Sheesh - seems like ages since I've been here. So many changes, business up and running - bred my f...
Sheesh - seems like ages since I've been here. So many changes, business up and running - bred my first litter of labs - moved house - guess I had better work on catching up now!
Member since:20.03.2001
Reviews:275
Members who trust:170
Again I find myself writing about a hotel in Cardiff, just some 50 miles down the motorway from home – why? you might well ask.
A long term commitment to a UB40 concert at the Cardiff Indoor Arena finishing after 11pm, combined with an 8.30 first day of work start in Cardiff meant I would have been on the road until gone 12.30am and leaving home to get back to the same place at around 6.30am – nah, surely there had to be something better around?
A brief desire to stay at the Cardiff Marriott was quickly ruled out – at £140 a night, paying myself with Fuerteventura next week, and a large house deposit was more than I could stomach – the £50 a night Comfort Inn, the baby brother of the Quality Chain was not appealing after my stay in Glasgow, so what about the Village? This was an establishment I had visited on several occasions for conferences, meetings and job interviews, but had never had the opportunity to stay before.
The Village Chain The Village outlets are owned by the De Vere group, who currently have 14 locations across the UK (only one in Wales and none in Scotland) with two new outlets opening shortly in Birmingham and Maidstone. All appear to have outstanding leisure facilities.
BOOKING Lastminute.com had nothing to offer, Superbreak were in discriminatory mode, refusing to offer me a room for one person, and charging me £98 for two with payment up front when only one was staying. I know, Sunday night bargains are often to be found by ringing the hotel directly which is exactly what I did, and, like the Crowne Plaza in Manchester and the Tillington Hall, Stafford, they came up trumps at £54 per room per night including breakfast. Bookings can also be made on their website at www.villagehotelsonline.co.uk so long as they are done three days in advance. I had to provide a
credit card to confirm the reservation, and was advised that I would receive a confirmation letter in the post. The rack rates at the hotel were £99 for a single and £109 for a double room. Breakfast (which I shall discuss later) is £9.95 per head. Children over the age of 14 are charged as adults, which I think is a little unfair considering the restrictions placed on their use of the leisure facilities (further down).
I did indeed receive the letter, advising me that check-in was, unusually, from 3pm with a note advising that they could not guarantee that the room would be available at that time. Check out, was, again, unusually, 11am, for a 100 bed hotel this does suggest that they could do with more staff. Late check out rooms can be booked, subject to availability, at weekends.
I was also advised in the letter that there was a function going on at the hotel, and this could possibly disturb residents up until 1am – whilst I was not particularly happy about this, at least I had been forewarned, neither Maddisons in Belfast, or the Pack Horse in Bolton saw fit to notify me of similar, and as it transpired, far noisier stays.
LOCATION The hotel is situated, literally on Junction 32 of the M4, and is about 20 minutes from the centre of Cardiff, and costs about £20 return for a taxi into the centre. It is about 15 miles from Cardiff Wales airport. There is a large Asda superstore alongside the hotel, and one junction down the M4 there is a major shopping centre with M&S, Tesco and a host of other household names.
PARKING The hotel provides ample secure parking (400 spaces), and a barrier code, available from reception is required to exit. There is substantial disabled parking and ramps to and from the hotel entrance. Be warned many of the parking spaces are narrower at the back than the front, and some users are particularly stupid and inconsiderate when parking.
CHECK-IN Due to Natasha wishing to meet her boyfriend earlier than we intended leaving, arrival at the hotel was some 40 minutes before the scheduled check-in time and indeed the room was not ready; this, naturally, forced us into the bar, however, because a room could not be allocated to us, we could not charge things to our account, good job we had some money with us – although if you are stuck, there is a stand alone cash-point in the hotel reception, that will cost you £1.50 for the privilege of withdrawing cash.
EATING The hotel has a choice of Salingers restaurant, or the village pub, we chose the latter. Being a Sunday, the bar was busy upon arrival. A 3 course Christmas meal was on offer for £9.95 or there was a choice of a la carte menu offering typical starters such as Garlic mushrooms and prawn cocktails, main courses such as steaks, salads, curries, veggie meals and deserts.
Two meals, a single starter, a main course Christmas dinner and Chicken Tikka Masalla (half and half) set us back £16, not bad for what is supposed to be a 4 star hotel. The service was slow considering the crowd had, by now, thinned out, the Christmas dinner had no roast potatoes (eek) and the masalla had evidently been cooked in the microwave and not stirred, the chips were undercooked and the rice was soggy – the naan bread was very stodgy and not tasty. All in all not money well spent.
A round of drinks in the shape of a pint of bitter and a bottle of Coke cost £3.50.
There was a dedicated no smoking and family area, although I do wish people would keep their kids under control.
