Danebury Hotel, Andover

...name of the hotel "The Danebury Hotel".


The hotel belongs to the chain Old English Inns, whereby you can book on-line, but I decided to call the hotel directly, which was trouble free, seeming very helpful and accommodating, even when I only booked 3 weeks before we were to leave.
We drove and took 2 cars as their were 5 of us travelling and what with luggage etc, made it more of a comfortable drive.
...
...then the A3057 into Andover, a small map of the area I printed off of the site on the internet. So far, so good, until we got about a mile before the hotel, here we lost each other, due to the bizarre one way system which we found very complex. We exchanged mobile conversations and decided to meet there.
We did find the hotel on the one-way system, and we must have driven past numerous occasions looking for the hotel's car park ! It didn't ... more

A few of us girls always have a weekend break leading up to Christmas, just to chill out away from home, but also a shop eat and drink weekend !
This has been happening for quite a few years now, and we've been all over the UK, from Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham, Kent, Chester, The Lake District to name but a few, we always like to experiment with somewhere new.
This year we narrowed it down to Cardiff, Oxford or Salisbury area.
I was the one nominated to book this year's weekend away, and all of my browsing was on the internet. Oxford and Cardiff's hotel's or bed and breakfast's were heavily booked, so around the Salisbury area I was looking. I thought it would be handy for the short distance for Winchester and Andover.
After much munching over various places to stay, I opted for one in Andover, which seemed to accommodate Winchester where we visited on the Friday, Andover stay on the Saturday, and Salisbury on the Sunday.
Location wise seemed pretty good, the hotel was based on the High Street, very handy for crawling back to after drinking on both nights.
The name of the hotel "The Danebury Hotel".

The hotel belongs to the chain Old English Inns, whereby you can book on-line, but I decided to call the hotel directly, which was trouble free, seeming very helpful and accommodating, even when I only booked 3 weeks before we were to leave.
We drove and took 2 cars as their were 5 of us travelling and what with luggage etc, made it more of a comfortable drive.
We travelled along the M4, becoming off at junction A303, then the A3057 into Andover, a small map of the area I printed off of the site on the internet. So far, so good, until we got about a mile before the hotel, here we lost each other, due to the bizarre one way system which we found very complex. We exchanged mobile conversations and decided to meet there.
We did find the hotel on the one-way system, and we must have driven past numerous occasions looking for the hotel's car park ! It didn't help as it was the night that they were turning on there Christmas decorations, so it was swarming with traffic and passers by.
We spoke to one of the stewards giving out literature and so forth who told us that because of the evening's activities the entrance to the car park had been closed off !
I decided to call the hotel and ask as to where we were to park and was told no problem you can access the car park round the back of the hotel
and gave us directions. Off we went again, round and round and round the one-way system ending up a couple of times round the back of the local shops back entrance's. I phone the hotel again, and this time I actually kept them on the line whilst we were driving round and being given directions until we did eventually reach the back of the car park. Amazingly we did arrive that evening, both cars, some time later.

On arriving there was a small counter which they apparently called the Reception, and had to wait while they found someone to check us in.
The hotel has a ground, first and second floor, and no lift.
The flight of stairs is fairly narrow, and was a little awkward to carry our luggage, and know help was offered to help us. At the top of the flight was a door, ok you say, but that is all well and good but it opened onto another door meaning that only one person could get through at a time because you had to turn back on yourself to go through the other door.

We booked 2 double rooms and a single.
I had the use of the single room, which was very small and dark, the only real good thing was that the bed was comfortable and the room very warm.
It had the usual wardrobe, bed, dressing table, telephone, and bathroom facilites, but looked and felt very basic.
Television was limited to the main channels BBC 1, and 2. ITV 1 and 2, Channel 4 and Sky News.
I unpacked and looked around the room for some literature which they normally have laid out on the side somewhere, but found it tucked away in the drawer !
Information was very basic, meal times etc, oh and the fact that the hotel had recently been refurbished, I don't know what bit, maybe the broom cupboard !
I found it very comfortable and warm but it definatly needed a lick of paint everywhere.

We decided to stay in the hotel that evening, have a meal and plan our day for tomorrow.
We did ask on arrival if we needed to book a table for a evening meal and was told that we did not need to, so that helped knowing that we could just stroll down when we were all washed and ready.
We headed firstly for the Bar, drinks first obviously. I bought the first round so headed for the fairly busy bar, with two members of staff serving.
I had to wait a while, and just preparing myself to be served next, when the young girl turned, got out her mobile phone and made a call, had a giggle, and then turned on her heal picked up her coat and walked out !
Eventually I got served.
One main attraction is that advertised was a night club actually in the hotel this sounded great, no bothering about cabs, just fall upstairs when the night was over.
We had a look for the night club on our way through to the restaurant, and found a room which we thought to be the nights entertainment, only to find it with bare floor boards, paint pots and brushes, obviously not ready for us.
We were told after enquiring that they hoped to have it ready about the second week in December !
Never mind, go eat instead. Um, no not quite, the restaurant was full ! We asked to see the manager who apologised and told us that we were given the wrong information, we did need to book. We explained that we were not feeling like going out to find somewhere to eat at this time and could we eat our meal in the bar area, which we did. We found a table in the corner and they laid it out for us.
We ordered our meals and all looked good.
The menu was average and included items such as steak, pizza, ploughmans, chicken, lamb shank, liver to name a few.
I ordered a penne pasta with chicken served with garlic bread.
The others had different meals and were sized to quite large helpings.
Mine was served and put in front of me, but I had to frown when I was given char-grilled chicken on a bed of lettuce ! My garlic bread followed, and I thought maybe they serve it differently and the pasta would come separately, but nothing else appeared. Manager call again ! No worries I am told I'll just go check with the chef ! Apparently the chef is new and is unsure what it is ? And so he made the best of what he had !
We are offered a free round of drinks and I am told that I would not have to pay for mine ! Lets hope breakfast is better !

We spent the rest of the evening in the bar which suited us.

Saturday morning we meet up for breakfast, which is served between 7.30 - 9 am
Service was good and no packed tables, I didn't fancy breakfast in the bar again !
The usual choice of cereal and laid out, and we are served tea and coffee.
We all opt for the cooked breakfast, egg, bacon, tomato, mushrooms, hash brown, sausage and baked beans followed by toast, the only query was that 2 were served with mushrooms and the other 3 without ! I did not even bother to ask ! I assumed they must of run out ?

The rest of the day we spent in Andover shopping and looking around and we did find a pub on the lunchtime which we decided to go back to in the evening for a meal, and we booked a table (just in case), so we only used the hotel for our weary heads that night.

Sunday morning we had to leave the hotel by 11am which I thought was a good time, not too early.
We met again for breakfast and notice that this morning we also have the option of cheese, ham and croissants to begin with.
We all opted for the cooked breakfast, but this time 3 meals were served with mushrooms and yep you guessed it the other 2 without!

My thoughts, well, it is not somewhere I would stay again, the whole place needs a lick of paint, the chef needs to learn the menu, and the staff need more customer service training, but we did not let this put a damper on the weekend, we just made the most of what we did and had !

Prices were reasonable a single room was £65 per room per night, and the double £75 per room per night, this included breakfast (with or without mushrooms )

The website for the hotel is www.thedaneburyhotel.com

Thanks for reading,

 

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