The Feathers Hotel

Although the this building is iconic and absolutely beautiful, the room we had was a real let down. The modern design was not in keeping with this historic building and we found it bland and commonplace. Avoid the rooms in the back of the hotel - unfortunately we stayed a modern, charmless block overlooking the car-park and bins, room 143, at the end of a very long corridor and accompanied by the sound of the kitchen extractor fans. Considering the amount charged per night, to say we were underwhelmed is a huge understatement. The room is at best adequate for the price and we were both bitterly disappointed - if we wanted to stay in a Premier Inn, we would have made the appropriate arrangements and it is a shame that Crest Hotels decided to refurbish the main interiors in this lacklustre style. The public rooms downstairs, including the restaurant, are similarly disappointing, although the first floor function rooms (the three windows you see in the middle layer at the front) are absolutely stunning with ornate Jacobean plastered ceilings and fireplaces and a palpable sense of history, but they are empty with stacked chairs and not furnished for sitting in. Take lots of photos of the outside but don't bother to stay here.

Staff welcoming, friendly and polite. Bar environment pleasant. Breakfast excellent. Room awful. Minute ( and the last hotel room I stayed in was in NYC I know what small is). Just about enough room to get around the bed. An ironing board wedged next to the bedside and a fan on the floor. The clothes rail hung over the bed. Bathroom sealant mouldy. Went back down to reception and polite young man informed me the hotel was full so there was nothing they could do. Nothing? So disappointing.

The hotel is in a great location in the centre of Ludlow. There is on site parking and the castle is a few minutes walk away. Check in was simple and we navigated through the meandering corridors to reach our rooms. It’s a 400 year old building so there are stairs, steps and turns as well as some fabulous wood panelling and glass. My room, 104, was a good size with an excellent modern bathroom. The bed was large and comfortable, there was a good sized desk plus additional seating and the sockets all had USB ports too. The room was quiet, overlooking the car park and despite the hotel being busy there was no noise intrusion from other guests. Breakfast was excellent, buffet with various cooked to order options. Not excessive but good sized portions and decent service. Overall a lovely stay in a fabulous location.

I’ve visited the Feathers hotel many times over the years and have enjoyed the setting. I decided to go for a light lunch as I knew that they did gluten free options there. Whilst my daughter’s sandwiches looked quite appetising at £13 for a fish finger sandwich, my gluten free egg sandwich was extremely disappointing at £10!! I’m aware that the gluten free loaves are often small but with such little filling, it was disappointing. I did mention it to a member of staff, but they really didn’t seem bothered. I also asked if the chips were gluten free and cooked in a separate fryer to be told that “it’s fine as the hot oil gets rid of gluten” (which it doesn’t). The staff really need more training with regards to food allergies! All staff looked as if they really didn’t want to be there (apart from one lady who was friendly). I won’t be rushing back.

Really nice hotel, beautiful old building. lots of attention to details like coffee pod machine in room, complimentary bottles of water etc. Was going to give 5 stars but was stitch up for service charge in the restaurant. Was told by reception that we didn't need to book dinner, so we came down at 6pm wanting to eat at 7pm to be told by the waiter that the restaurant was busy and they will try and fit us in. After drinks we came back at 7 and we were squeezed in to a half full restaurant. We then sat with our menus in front of us for 20min waiting to order, the staff only realised we were there when a waiter brought someone elses food to our table, I pointed out that we were still waiting to order. The rest of the meal went fine, great food, nice wine, bit pricey. I woke in the night and it occured that our restaurant bill was high, when I checked the recipt in the morning I found we'd been stitched up for a 10% service charge. This infuriates me, where else are you expected to pay extra for someone to do their job. Of course there's the get out clause "ask to have it removed" on the recipt, but I'm sure they rely on most people not noticing until too late or too embarassed to ask. I feel cheated and will not be returning.

Third time we have stayed at the Feathers .. another nice stay and this time we tried dinner on the Friday evening - delicious , Sunday lunch which was excellent and breakfast on Monday morning which was ok .. all the staff we met were helpful and friendly and we stayed in one of the very spacious and quiet suites . Unfortunately we had a few housekeeping issues this time , but they were addressed at the time and head of housekeeping was very apologetic that we had to have the bed remade due to marks on the sheet ( they were clean just marked ) .. housekeeping needs a bit of a reminder that little things like replenishing the toilet rolls , water glasses and emptying the bathroom bin goes a long way .. the only other little gripe is that when paying a premium rate to stay in one of the suites you are still required to pay for parking .