Village Hotel Coventry

Very clean throughout, lots of facilities. Room is well equipped and finished to a good standard. I used room service which was really speedy and the food was good. Slept OK and there wasn't any noise to disturb that, or maybe I was just exhausted - I did hear a bit of thumping around in the corridor in the early hours, but I was awake anyways as I don't sleep late. Would happily stay here again, plenty of free parking at the weekend too.

Self-service check-in wasn't immediately clear, but I figured it out - I guess I'm just not used to that in a hotel. I avoided the restaurant in the evening as it was heaving - there were 2 x security guards standing at the entrance to it and I found that completely off-putting. It didn't set a welcoming feel and if security guards are necessary in the evening then it's not somewhere I think I want to spend time. Minor grumbles in the room: the legs of the bed stand slightly proud of the bed base, so relentlessly tripped over them until I eventually worked out to give them a wide berth. Also the sheet on the bed didn't reach the bottom which meant by foot was right on top of the stitched edge of it - a small thing I know, but so was the sheet... it was just a bit scratchy ! The attempt at whimsical humour on the shower gels/hand wash made me far angrier than I should have been, with their irritating "song titles" - I think that might be a me problem :)

The place isn't visible from the traffic island but easy to find, with a pretty large car park - but that's probably due to the gym visitors. Check-in seemed simple enough: there's six self-service screens around the greetings desk so it's possible to self-manage without queuing: our room was on the first floor, just past the lifts, so was easy to find. The door leading to the lifts kept banging shut (we mentioned it to a cleaner who just shrugged) but fortunately it was possible to set it open (a controllable fire door that will self-close when the alarm rings) so we didn't get banging all through the night. The room itself was good, quite warm upon arrival so we switched off the wall heater and left the windows ajar all day - being nicely woken in the morning by the smell of grilling bacon and sausages! The twin beds felt a bit high-placed but were very comfy and I slept pretty soundly over the course of my two-day stay. I liked the power points near the bed, along with USB sockets; being a dark colour (in keeping with the general theme of things) you've got to stare closely to make out the fittings. It was possible to link to the TV to stream content, but out of three devices the TV would only work with one phone. The bar isn't cheap; as there's no other place to go it felt like pricey airport facilities (it's possible to get the Village App for a discount). Our weekend booking came with breakfast included both mornings and a 50 quid pre-paid voucher (given the price of meals there it's easy to burn through) which didn't include any drinks. There's no table service; diners are invited to scan a QR code and order online, but I'm not sure reception had communicated just how many room bookings had been planned for that weekend as waitstaff and kitchen seemed to struggle with getting orders fulfilled - delivery seemed quite slow. Nonetheless, my steak and chips (when it arrived) were great that night, can't fault it. The next morning's breakfast service seemed a bit chaotic. At 0900 there were many uncleared tables (only seemed to be two people running around the restaurant) and most cooked ingredients empty, nobody monitoring the breakfast bar. Eventually it got refilled, but again the number of diners appeared to have caught them unawares. For a venue, there's plenty of rooms and the layout was quite well done: I heard much of the staff were on-hand to help get things setup. The bar at the back of the Works room only stocked bottles (no draught) and there were reports that the draught beer at the secondary bar tasted off, so we stuck to the main bar which still got through orders quite quickly, despite the number of drinkers. Saturday evening things got pretty haphazard with a meal order. It was placed just before 1830 but over the next 45 mins others on my table had eaten and left whilst we were still awaiting drinks. When we drew it to the attention of a waitress who investigated, she discovered two items we ordered were unavailable so the whole order (drinks included) was cancelled without notification: not even the kitchen nor waitstaff being made aware. We eventually got drinks and a replacement meal, but by that time it was a good 90 mins after the table reservation time. I was told the manager would remove whole order from the bill, but my card has still been charged (meaning they billed me over 30 quid for a sharer plate of nachos) Breakfast the next morning seemed better: there were more staff on so tables were cleared and relaid more quickly, and items replenished faster (although still nobody checking - beans were out). We'd had a note about an unpaid bill pushed under the door requesting to check with the lobby desk but when bringing this to their attention, they checked then just tore it up, explaining it was another app glitch. I'll stay there again, but the experience with their web ordering doesn't fill me with much confidence, and I'll probably not go for that pre-paid package deal.

Access to gym

Cost of food and beer

Staff and Facilities top class

No issues

The facilities at the hotel were exceptional.

At busy times the restaurant was very busy which meant I was unable to attend talks at the event I was here for.

Modern rooms

Too many people. Noisy guests with children running up and down the corridors No staff around at all