Guest Reviews & Comments
De Vere Venues Wokefield Park near Reading: Reading Hotels
1 Group of work colleagues - 29/07/08	70%
Good Points: Great design of the better rooms and a nice location in the countryside. The BBQ food was really good (but see below).
Bad Points: Variability of rooms amongst the group. Insulting excuse for 'twin' rooms where one of the two beds was really a cot/temporary bed. Also, I booked an expensive room for our group BBQ which turned out to be a conference room, with strip lights, wheels on the chairs, etc. The BBQ was booked for 2100, but was sitting out having been cooked an hour earlier for no good reason. The 'bar' was a fridge in the corner with a (cash only) member of staff standing next to it.
Further Comments: Good for those in double rooms, disappointing for those in twin rooms - the hotel could have been more honest about the state of twin rooms.
2 Leisure Visit - 24/07/08	50%
Bad Points: Room was not really clean External door to outside (groundlevel) could not be locked !!!! so anybody could walk in from outside. Staff did make a note but did not offer alternative nor looked into it in order to fix the problem with teh window lock. As a result I could not leave my room that night because of risk of theft. really a pity !!!
3 Leisure Visit - 23/07/08	100%
Further Comments: High quality,will book again for September
4 Mature couple - 23/07/08	90%
Good Points: Great location, quality room, good service, excellent breakfast
Further Comments: It was fantastic value at the discounted price of ￂﾣ39 for two
5 Group of work colleagues - 22/07/08	100%
Good Points: trully fantastic location, we stayed in what they call the mansion house and its straight out of a bbc period drama, i would love to know who it once belonged to?? a wedding party was there at the same time as us and i can see why they chose it. magnificent
Bad Points: i honestly cant think of any.
Further Comments: brilliant, warm friendly staff, value for money and a building from pride and pedjudice. what more could you want?
6 Mature couple - 21/07/08	80%
Good Points: Value for money
Bad Points: Inconsistency of standard of the rooms. Never know what you're going to get !
Further Comments: Excellent value
7 Mature couple - 19/07/08	80%
Good Points: Lovely, peaceful location. Staff polite and helpful. Good value for money. Exceptional breakfast, freshly prepared.
Bad Points: Bedroom carpet not hoovered at the edges so made the room appear unclean. Bed matress very (too) firm. Waitress produced our bill at dinner before we requested it.
Further Comments: We enjoyed our stay overall and would probably use the hotel again.
8 Same sex couple - 16/07/08	100%
Good Points: Every detail in our room had been carefully thought about. There was a fan, a large bathroom, very comfortable new beds, nice lighting. The Brunch was brilliant.
Bad Points: We could not find any details about the hotel and its facilities in the room.
Further Comments: Best value hotel deal I ever had
9 Mature couple - 07/07/08	80%
Good Points: position, value, breakfast
Further Comments: very good
10 Family with older children - 02/07/08	70%
Good Points: free coffee & tea in reception area nice pool nice location
Bad Points: Room located by a fire door which was very nosiy and kept us all awake until 3am when people stopped walking around
Further Comments: ok, value for money would request different room location on any further stays
11 Young couple - 17/06/08	80%
Good Points: executive lodge rooms were great!Main hotel staff were at times unhelpful.
Bad Points: Was given a room in the hotel and it was not what i reserved,when I asked about the lodge rooms they said they were identical.Open further investigation by my partner and I we were shown around the lodge and was given a room there.
Further Comments: Excellent once our room was sorted.
12 Mature couple - 14/06/08	90%
Good Points: Really good value
Bad Points: The room was supposed to have a better more modern tv, and the bathroom look a little in need of modernisation.
Further Comments: Very impressed with the service, breakfast and the bar and facilities in main building.
13 Mature couple - 04/06/08	70%
Good Points: Layout of the site was lovely, good views and open space. The French door to the outside was a welcome bonus with good views over the golf course.This looked excellent but we don't play. The staff were very helpful and welcoming but see below.
Bad Points: After asking for 3 consecutive days for a bath plug we still did not get one (one of the reasons we book a hotel is to be able to have a bath).The shower needed a good scrub but otherwise the room was very clean. On arrival we booked to play tennis in two days time. The net was not in place at the time but we assumed that it would be there for our booking - it was not. However the receptionist on duty was very concerned and found someone to erect it within 15mins, but our time was still limited. No continental breakfast, it was very hot and a cold buffet would have been very welcome. Our room was not ready for check in at 2pm, we had to wait.
Further Comments: Good value for money for a leisure break but not up to standards for a special weekend.Very enjoyable, more organisation would have made it excellent.
14 Young couple - 28/05/08	90%
Good Points: Clean, comfortable, quiet. French doors in room opened onto grass area. Bathroom a bit tired but was clean and tidy and a great shower - lots of hot water.
Further Comments: Easy to find, directions were clear. Comfortable room and lots of space. Friendly staff, very helpful. Free internet access in lobby. Free tea and coffee in lobby - even though you have drinks faciites in your room, the lobby is a nice space to sit in. FANTASITC breakfast. Self serve:- cereals, lovely porridge, toast and selection of nice jams, cooked food selection - the usual, looked nice! Breakfast area nice and modern. Didnt use swimming pool so cant comment but other guests did use it. Top notch stay for ￃﾂￂﾣ39 - excellent value for money.