THE ROOM Oh grief – what else can I say about the room, other than bog standard fayre. Double bed (with quilt rather than sheets – and very comfortable), remote controlled colour TV (with 20 channels including Sky Sport and free Movies but no teletext or radio stations), tea and coffee making facilities (a grand total of 2 sachets provided – I am assuming more could have been provided by reception if required), telephone, modem point, plenty of electrical points, a trouser press, a standard issue hairdryer (do hotels buy job lots of these?), ample clothes hanging areas including lots of hangers, and an iron and ironing board.
Interestingly, the windows were not double glazed and the room was surprisingly cold, despite the facility to control your own heating with the small electric heater on the wall. Unusually for a modern hotel, the doors were operated by keys rather than cards, and electricity was only available through placing your key fob in the appropriate slot, the door did not double lock, although there was a chain which required a PhD in applied engineering to operate. There were light switches above the bed for all the room lights, and
There was an en-suite bathroom with overhead shower and thermostatically controlled taps, the power was weak, and the temperature low even when set to the maximum. There was one good point, in that the towels were large enough to cover even my ample frame.
The main down-point? Thin walls – in fact, very very thin walls, so bad that you could hear literally everything in the next room, and in particular, everything going on in the bathroom, not very pleasant.
The Main up-points? Calls were 24p per unit (substantially cheaper than the Copthorne just down the road which came in at a cool 80p per minute – but compared to the Netherlands where international calls were half the price per minute, still expensive). There was a card provided in the room advising you of exactly how much time you get for a unit, dependent on whether you are calling local. Long distance etc. there was also a warning advising customers that calls to mobiles would be very expensive
LEISURE FACILITIES As a hotel guest, you get carte blanche access to the leisure facilities (with the exception of the solarium). Sadly, because of our untimely arrival and being unable to check in, we were not able to take advantage of the 28m swimming pool – bigger than all our local leisure centres (the ones still open that is). There is also a sauna, Jacuzzi, Fitness aerobic studio, toning tables, cardio zone, whirlpool spa and a health treatment outlet. The leisure centre, which really does look very nice, is open from 6.30am to 10pm daily with restricted access for children under 17 who must be supervised at all times – this is a little farcical as Tasha is a 100 times better swimmer than I am.
LATE NIGHT DRINKING The main village bar keeps standard pub opening times, although there is a late night resident’s bar which takes no cash, drinks are chargeable to the room; therefore if you don’t have a credit or debit card you could be stuffed. A G&T set me back £3.50 – not the cheapest and they didn’t even have any Gordon’sin stock.
BREAKFAST An interesting array of buffet items ranging from fresh fruit, juices, yoghurt, cereals, croissants, roles, cold meats, hot items including mushrooms, bacon, herb sausages (yuck), scrambled eggs on fried bread (whatever happened to those of us who like fried bread but not egg?), scrambled eggs, baked beans and hash browns, with a choice of white or brown toast washed down with your own pot of tea or coffee.
You do get a complementary newspaper, and there is copies of the Independent dotted around reception in abundance if you fancy something extra to read.
WOULD I STAY THERE AGAIN? There is no doubt this is a popular hotel and certainly very convenient. Personally I thought It was OK – I have stayed in better and worse, although none with walls as thin as this. Having visited there so many times before, I really would like the opportunity to try out the leisure facilities, which is what I suspect gives the village its 4 star status. The thin walls and bedroom facilities certainly don’t.
The hotel is only 50 miles away from home, so this is something of a deterrent, although as I will now be working in Cardiff 2 days a week until March, who knows when the weather might force me to stay overnight, so long as the price was right.
Want to find out more?
Village Hotel & Leisure Club, Cardiff: 29 Pendwyallt Road, Coryton, Cardiff, CF14 7EF.
Or you can visit their website at: www.villagehotelsonline.co.uk or contact the Village Cardiff on 029 2052 4300 or by e-mail on: village.cardiff@village-hotels.com
As for the UB40 concert, it would have been brilliant had it not been for the support band being the Stranglers and a bunch of idiots who were determined to push down the front despite repeatedly being forced back by Stewards.
Had an office party here when I was working in Cardiff a few years ago, great review, Fx
Zita1986 30.03.2004 14:29
Keeway 28.12.2003 20:27
I live in Cardiff & have stayed at this Hotel – a Christmas meal/party for the company I worked for. I personally found it to be satisfactory, but one of my colleagues had problems booking in. I don’t remember the intricate details, but her partner was arriving later than her, and because his credit card was paying for the room, they wouldn’t allow her into the room until he arrived. I’ve obviously got no idea why you are in Cardiff or where you need to be here, but if I can help at all with ‘where you are staying’ please let me know. I have no idea about your budget or the standard you want, but can I suggest looking at The Campanile in Pentwyn or the Moat House in Llanedeyrn? There isn’t much point in me listing nearly all the Hotels in Cardiff, but I’m happy to give you any info I have on any of them if you'd like. Teresa xx
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