Best Western Wynnstay Hotel, Oswestry

Author's product rating:   

Quality of Rooms	Good
Standard of Service	Poor
Quality of Food & Drink	Average
Quality of Facilities	Good

Advantages:	Excellent beer, good leisure facilities, ample parking
Disadvantages:	Feather pillows, pefunctory efficient staff, leisure facilities in a different building, small room, cannot meet DDA requirements (at present)

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Why in the almighty ones name am I staying in a hotel in Oswestry you may well ask. I almost questioned the decision myself, but that’s another story.

I had a Monday meeting in Bolton and a Tuesday meeting in Newtown, Mid/North Wales, superb really as one is en-route home from the other. However, I have strict criteria when seeking hotels, if I can get a pool and high-speed internet access, fabulous, then High Speed Access, then a pool, at least one please to keep me amused. Sadly, once you head south from Wrexham and Chester, high speed internet access and middle / upper class hotel chains are both very few and far between, and I didn’t really want to trek all the way from Wrexham for a 10am meeting.

I stumbled across the Wynnstay rather by accident, and being part of the Best Western Chain it just had to be OK didn’t it? What I didn’t realise is that the Best Western banner simply wraps up around 3,500 worldwide independent hotels, so commonality, such as that experienced with Moat Houses and Premier Lodges is NOT to be expected.

The hotel claimed to have a superb leisure suite, although from looking at the pictures on the web, it was difficult to work out where.

LOCATION
Situated about a mile off the A5 (A483), the main North to South Wales road, it is easily reachable without too much hassle, and is on Chuch Street in Oswestry about ½ mile from the centre, however, being the boring old fart I am notoriously labelled, I didn’t explore the area.

Car parking is via a small entrance just after the hotel if you follow the directions on the website, it is secure, and exit is only possible by obtaining a token from reception, free for residents and £5 for non-residents.

This was the first surprise, nestled in between shops and local houses, the back of this hotel is surprisingly large and there is ample parking, the only disadvantage being that it is about a 4 minute walk up to the rear entrance around an obviously used bowling green, and then another couple of minutes through the hotel to reception.

CHECK-IN
The usual procedures applied here, completion of the registration documents and the swipe of the credit card, and I was issued with my room key, and interestingly an external door key, for use should I chose to be out of the hotel after 11pm. I have obviously been a city girl for far too long.

ACCESSIBILITY
I wish to make some observations at this point. This hotel is spread over roughly three floors with narrow stairways and corridors. As the building has quite a history attached to it dating back to 1727, it also cannot install lifts. Therefore if you have limited mobility, I would think seriously whether this hotel is for you.

As a key feature of my work is accessibility, although primarily on-line, I asked at reception how they were managing with the onslaught of the DDA access bill hot on their heels. I was advised they are looking to install an external room with a stair lift, and also possibly considering creating some downstairs rooms.

If you do have mobility problems, please check with the hotel before booking.

THE ROOM
The room I booked on the website was a double for single occupancy. The first thing that struck me about the room was how old fashioned and small it was, and that the ‘double’ bed was actually a three quarter, not a size you see very often, and also rather expensive to buy. There was a small dark oak table working area with lamp, and also a bedside lamp. There was actually overhead lighting here, but it was rather a waste of time as the bulbs were clearly low voltage.

There was tea and coffee making facilities with bone china cups and sauces, a remote controlled colour portable TV with just the basic terrestrial 4 channels. The whole room had a smell of lavender and moth balls about it, I was not over impressed. In its favour, the bathroom was of a good size with movable shower and bath, toilet, sink area and lots of very pleasant lavender scented toiletries.

Once again, the pillows were of the feather variety, but were changed rapidly without quibble on request. Having arrived at the Marriott in London Heathrow this evening to encounter a duck down quilt and feather pillows, I really think this is something that hotels should start looking carefully at, or is it just me that suffers from this allergy? I wouldn’t have thought so, but you never know.

I would say that the bed was extraordinarily comfortable, and I was asleep by around 11pm, although this may also have had something to so with the superb quality of the Stella at the hotel.