15 Mature couple - 28/05/08	70%
Good Points: the grounds were very beutiful, the food the leisure facilities were also tremendous
Bad Points: the mass amounts of laundry at the bottom of the corridor were we was staying also the rush to vacate the room
Further Comments: i was very dissapointed to find the chamber maid knocking on the door at 15-30 to ask when we would be leaving as she needed to clean the room and finished work at 17-00hrs we explained we would be leaving shortly only to find 16-10hr anothere knock at the door to find out when we would be leaving even though our check out was 17-00hr so to say rushed out of the room was an understatement, i would stay again at the hotel but not if i wanted a relaxing time this was a short break on our way to the isle of wight
16 Young couple - 28/05/08	50%
Good Points: The room was very quiet and peaceful
Bad Points: The pictures of the rooms which are found on the internet are not representative of the type of rooms in parts of the hotel. My room was of a lower standard than a Travelodge which costs much much less!
Further Comments: Check in was troublesome as so many guests arrived at once, there was a wedding party staying the night as well as normal guests and nobody seemed to know which rooms were ready and which were not. The room itself was of generally low quality Travelodge specification, and several guests were commenting on similar themes during walking along the corridor, perhaps this was just a few rooms in a small area but it doesn't give a good impression. The pool and gym were fablous, fresh towels provided and generally clean changing areas, beware though as there are no lifeguards on duty so do not expect to be able to leave children in the pool alone. Booking a late check out (5pm) was worthless, as my partner and I were continually harassed by the cleaning staff from 9am until we finally gave up at 3pm. During this period we had 7 or 8 attempts by the cleaning staff to get the room turned around for other guests. On one occasion my partner came out of the shower to find a cleaner removing all the bags etc from the room as if we'd left them all there. Reception tried their best to stop the cleaning staff from doing our room until we checked out, but we could understand why they had so much trouble when we realised the cleaners don't actually speak English. Overall I wouldn't recommend the hotel, as I feel there are much better hotels out there for the price. However if you get a good cheap deal then the pool is excellent, and Wokefield Park is well situated for both Reading and Basingstoke.
17 Young couple - 14/05/08	100%
Good Points: The hotel was very clean and very modern and spacious
Bad Points: There was nothing I disliked about our stay
Further Comments: We found our stay at this hotel most pleasant. The rooms and hotel were clean and the staff were very friendly and helpful. We didnt know how to get to the hotel from the train station so we rang the hotel and they sent a taxi for us The restaurant and bar area were also clean and the food was very good The choice for breakfast was amazing and the plates were HUGE The reception staff could not have been more helpful as we had to try and find a flight/train home to Newcastle and we were told that we could use their phones and internet as much as we wanted I would recommend people to stay there and would not hestitate in staying there myself About a 1 mile walk via country round to small village if you wanted to venture out but there isnt much there you would be better off staying in hotel A definate 9 out of 10 very impressed
18 Mature couple - 08/05/08	70%
Good Points: We enjoyed our weekend brunch late checkout.Beautiful surroundings,hotel quite busy with a chess tournament and golfers.Not much to do otherwise,no music or dancing. Breakfast good. Parking good. Tea/coffee in room, also free self service in foyer. Overall we chilled out and enjoyed. Ken & Christine Surrey
Bad Points: Sadly the pump broke down, so could not use the pool, quite dissapointing as looked forward to swimming. The evening meal choice was poor and expensive for what it was.
Further Comments: Good place to chill out and unwind after a busy week at work. Pool looked inviting but pump broke down so we did not get our swim.Hotel bright and clean,quite spacious.Food and drinks pricey.Room was good comfortable and clean.No entertainment or dancing. Chess tournament going on also plenty of golfers,so quite noisy with all those men in the bar and restaurant. Parking was easy and close to reception. We enjoyed stay. Weekend Brunch good. Ken and Christine Surrey.
19 Young couple - 08/05/08	70%
Good Points: Large room and good setting
Bad Points: No storage/racks for bikes Awful and expensive steak with pepper sauce (hard boiled flesh with salty gravy)
Further Comments: The room was very decent and the setting was pleasant. Without wishing to paint an unduly negative picture (we were very pleased with our stay: everything worked, the service was good, the price reasonable etc), we were disappointed that there were no bike racks for our bikes, that the signage around the hotel was lacking/confusing, the evening bar food was terrible, and that you have to share the core of the hotel with various BMW cars, like some sort of showroom.
20 Leisure Visit - 23/04/08	80%
Good Points: Clean. Everything worked. Good value.
Bad Points: Not safe to walk anywhere because of busy roads. Food and drink a bit expensive.
If you are unable to book a room at De Vere Venues Wokefield Park then the nearest UK hotels around the Reading area are: Holiday Inn Reading South Review, : Pincents Manor Hotel Review, : Crescent Hotel Review,