St Johns

3 Night stay Aug 2026. We had a strange checking in process. A young man, pleasant enough but just way to chilled about it and to a degree lacking a professional approach. When you arrive you want confirmation of length of stay booked, meal times, cost as per booking and general info about the hotel. This was all lacking. Room - We were unable to use the safe as it was locked already. The master key could not be located by the staff and as per last year, no maintenance staff on site as it was now Friday evening and they would not be back until Monday. Why don't the staff know where the master key is??? Bathroom towel rail did not work and we wanted our towels to dry after use ready for the next day. Staff unable to get it to work and offered us a change of room. However, the room change shower room didn't have a towel rail in the bathroom. My husband looked and found the rail has a thermostat on it that you adjust and it worked. Why don't the staff know this??? We had two mismatched tea cups to make drinks, no saucers. Mugs would be much better which we obtained from the restaurant. As someone else has mentioned, the mattress topper is to small for the bed and this is disruptive to a good nights sleep. Please buy the right size and fit. The toilets need a very good clean under the rim - stand back and bend down to look and you will see all the brown "stuff"! Needs a through clean with bleach. Shower grouting needs a good bleach and use a toothbrush to give it a good clean. This is all basic stuff. A used coffee mug sat in the hallway for at least 24 hours before it was removed. Restaurant: Staff unaware we were half board. Had to go and check and then after a 5 minute wait we were told we were Bed and Breakfast only....Wrong. Checked again and confirmed we were half board. Why don't staff know who is B & B or half board? We did enjoy the food and the breakfast has a good range of options. It would be ideal if half board included all menu items rather than a separate sheet which after a few nights gets a bit repetitive. We never ate cooked breakfast or had a dessert on 2 nights so think the hotel likely made on this, so why not open the full menu up. We had to ask for water each evening and on the first evening my husband went to the bar and purchased drinks for us. Surely when you seat guests you ask about drinks then???? Breakfast: Slow to offer the menu card. We also found if we wanted items such as the pancakes or porridge we had to go up to the desk to request. No follow up from staff. Any queries we had virtually every time they had to go and check. Even heard other guests asking about breakfast time and there was clear hesitation in the answer. We are sure the staff are more than capable but seem to lack the confidence to make a decision or aren't allowed to. We did notice staff discussing "she this" and "she that" and clearly disgruntled about something. Please have these discussions away from guests and instead of huddling to chat they should be circulating and checking on the needs of paying guests. The restaurant also needs a good clean of cobwebs and leaves. Try looking up high and in the corners. Saying all this, we do like this hotel. It has a lot going for it but we have to think long and hard if we were to come back next year as there are other options which are likely just as competitive.

Good location, within walking distance of everything you need e.g shops, theatre, bars, restaurants. Easy check-in, clean room & bathroom, comfortable bed with lovely clean bed linen. Decor is nice & modern. One snag, member of staff knocked on the door at 10:00am to ask what time we were leaving, we knew that check out is at 11:00am, so that was a bit annoying but everything else was good & would return.

Nothing changed since my last visit. No mini bar in the room, and they say that it's because the are a sustainable brand. Most other VOCO hotels have mini bars. The super king was two twins pushed together which is fine however the topper should be much better quality so I cannot feel the join during the night. Breakfast was average, hard croissants which were not tempting.