautiful panelling. Not a luxury experience, carpets in hallways are dirty and stained, room trays were left in stairwells when we left at 10 am and were still there when we got back at 2.15. There was a smell of sewage on the 1st floor as we walked through yesterday, we didn't smell it today though. Lovely lawn and fountain and the outside of the hotel looks beautiful from there. This hotel seems to be relying on it's history link and doesn't seem to think it needs to do anything else. It has an unkempt, unloved feeling about it. I would not recommend unless you love the historical link. Not a luxury experience and the management don't seem to care so no point in complaining, just book elsewhere. Update following hotel response: The red haired manager in the burgundy suit tried to speak to me ONCE (after checking a couple in for breakfast, seating them and taking their drink orders) - they'd probably been waiting a while as the poor overwhelmed staff are trying to check people in for breakfast, seat them, take orders, bring drinks, clear tables and replenish food - there are not enough staff to deal with breakfast which led to my complaint in the first place. Having listened to you for two minutes and seen how defensive you were I knew there was no point in wasting any more of my time, I declined to come and see you after breakfast and told you I would leave a review instead. Nothing you could have told me would explain or rectify the service issues we faced, we won't be returning and if you go through previous reviews you will see these issues have been raised previously, lip service was paid re changes being made but the same things are still happening, this tells me everything about your approach to customer service.