Voco St. John's Hotel Birmingham, Tolkien Suite

I stayed at this hotel for a business trip. The hotel room was clean and spacious. The bed was comfy - the pillows were big and fluffy, bedsheets were soft. It didn't feel like a standard bed length wise. We had a meal in the restaurant and it was pleasant and filling. The breakfasts had a large variety on offer and was good quality. I asked for fried eggs on my last morning and they were freshly cooked and arrived quickly. I received great service from the waiter /breakfast staff - friendly and happy to help. When we arrived we were greeted pleasantly by a receptionist called Zara who was smiley, polite and friendly. We had issues with our room cards and she swiftly sorted the problem out in a quick manner to ensure we were not waiting long. The first time we did not need to present our IDs when having this issue. The second time we had a problem with the room card, there was a blonde lady who seemed more manager level who also at the reception who was quite rude when dealing with other guests if the same issue who were struggling to find their IDs. She then made a comment about it being good that I I mentioned I didn't need a ID the last time as the receptionist (Zara) was on probation. I did think this was uncalled for as she was on her own the first time with a large queue of people and it was easy to forget on the moment when trying to be attentive to all guests in a busy foyer. It just feels quite unnecessary and made me feel uncomfortable and sorry for the younger girl. When I checked out, she was just as pleasant as the first time I was in the hotel so it seemed a shame for her Manager to say such a thing especially when there was a foyer full of people. Just abit unprofessional. Overall a good stay apart from that interaction with the manager in front of people.

Spent two days and a night here for an event. A nice hotel with a restaurant serving enjoyable food. The staff were very pleasant and helpful, especially the lady who I believe was managing the restaurant. Cleanliness was pretty good and the only real criticisms are that the hall light stayed on all night and shone under and around the door, so if you're light sensitive it's probably not ideal, and the armchair in the room was stained badly and was really quite gross. Fortunately everything else was lovely and clean. I enjoyed the hotel's commitments to environmentalism as well. The only thing I thought was odd however was the constantly piped in elevator-style music around the building which was some sort of dissonant jazz. That was a little weird!

Stayed for a couple of nights at a work event. Rooms were clean, buffet food wasn’t great on the 1st night but the food was fantastic for the gala evening. Great size conference room for the event which had ample facilities. Quality of room service food was poor (£30 for a frozen pizza and a inedible sandwich)