Forest Of Arden Hotel & Country Club, Aylesford Suite

Had a great 3 night golfing break with our society recently. The rooms are great. The staff are OK. We played the 2 golf courses twice. The first evening meal was a carvery which was very good. The 2 other nights we selected our 3 course meals from the menu. Have to say the food was very good. The only issue I had was on the first day when I ordered some fries before our first round which took ages and I had to chase twice before stuffing my face quickly before our tee off. I would go back though as this is excellent venue for golfers. Did not use the spa this time so cannot comment. The breakfasts are fantastic with plenty of choice. Highly recommend

All is not what it seems at this hotel. To make things clear, this review is for the hotel/rooms and not for the golf club. Firstly, the location of this hotel is fantastic being just off the M6 and a stones throw to Coventry, Warwick, Leamington, Stratford and Birmingham. We booked purely based in location as were looking for an overnight stay prior to a trip to Warwick University. However, if you are not a golfer, or visiting for a golf trip, work trip or conference, this is not a place for a quiet relaxing, couples break. This hotel is a factory churning out golfing stays to those who can demonstrate the most laddish behaviour, foul language and spend the most money. Happily we had upgraded our room to a premium. If we hadn't, we wouldn't have had the 2 small bottles of water ration. Nor would we have had the espresso machine with it's 2 pod ration. And not just 2 pods but decaffeinated pods to boot! (Decaffeinated is the work of the devil in my view!) So of course, the 2 bottles of water and 2 coffee pods didn't last beyond the afternoon of our check in and left us wanting for the remainder of our stay. The mini fridge was empty. Apparently, the other rooms don't even get water! Once captive on site, of course you can spend, at great expense, on water, coffee and meals in the public areas and restaurant. I get the business model, but in terms of guest experience, it was the small things that really let the stay down. And no coffee until the £18.50 breakfast the next morning was simply too much for us and we pleaded for proper pods and more of them. Our premium room was tired and in need of refreshing and investment, including simple things like USB ports to charge devices. The staff, on the contrary, were super polite and couldn't do enough to help. You just have to keep on asking, and if it's within 'management policy' they will help. The swimming pool has a lifeguard and was spotless. Do ask in advance who is using the pool as water babies and other groups also use the pool. Would we go back? No. There are better equipped, less pretentious places available that will provide a far superior guest experience.

We last stayed here about 25 years ago. It seemed clean and shiny then. 25 years later it's definitely tired and in need of a refurbishment and investment to bring it back to what it was. While slightly tired the room was clean and comfortable. The bed was very comfortable and they have invested in decent TVs and WiFi. The windows only open a crack so I imagine in the summer it would be uncomfortably hot. There was a long queue to check in. Perhaps because all 3 of the groups checking in were having issues. 1 group had clearly booked 3 rooms and had proof, yet there were only 2 available. Another group of friends were being over charged for their rooms they'd paid in full for and only when one of the group were insistent that THEY personsally paid in full for and made them check did the staff realise they had, and then needed to refund the other members of the group for their error. All of which took time. We checked in without issue. The pool and leisure area was pleasant enough but again tired. Dinner was a joke.... We ended up not being charged anything for our meal after complaining to head of front of house who upped it to the hotel managers. Essentially we were in the restaurant for nearly 2.5 hours.... Not long enough to be served a main course and get a desert menu. This issue was clearly down to (lack of) staff, all of whom were run off their feet. Our main (and only) course took 70 minutes to arrive, after chasing it after 1 hour. Still they took on board our feedback and didn't charge us which I feel is fair. Breakfast was positively excellent. Really very nice Indeed. So yes we had a few issues but ultimately this was ideally located close to the NEC which we were visiting, and I would definitely stay again. With some extra investment in both building and staff this place could be significantly better. A good value stay, and I would return (just not in the middle of summer when I expect bedroooms to be boiling)