The Wiltshire Hotel, Golf & Leisure - Swindon

jungliemac

I booked based on the glossy images all over their website and was looking forward to an enjoyable stay. What I found was a tired and dated hotel that was soulless and devoid of any atmosphere. |From the car park it's not clear which is the way in and not particularly inviting. Once inside the reception is large and completely soulless. For such a large space it really needs a face-lift to be inviting and comforting as it's neither.|Check in was simple but not aided by the poor English from the receptionist which was challenging. Making my way from reception to my room the first corridor was completely blank - you can rotate my photo 4-ways and it works as it's not obvious which were the carpetless floor, pictureless walls and ceilings. The next corridor was similar but at least it had a carpet. |On a positive, the room and bathroom were clean and both good sized but the decor was rather dated. The room's power is set by the key-card which when removed turns off all power and the room is plunged into darkness. I understand why hotels use this system but many others I've stayed in at least leave the lights on for a few seconds.|Lack of sockets anywhere near the bed is frustrating and indicates a layout from decades ago. |The 'double' bed was comfortable with a good selection of pollows available. However, it's two single beds pushed together so there's a crevasse in the middle. Please use actual double beds or at least a double mattress. On this subject the fixed layout (wall mounted bedside lights) strongly suggests this was originally a two-dinhle bed room that's been changed to a double. Please update the room layout to align to actual use.|Despite being mostly empty there was significant noise from adjacent rooms and upstairs. This wasn't the other rooms being particularly noisy, just really poor soundproofing.|I found the TV remote was intermittent and frustrating to use.|The shower screen was ineffective and I left a large puddle on the floor.|On the website the restaurant and good look fantastic, they're not. The restaurant was virtually empty and the food was bang-average pub food at best. I was very disappointed with the food...but must congratulate the photographer as they've worked miracles (borderline false advertising!). When shown to my table (in an empty room) I was positioned in the middle, I asked to be placed by a window (overlooking the golf course) and this seemed incredibly difficult for the staff.|Breakfast wasn't particularly extensive in choice with cereals and standard buffet full-English. There was no yoghurt or similar 'exotic' choices available. Due to a mistake in my booking I had to pay an additional £14 for this; it wasn't worth it.|All in all it was clean but completely soul destroying stay that offered nothing to recommend it. I can only recommend you avoid it.

J8081JPnickg

This place completely lacks any atmosphere. Would expect a golf hotel to be packed on a sunny weekend but there was hardly anyone there. The layout of the course was really good but the maintenance was dire. If you want to see watered grass on your greens give this place a miss. Bearing in mind it was a lakes course it looked like they ran out of water 6 months ago. The greens were impossible to read, the signage was poor and the whole place looked tired. There was a half way house but it was never open. The choice for dinner was woefully lacking - there were only three choice of main and three choice of desert, no starters available. There's no practice range and, if you book a buggy, it's only available 15 minutes before your round even if it's sitting in the park bay doing nothing. Although the rates were reasonable they were still excessive for the quality of the place. Will definitely not be returning to this location.

Ken S.

The hotel is in need of TLC. The room was spacious if basic. The spa area could be amazing but there are broken tiles around the pool and the changing room is not particularly pleasant. The restaurant is pretty good if somewhat limited. Nice breakfast. The staff are very friendly and helpful. This could be something really special with some investment.

kelscoffee

Staff were friendly and helpful. The hotel itself doesn’t quite live up to the glossy brochure. Rooms are old, dated, carpets are terrible, showers are moldy. In a two week stay sheets never got changed. ||||Simple thing but returning to room at night the sensor lights in hallways don’t turn on until you are halfway up the hallway. ||||Gym is good, sauna is great, except they don’t have water to pour over the rocks…so sauna doesn’t work as it should. There’s a note in the sauna saying no water allowed as it damages the heater…it’s a good quality spa heater designed to have water over it to work properly so not sure they know how to work it. ||||There was usually only one staff member on to cover the whole hotel…work reception desk, clean rooms, serve drinks at the bar. Advertises a day spa and golf pro onsite. They don’t have either. ||||Golf course, I did play a round with hire clubs…The set of clubs had no putter and a persimmon driver- probably quite a valuable museum piece. ||||The fairways were longer than rough and greens were fairway length. Layout was actually good and course is in good nick, just needs to be kept at appropriate lengths to play golf on. Would not play there again.

B3973XEstevej

So I returned here on Wednesday 16th April, again to play the lakes course and compared to this time last year the course has taken a big step forward and playing and looking in great condition. The bunkers were looking very tidy as you can see in the photo lovely clean edge.||The greens were looking like they needed an good feed. And there were long grooved marks. ||But I spoke with one of the members here, they told me the greens have been scarified ready for renovation in a few weeks so although they don't look pretty I understand this need to be done. He also said There's an Instagram page that thewiltshiregreenkeepingteam do that promotes great information on what they are doing on the courses 👍||Great course, cracking layout I will definitely be returning again in june and I'm look forward in seeing how the greens will improve 👍

W5364IUmarka

We booked here for a one night stay and 2 rounds of golf. Alarm bells rang when we arrived on Saturday morning and the car park was very quiet. |Course was in generally poor condition and greens were shocking; extremely slow and a complete lottery as to where your putt would go. |Accommodation ok but slightly dated.|Bar/Restaurant completely soulless and only a handful of people staying. |Food distinctly average.|If looking for a place with a good atmosphere and a decent course, avoid this place until there are dramatic improvements.|Went into Wootton Bassett on Saturday night which was good otherwise we would have been on our own in the bar.|Disappointed from Somerset x4

Trip06609516168

Absolutely the worst experience I've ever had in a hotel. Being kind you could say that the amenities are at best adequate. Breakfast food (self service) was cold, golf course is ok, maintained at what I'd call a 'municipal' level, restaurant oven chips at gourmet prices. Brochure looks great but in reality it's all a bit faded and old. That's all tolerable up to a point, what isn't is when your partner ends up with 60 plus bites from something living in your room. We were informed of a mosquito problem when we arrived and told to keep our windows closed which we complied with. By midnight my wife was in serious discomfort. 2nd night we ended up moving rooms at 1am things were so uncomfortable for her. We have pictures of what we believe to be bed bugs!||Utterly unbelievable.

Ryan P.

**NO PLUG SOCKETS NEXT TO BED**
I enjoyed my time here, the rooms were cleaned on a daily basis. There was an ample amount of parking right outside the hotel. The hotel itself could do with a bit of TLC as it is dated but the facilities make up for that.

There is a new spa and sauna currently being built and I fully utilised the indoor swimming pool daily.

Beautiful view onto the golf course but can't comment on the course itself as I didn't use it.

There is a cafe/diner which has recently been updated and and appropriate food family and business events. The food was adequate but nicely presented. Quite pricey in my opinion.