There was a trouser press in the room, and a double wardrobe; interestingly, the iron and board were stored on a door at the end of the corridor. I elected to use them the evening before, and it is a good job I did as it was nowhere to be seen the next morning.

Internet connectivity was via a dial up modem, and offered a staggering 52K connection speed with BT, cost was around 20p a minute for a local call (they are legally obliged to show a selection of charges in the room), although off-peak, I was paying around 10p per minute for a local rate call.

One thing that did tickle me about the room, was that there was a security chain, which had been fitted back to front. If anyone had tried to force the door it would have been through in seconds. I advised reception on departure and they were surprised, it seems no-one else had reported it.

Early morning calls were not offered at reception, and could be programmed through the phone in the room. In addition, an alarm clock was supplied for those lazy bones like me who need more than one method of 'shouting at' in the mornings.

LEISURE FACILITIES
The leisure facilities are actually situated in a separate building adjacent to the car park and behind the bowling green, not a pleasant walk in winter.

However, arriving far earlier than I expected with a whole evening to fill and no high speed internet access, I forced myself to walk across and was pleasantly surprised. There was a fully equipped gym, approximately 15 metre swimming pool, sauna, steam room, and very effective hot spa tub, towels were supplied and a leisurely hour was whiled away here. There are also bookable beauty treatments at extra cost.

FOOD
As usual, I partook of the room service, however, I did buy myself half a Stella on the way back to my room, and I will say that this hotel really does know how to care for its lager, it was absolutely stunning, and at £1.30 a half, not too badly priced for a hotel bar.

The food was reasonable priced, the Spaghetti Carbonara was around £10 and very tasty, the garlic bread with cheese however was a different story, I have certainly never had this variation before.

The garlic butter was in the middle of an unsplit loaf, and the cheese was simply melted across the top, not particularly appetising, but washed down with another Stella, I coped. Delivery was by, I believe the hotel manageress who obviously wasn’t impressed at carrying out such menial tasks, nearly breaking down my door by kicking it to let me know she was there. I found her attitude appalling, ungracious and downright rude, considering this outlet add a 20% charge to all room service orders, I found this particularly difficult to stomach. I know every outlet adds a charge for this perk, however, it is usually fixed and somehow easier to take in.

Breakfast was split between buffet and plated. There was a range of fruit juices (watered down), cereals, croissants and pastries, followed by a full cooked breakfast of sausage, bacon, egg (fried, scrambled or poached), black pudding, hash brown, tomatoes (or in my case beans) and mushrooms washed down by very tasty coffee and lots of toast. In contrast to the many buffet breakfasts I seem to be faced with these days, it was piping hot and obviously freshly cooked.

The breakfast was quoted as £9.95 for full English, or £4.95 for continental, I made the silly mistake of thinking it was included in the rate, I stay in so many hotels these days and every one is different.

BOOKING
This hotel was booked through the Best Western website, www.bestwestern.com/ and rates are reasonable, I paid £65 room only. In this part of the world good hotels from my searching appear to be few and far between, and the leisure facilities, fabulous beer, easy to get to location more than made up for the inadequacies.

OTHER FEATURES OF INTEREST
Children under 16 are free when staying in their parents room, check in is from 2pm and checkout is 11am. Housetrained pets are allowed, I am assuming that charges would be brought if your little pooch lets you down, but much as I love my dog, when travelling to hotels for business or pleasure, I like to know Hally is being cared for in more appropriate surroundings.

IN SUMMARY
Would I use it again? Difficult to say, Oswestry in reality is an up and back trip in a day from my home town, so reasons for me needing to stay in this part of the world are very few and far between. I did find the service rather pefunctory and efficient rather than helpful and friendly, unlike the Marriott I am staying in this evening.

I would look closely at other offerings before booking this one, there again, those leisure facilities and beer were very good.

CONTACT DETAILS
Best Western Wynnstay Hotel, Church Street, Oswestry, England, Great Britain/U.K., SY11 2SZ

Telephone: Phone: 44-1691655261

Website: www.bestwestern.com