| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: October, 2008 |
| Have no problems with the hotel itself, was very impressed. It was the parking we had a problem with. We followed the directions from the website and ended up in The Mall carpark which was sign posted the penta hotel and which the ticket man assured me was the correct carpark. Didn't think anymore of it until we tried to get our exit tickets validated the next day and we were told we were in the wrong carpark!!!! We were told by reception they had changed the carpark they use for the hotel the week before, yet no one had removed the signs or thought to contact us to advise us of the change. We ended up having to pay over £20 per car for the parking!!! No efforts made by reception to compensate, very disappointing! |
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| From: Stephen jordan |
| Date of Stay: October, 2008 |
| Be warned they charge 10 pounds per night for the internet although its says its supplied. Dont stay on the top floor near the lifts , the lift motors vibrate along the cieling soo dont stay in rooms 600 plus |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Staff struggled with understanding of the English language- made it very difficult. The property is VERY run-down and is in dire need of a facelift. |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Gideon bibles not placed in bedrooms for guests to use is a great disappointment. |
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| From: Evangelos Sifniotis |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| I would have liked to be offered a price for a full or half board meal at the restaurant instead of eating out. i did not eat at the restaurant as I think the prices were somewhat expensive.The internet is also very expensive, especially as they start charging from midnight to midnight, instead of on 24 hour basis.I would like to thank you for offering me this hotel. Whenever I travel to Europe my first visit will be The LateRooms.comKind regards E. Sifniotis |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Great location and the free car parking was a bonus. Nice leisure facilities although the pool was too cold for me. Hotel could do with an update but it was very clean and comfortable, excellent value for money on a weekend although prices are very high during the week. Breakfast was expensive so didn,t heat in the hotel. Would definitely stay again on a weekend night! |
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| From: simon wells |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| No problems at all. Staff helpful. decor a little dated but in good order. £2 cheaper than the travelodge opposite! |
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| From: Sandra Smith |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| The reception staff were very friendly , but the hotel only had smoking rooms left, which seems strange in this day and age. Staff did try to find me another hotel. Rooms were clean enough, however they are old and tired, due a refurb. |
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| From: John Everhard |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| The Penta management appear to have done nothing to this hotel since they acquired in from Renaissence, it is basically tired and desperate for a refurbish. Last time I stayed, as with previous stays, the room card key only seems to work for the first day of a multi-day stay. On that occasion I called the manager to complain and he assured me the problem was being addressed. Well guess what; the exact same thing happened this time. I came back to the hotel on the second evening, waited in a queue for the one working lift, got to my room and the electronic key didn't work. Long wait for the lift back to reception where they were not surprised that my key needed reprogramming and were barely apologetic! Last time I stayed at the Penta I vowed it would be my last, unfortunately Reading can be difficult to get late rooms close to the station around the £100 a night mark. I am more determined now not to stay at the Penta - they just don't seem to care about their guests. The room was tatty, a minibar fridge had been removed from its built in cupboard and placed on top of the place where you would put your luggage. The fancy looking bottle of complimentary water looked suspiciously like it had already been opened or re-filled. I never eat at the Penta because the reception area always smells of stale cooking oil. |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Room was a bit dated. Not a patch on the Novotel. Very convenient location though. |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Made the mistake of booking a superior room - it seems all of these overlook the ringroad and suffer from excessive traffic noise throughout the light. Despite the propise by staff of finding me another, quiter room, they were unable after over 20 minutes of trying, despite stating that they had plenty of rooms left. The whole hotel is dreary and in urgent need of a refurbishment which I was told is planned. It was over 4 years since I had previously stayed and I won't be going back in a hurry. |
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| From: Caroline Griffiths |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Appalling service on reception - very short staffed, queued for ages to get a room number, inexperienced staff, not enough access to computer to gain booking information. Also called for information prior to booking, long hold. This area needs serious attention . |
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| From: Paul Roberts |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Great value for money. Thinking we would get a hotel that wasn't much more than a B&B, but it was genuine 4* material.The only issues were the staff and the car parking arrangements. The staff just did not know what they were doing/ seemed to all be being training and actually managed to get my credit card receipt mixed up with someone elses. As a result, they actually asked me to return to the hotel the middle of the morning after, wait half an hour and then realised they had made the mistake and I had in fact paid!!!! Also, with regards to the car park, it would have been a lot easier if they had said somewhere that the shopping centre car park is actually the hotel car park. This is because this is easy to get to from the dual carriageway, but to get there via the hotel is a real pain in the backside and put another 15 minutes on the journey time! Once you got in the room/restaurant/spa though, very good indeed! Try it. |
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| From: philip burgess |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Very difficult to access the hotel - no connection with the adjacent multistory car park so had to walk quite some distance. TV in room was not working and the bed was very uncomfortable. Decor very tired and all-in-all an unpleasant nights stay. |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Short walk from car park to hotel, and it is signposted and in the town centre which is a big bonusStaff friendly and helpful, Can be a bit noisy at night but to be expected to a certain degree as its in the town centreFor the lateroom price there is nothing to complain about. |
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| From: Richard Duncan |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Overall a good stay but the management need to be aware of the following1. The hotel missed the opportunity of a table for 6 people for dinner in the evening because we were told that it would take 15-20 minutes to put two tables together!2. When I mentioned this to the reception staff on check-out their level of English was so limited that they hadno idea what I was talking about.3. Only on lift out of two was working!!4. Breakfast was charged at £16 for continental breakfast. This is exorbitant when only 5 minutes walk away Wetherspoons do a huge brekfast or under £3.00 |
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| From: Gary Padden |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| The room was a standard large hotel chain style room. It was clean and perfectly acceptable. There was some noise throughout the night as my room was next to some double doors leading away from the lifts which banged every time anyone went through them. The room rate did not include breakfast so £79 was reasonable but not particularly cheap. I thought I might pay for breakfast but baulked at the price of £15.95. (Why do hotels do that ?) |
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| From: Lynne Senior |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| It was overpriced, £15 95 for breakfast coffee machine not working, Had to serve yourself ,no waitress service, also one off the lifts was out off order. not very good |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: August, 2008 |
| On arrival the receptionist was not very helpful, we called for directions and we got told they were by the Argos and TK Maxx, we drove around for about half an hour before we called again. She said she couldn't help us as she only walked from the train station, I asked if there was anyone else who could help, she said she couldn't find anyone. After about 20 mins of debating on the phone she managed to find someone who could help me. He was very friendly and gave me directions straight away which er very easy to follow. After driving round for an hour we found the hotel, we booked in then got told we could use the joining car park, this took us quite a way away from the hotel, we had to walk about 15 mins to the hotel and it was poorly sign posted. The room itself was a little disappointing in terms of the deco, it was a little dated and things were looking a little tatty, however the bed was very comfy. The tele also had a little perk on it, latest free films! It was very well located, in the centre of Reading, what more could you want. Had some great restuarants and places to drink as well as a supermarket that was just round the corner. Breakfast wasn't included in the stay and it was quite expencive to buy £16 per person, but as there was a fridge in the room and you could buy food for breakfast, or go out to one of the restaurants. They also had a spa there which looked really nice, unfortunately by the time we managed to find the hotel this was closed so we didn't get to try it out, but think I would definately try it next time. I would stay again now I know where is it. It's the perfect place to get some sleep if you fancy a night out in Reading but I wouldn't stay there for any other reason. |
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| From: Susan Rodgers |
| Date of Stay: August, 2008 |
| The shower was disappointing - waterflow very slow. Also bit mean with the biscuits on the tea tray - only one packet! But complimentary bottle of water and a fridge that worked so that was good. |
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