Welwyn Garden City hotel

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A very pleasant experience overall. Friendly and helpful staff, clean and comfortable rooms, and a nice atmosphere throughout the hotel. Everything was good and the service was great. I would definitely recommend it.

The rooms are sweltering, and this wasn't during a heatwave. 27 degrees in the room at all times, when it was (at most) 23 outside in the hottest part of the day. The heating needs fixing. We sweat all night with the fan on full and no covers. Absolutely disgusting night's sleep!

A large hotel located a mile or so from WGC town centre, it has the advantage of a decent amount of on-site car parking which makes it the natural choice if you have your own transport. There's nothing much in the immediate vicinity other than a filling station, and they have unfortunately closed the pub that was attached to the hotel, so your options for sustenance are limited. There is a small bar within the hotel, although I didn't inspect the menu as I had arranged to meat colleagues elsewhere, but from a quick glance at the bar I wouldn't have wanted to stay there with just Guinness and a couple of lagers being the only available options. What about beer or cider? Other than that, first impressions were good, the lady on the check in desk was friendly and helpful. There are also self-service machines, but as there was nobody else there I went to the desk. Next impressions were not quite as positive perhaps, the corridor to the rooms looked rather tired with scuffed paintwork and stains on the carpet. The hotel seems to be arranged in a Z shape, and I was in the furthest room from reception was quite a walk. The corridor seems to go on for ever, then you turn a corner and the next big goes on for ever. It really was quite a trek. The room seemed clean and tidy though, and would be best described as functional. There were tea and coffee making facilities, although no biscuits. The bed sheets seemed very poor quality, I don't know what they were made of, but they felt very rough. The hotel website made it clear that there was no air con in the room, but I wasn't unduly bothered by this, I don't have air con at home after all, and we are over the worst of the recent heatwaves. That may have been a mistake though, it did seem extremely hot in there. I did notice that they have installed air con for themselves as there was an AC unit on the wall near reception - just not for their guests! They obviously recognise that this is a bit of an issue as there were two fans in the room, one on a shelf and a free-standing one. It was impossible to get any natural ventilation in the room as there was a restrictor on the window meaning it open about 2 inches at the bottom, and that was it. That did absolutely nothing. I get that there may perhaps be safety implications with fully opening windows, but 2 inches? That's ridiculous. The whole time I was there, the room thermostat did not drop below 29°C which made for a very uncomfortable night's sleep. As far as sleep goes, the other issue was noise from the trains which pass right behind the hotel. The bathroom had a shower over the bath that was attached to the taps. The head was just a single fixed one, there was no hose, and a cheap shower curtain rather than a screen. The tap on the basin had a restrictor on it, presumably to save water. This one was absolutely ridiculous, it had three of four pin-prick sized holes in it. The result of this was that the miniscule jets came out with considerable ferocity, hold anything under it and the water just splashes everywhere, all over me and the mirror. But at the same time, the actual volume of water is so low, it takes forever to do anything. If I had wanted to fill the basin, I reckon it would have taken about half an hour. I've never seen anything like it. Breakfast was a help yourself buffet affair and was mostly rather average, certainly the coffee, orange juice and hot food were quite average, although I didn't get to sample the fried eggs as they had run out and were not replenished. To be fair though, there was a decent enough selection (although no cold meat and cheese), and the fruit, yoghurt and croissant I had were actually all pretty good. Overall, rather disappointed with this, and I would certainly look for something else next time I'm in WGC.

The hotel looks very run down from the outside due to the derelict pub attached. The car park has numerous pot holes so be aware. The lady upon check in was great, moving us from a "quiet"room near the very busy train line to a quieter room. Rooms were stifling as no air conditioning, however a fan was provided. Breakfasts were ok. Standard Premier Inn. Sunday dinner was fine but the service on the Monday was poor. Not enough staff and those working were quite rude. The hotel was also tired in parts and the flush on our loo wasn't great. Could do better

Nice clean room but early morning loud train noise woke me up from much needed sleep. "Restaurant" staff in evening obviously struggled to cope. Given partial refund on food because of long wait and poor quality.