It's all a bit random really. Awkward to find (signage from the road is terrible). Staff are friendly but limited in what they can do, rooms vary from the fabulous to the downright tatty.
Very popular with coach parties, so breakfast can be heaving (no seats, plates or knives when I tried on this stay).
Good if you can get the right price for the room, but not the best example of the Mercure brand by some distance
Be careful when you stay this hotel. If you are unlucky, you will have a room facing ac operating building which is loud enough to wake you up all night.
Our second return to the forest of Arden (1st after change of ownership). It remains a very good hotel with suitably premium rooms, a lovely setting and high quality food and drink options.
I would say that the rooms on the upper floor in the late May heatwave were unpleasantly warm at night even with open windows and the provided fan on and we fed this back to hotel staff at the end of the stay. The pool and cold showers can mitigate this somewhat.
We still enjoyed our stay very much and it is a good base for events at the NEC even if one does not golf.
What a wonderful place, everything you could want for a British country house getaway. The staff are wonderful across the board, food was excellent and the suite was cosy and well-appointed.
I would just add that for a hotel of this calibre I would expect to have a well-appointed gym, but it didn’t take away from the great trip,
Delightful hotel, with kind attentive staff. For us it was a bit of a surprise as we were just looking for a stop off on a long journey. We’ll definitely return.