Best Western The Rose and Crown Hotel

What a lovely building, historically interesting with a nice feel about it. The lady on reception was warm and friendly while being totally professional. Issie, who took our order at breakfast, was also very efficient and friendly. Speaking of breakfast, they serve a good selection here, both cooked and continental and the cooked breakfast served was lovely and hot. Our room was comfortable and had all you really needed for a night away. Although they are not serving dinner at the moment we were given information on nice places to eat which covers every type of food preference you could want for. This is the best Best Western I have stayed in and I have stayed in quite a few in this country and abroad. Well done and thank you to all of the people working front of house and behind the scenes.
Apr 25th, 2023

Apr 22nd, 2023

Apr 20th, 2023

Apr 13th, 2023

This was a booking that had been changed a few times due to a function on that they believed would be too noisy for us and a family funeral that prevented us from attending, the hotel staff assisted us in the confirmation of our booking throughout. So on arrival Saturday 29th April we booked in and were greated with a confused look on the receptionist, she then went ro get the manager. We had booked a luxury 4 poster room for a getaway for the evening, having 4 children between us we needed a night away. The manager informed us that they had our booking in as January 2024 and they had no 4 poster rooms available, we were asked to go grab a complimentary drink in the bar, while they attempted to sort a room out for us. Half way through our drink we were informed that they had secured us a room and that when we were ready to go to reception and get our room key, once we collected the key we went up to our room not knowing what type of room they had found for us, it was a great suprise that they had managed to allocate us a 4 poster room. The room itself was extremely spacious well lit and kept with the tradition of the building, complimentary tea and coffee along with shampoo and conditioner aswell as soap and shower wash. They also had an iron, ironing board, hair dryer, fan and additional blanket if it was to become too cold. So we had a great afternoon out in Colchester Town and then returned to our hotel, the downside is the hotel does not serve evening meals, but are happy for takeaway food to be brought onto site. On Sunday 30th April we went down for breakfast, to be greated with an exceptionally busy breakfast period, ourselves and 8 others were sat in a waiting area as no seats were available, we waited for around 20 mins before the 8 of us decided that we would just eat at the waiting area, on going to the breakfast area the apple and orange juices had both run out, one of the waiting staff were Trying there best to manage the chaos of the morning. They were taking orders and the couple next to us managed to order and rather than take our order also we had to wait for the waitress to take that order into the kitchen before she arrived back to us some 5 minutes later. We had now been waiting in the breakfast waiting area for just short of 1 hr, the couple next to us had now received breakfast without and cutlery or condiments, the husband went to the kitchen door and waited for a member of staff to come out to ask for cutlery, eventually after 5 mins a member of staff came out and said she would send someone over shortly with the cutlery, the food now getting cold the waitress came over with cutlery for the couple and for us. As she put down the couples cutlery she sent the pot of beans Flying over the floor, splashing us the ladies clothes, the waitress was very apologetic and asked the couple if they would like another bowl of beans of which they declined, she left and eventually came back and cleaned the beans up. On receiving our breakfast I was shocked as to the amount of grease on my plate, cutting into the sausage the fat squirted out splashing over my clothes, as i continued to cut into it i was shocked at the amount of grease that poured out from it, the photo shows just how much grease was inside it. We could not eat the breakfast as it was a heart attack waiting to happen, we went to our room, packed and made our way to reception to get a refund on our breakfast, the breakfast plates still at the table we were sat on. Reception granted the refund and we left. All in all, I cannot praise the reception staff and the manager, they were spot on and delt with all issues with utter professionalism, the kitchen department and waiting staff is another issue, to wait as long as we did 1hr before getting food and for it to be sent ro customers in a plate of grease was disgusting. Chefs and waiting staff apart from a slim young waitress all require retraining in my opinion. It was a busy time but this is no excuse for bad cooking, bad waitress staff and long waiting times Rooms: Rooms were very quaint, keeping with the tradition of the building itself.
Apr 28th, 2023