Donington Manor

This is a little gem of a hotel, next to the Skylink bus stop which is a 5 minute ride to East Midlands Airport. Set in a delightful village, with quiet rooms and ample parking. Very reasonable price, fantastic breakfast and fabulous hosts!

Here’s my hotel review: We booked a twin room, described as being located off a courtyard with its own independent entrance. On arrival, my adult son and I found the hotel itself to be pleasant and well-presented. Unfortunately, when we got to our room, it contained a double bed rather than the twin room we had booked. I spoke to reception and was told there were no twin rooms available. The manager couldn’t explain why we’d been allocated a double room, although there was apparently a twin room available for guests arriving later. When I pointed out that I was already there, I was told those guests had booked directly with the hotel, whereas I had booked through Hotels.com. Fair enough, but it does suggest there may be advantages to booking direct if you want the exact room you’ve reserved. To their credit, staff tried to resolve the issue by providing a Z-bed. Unfortunately, when my son lay on it, it became clear that several springs were missing, making it unusable. Rather than spend the weekend arguing, we did the very British thing, kept a stiff upper lip, and shared the double bed. In the end, it didn’t spoil what had been a trip we’d been looking forward to for over 12 months. At around £300 per night during Download Festival weekend, I was expecting a more premium experience than was delivered. That said, I appreciate that accommodation in the area commands a premium during major events, and the hotel itself was comfortable enough. Overall, the staff were polite and did try to help, but the room provided wasn’t what was booked, and the alternative solution wasn’t fit for purpose. A comfortable stay, but not one that fully justified the price.

On arriving at this hotel we noticed a strange musty smell in reception. We had a short wait outside the building for the night porter on our arrival following our late flight. The porter seemed unaware about our arrival and seemed flustered to find our two rooms as we were traveling with friends. We were given room 5 on the first floor. The room was ok and smelled much better than the reception area. Room had all we required for our stay. Only 2 sticking points were no milk for our tea and coffee and the bed was extremely hard and could have benefited from a new mattress or a mattress topper. Breakfast was good. Bacon cooked from a grill and was very tasty. We were disappointed to only receive 2 slices of toast between 4 people. I expect this could have been rectified had we mentioned this to the waiting staff.