Holiday Inn Reading - West, Exclusive Hire

It is a bit outside Reading, but convenient for those who are attending multi-day events at the nearby village hall. The service is good and friendly, though 'standard' (you won't get a scale for example if you were to desire one...) The beds are wonderful, big, soft and great to sleep in. Many rooms have walk-in showers (which you can get if you book them upfront or ask when checking in). Breakfast is good, great selection of British Breakfast food, as well as continental - special requests can be placed with the staff, I got poached eggs which were nice)

Where do I start ! I can only assume that this hotel was designed by someone on crack cocaine. The layout is incomprehensible with ground floor numbering 200s and 1st floor numbering 300 and 400 . I felt like Speke discoving the source of the Nile when I eventually located my room after many corridors and indecipherable signage. Imagine my dismay when I eventually located my room to find the weirdly located TV not working and the telephone as well. This meant another trek to reception to get help. The nice lady apologised and promised to put things right by " upgrading" . She then accompanied me to the room unfortunately she too got lost along the way ( no I'm not making it up ) . Eventually after asking a maid we located the room and then walked for another lengthy amount of time to my upgraded room which was exactly the same as the room we just left lol. The TV wouldn't accept my fire stick the bed was small and relatively uncomfortable. Breakfast in the morning meant another tiring trek . It was pretty dreadful the eggs were rock hard the bacon like asphalt and the sausages like lengths of wire cable. The orange juice must have been watered down to a state that it had only passing resemblance. The only enjoyable aspect was the coffee ( which was my own ) . They made the mistake of asking me for my opinion on the way out . To which I stated I was originally staying 2 nights but I have cancelled my booking and I am transferring to the Hilton down the road ,does that explain my opinion. I would not stay there for a bet again and I suggest anyone reading this doesn't either.

Arrived to check in, waited around 15 mins to be able to speak to someone. When someone arrived the staff member at the counter was incredibly unorganised and kept repeating that they had a ‘new system’ that they were all getting used to and they were short staffed. This seemed to be the answer to any question I asked. Go to my room, room key doesn’t work so have to carry my bags back to reception. Because of staffing issues/new system, incredibly reduced menu (about 20 items short of what is advertised online). But they said this should improve during my week stay (it didn’t, if anything it got worse) Hotel room was dated and heating/air con controls had a mind of their own. No glasses or plates were cleared from my room on any day of my stay so came home to a hot room that smelt like stale food every night. Other guests in my party were told they couldn’t put alcoholic drinks on our room (I did this the night before so we obviously could). Same night as this there was an even more reduced menu. While being served my food in the restaurant we were rudely told where to sit (away from my party who were not eating in the bar area). The waiter then drops my chips next to the table and instead of getting a brush to clear them up, just pushes them under the table with his foot saying that “the brush would get dust on my shoes” ???. He then leaves these under the table until another member of staff notices them and apologises while cleaning them up. At this point most of my party were off the idea of eating in the restaurant due to the service and the lack of food on the menu, so ordered takeaway which they were then told they couldn’t put alcohol only eat in their rooms so again we were all separated. One of the worst hotel stays I’ve had, would not recommend and will not be returning.