Best Western Donnington Manor

We booked this hotel because we were celebrating a friends 70th Birthday and wanted to be close to Biggin Hill, Chartwell and Hever Castle. I would never stay here again. The staff are friendly and helpful but sadly the management do not seem to have any experience of hotel hospitality and the premise that the customer is always right. At check in we were informed of the "allowance" in the restaurant for DB and B guests. This was £30 for each guest from the Chartwell restaurant menu. On both nights we dined we were offered 2 menus. A set menu and an A La Carte menu. The allowance was £30 for the first and £25 for the second. We did query this when presented with the bill at the end of the meal. After much discussion it was decided we had been overcharged by around £4. For the stress of this prolonged discussion we were offered a complimentary drink the next evening. This provoked another bill discussion at the end of the second meal as it was not mentioned to us that the complimentary drink was basically a half of beer/ larger or a small glass of wine. We did eventually settle on paying 50% of our 4 initial drinks and the £4.00 being taken off the bill. It was not much fun at the end of a meal on both nights to have to spend time discussing the price etc of the meals and drinks. Some of the food at both meals was of inferior quality. The portions were huge and the hotel could save a fortune by having sensible portion control. My chicken burger on the second evening was terrible. The chicken had evidently been cooked, then left to go cold and then reheated for the burger. It consisted of 2 huge chicken breast which were tough and inedible. I complained and the chef came out to apologise. He offered me an alternative meal which i declined and then a dessert which was of no value to me as I had not used my "allowance" with the chicken burger. I could not be bothered to argue further. Our room was adequate, the air conditioning very welcome but our shower did not drain the water away so after one of us showered we had to wait for at least 15 mins for the water to drain and then the other person had a shower. We were still paddling in the other persons dirty water. We reported this on both days and for a third time when we left. We were told it had been resolved for the second day which was not the case. I hope that the plumbing issue is resolved for the next person staying in the room called Otford. Finally breakfast is a sad affair. Please can the chef learn how to cook a fried egg? The sausage and bacon were of inferior quality as was the sliced bread used for toast. The fruit juice was horrible and undrinkable. The jam and marmalade is in a press top large bottle which squirts jam all over your front unless you point it away from you. There are only tiny amounts of fresh melon and it could do with a large bowl of cut fresh fruit with no rind on it. Overall I would not recommend this hotel or stay there again.

A clean, comfortable and relaxing place to stay. Friendly and helpful staff. Large comfortable bed, nice shower, good adjustable air conditioning. Plenty of free parking.

My Dad was celerbrating his 80th birthday. There was 19 of us he had just been in a spitfire and we thought we would finish his birthday with a night in the hotel to carry on his birthday we get there no problem we were asked on that afternoon on the day we were staying for our menu choices which we thought was a bit late we meet up in the restaurant and waiter said we need to pay so i said il let my dad know with which my dad came into the restaurant for the waiter to say straight a way we need paying my dad said ok when we finished il pay The starters was fine . on the main meal we had a waiter come up to say there was only 3 rib eye steaks ok my grandson will have a sirloin steak the steak comes up plus an extra rib eye who is this one for ?? you ordered 4 rib eye and sirloin yes but were told you only had 3 rib eye steaks so we ordered 2 sirloin that got sorted then they tried to charge us for the 4 rib eye and 2 sirloin we not paying for both as thats your misunderstanding. England were playing on the telly so we were asked not to shout when they score ? next day we were asked to pay for the breakfast then asked to pay for them putting a sofa bed in the room for a family which sleeps for so if im honest im not very impressed all they seemed to do was try and make as much as they could of us so wont be going there again