Hemel Hempstead Central Hotel

This was my third stay at this hotel, having previously stayed twice after visiting the Harry Potter Studio tour. This time, I was on my way to Heathrow and needed a convenient stopping point on the journey. On previous visits, I had found the hotel to be very hot, plus I was travelling during a heatwave, so I decided to pay a bit extra to book one of the Premier Plus rooms, which comes with air con. It was only £2 extra to upgrade to a room with a view, so I did that as well. On arrival, parking and check in were as easy as before, and I was soon headed up to my room (502). I have to say, I was really impressed with it - the fittings and fixtures were much nicer than in the standard room and it was great to have the air con and the fridge. The view wasn't bad either. I'll definitely consider booking a similar room next time.

Wow what a lovely hotel very clean rooms and big rooms very friendly and chatty staff was made to feel very welcome i will definitely be back in the future 1st time we have stayed here

Comfortable beds. Great location. Very near to shops in Central Hemel Hempstead. Great view of water gardens out of the window on the fourth floor. Only a short taxi ride or 20 min walk to nearest railway station. Unfortunately our room had seen better days despite all rooms having been refurbished recently. Bathroom door did not shut or lock properly and the rainfall shower was broken. Large waterfall of water virtually came right over the shower screen when shower turned on. Couldn't be bothered complaining about it as hand held part of the shower still worked. Regular maintenance of this hotel seems to have been reduced in recent months. Was very difficult to get hold of any staff both in the mornings at breakfast and in the evenings. Staff on reception seemed to be needed in 3 different areas at once. On Reception, at the bar or collecting meals from the kitchen! They definitely need more staff on in the evening, especially in the restaurant. And there didn't seem to be a manager or supervisor in charge of any of the junior/less experienced staff during our whole visit. I asked one guy in the restaurant to make us a few cocktails before we had our main meal. He said it was a new menu and none of the staff had been trained to make cocktails yet!! (Tom Cruise would not have been impressed!) There was also an advert near the lift lobby on the ground floor saying you can get cocktails at the bar - which quite frankly isn't true! Also the service and quality of the food at breakfast wasn't great either. I have stayed at this hotel several times before and have had a very nice cooked breakfast cooked by the main chef himself. However, in the space of 6 months, the quality of the cooked breakfast/Premier breakfast seems to have worsened quite considerably. The bacon is now stringy and very fatty and quite inedible. The fried eggs were swimming in grease and I managed to flick fat from my plate onto one of my best tee shirts on my first morning in the hotel, so I was not a happy bunny and had to go and buy myself a new T shirt at M&S across the road, so I would have enough clean clothes for my visit. Sausages were okay and hash browns okay but didn't seem as good quality/tasty as previously. Scrambled egg looked lumpy and hastily made. I'm not sure whether they have someone new working in the kitchen but the cooked breakfasts aren't half as nice as they used to be. Couldn't work out whether the hotel was getting cheaper products in to save on costs. Bit of a joke when price of cooked breakfast is now nearly £11.00 each. Continental breakfast was very nice/much better than the cooked breakfast. Good selection of croissants, pancakes, crumpets and pain au chocolat etc. Very nice fruit salad. Would recommend instead of Premier breakfast/full English. Other than that, didn't have any other issues. Staff were welcoming and friendly generally and the check in process was simple and straightforward. Was able to get extra milk sachets and coffee and sugar for the room when needed and our room was cleaned quickly when we requested it.

Rooms nice. Breakfast terrible. The refurbished rooms are done to a good standard of finish. The breakfast was spoiled by the failure of the management to employ sufficient staff to cater for people on a busy Sunday morning. The food items were ridiculously slow in being replenished. When I pay for a cooked breakfast I expect more than a few leftovers of mushrooms and broken bits of hash browns. Polite staff rushed off their feet and unable to cope with demand.

food was so bad old oil taste cold food even after ordering a fresh order at breakfast rather than the buffet it was exactly the same evening meal was the same tasting of old oil hardly any staff operating and no manager to run things this is one to avoid until they have a full team with management in place