Best Western Red Lion Hotel - Salisbury, United Kingdom 

Stayed here with my wife for one night while visiting Stonehenge. Salisbury was recommended by a fellow Brit passenger on our 12 day cruise, so we thought we would give it a try. The Red Lion was built to house the workers building the nearby cathedral and I believe the mattress on our bed was used by the builders of the cathedral. Ok, I did like the hotel and the staff were cordial and tourist friendly and we did have free Wi-Fi in the hotel. But, 102 pound sterling a night and no parking really takes the joy out of the visit. The rooms are clean and a reasonable size. The bath was modern and clean with a shower and a heated towel bar. The location is central to walk the Town of Salisbury which is well worth the effort to visit. So, would I recommend? Yes, with an asterisk Regards, Ben

we stayed in this hotel with friends. This is a quintessential coaching inn with lots of character and centrally located. The staff are pleasant and helpful and we were very impressed with the breakfast. The food used was of a superior quality,(no pink sausages here) and was well cooked and presented. However, there are problems with this hotel. There does not appear to be a lift and therefore I would not recommend this hotel unless you are able to deal with a lot of stairs. Our room was large, with a comfortable bed and good pillows, but when we arrived there was no heating in the room and the radiators could not be made to work. I think, that due to the recent very hot weather, the heating had been turned off centrally. We had to request a stand alone heater as the room was cold. Our bathroom was also large but there was practically no water pressure for the shower and the water crawled out, not what we expected. Also, the hotel did not service some of the rooms of our party which is very poor customer service. We knew before arrival, that there was no parking at the hotel, the parking that you are directed to on the website is directly behind the hotel. However, we found that you could only leave your car here for a maximum of 5 hours before having to return although it was possible to leave it overnight outside of normal parking times. We managed to find a long stay covered carpark only a little further away where you could leave your car for longer periods and which was also cheaper. Why didn't the hotel inform us of this? We also felt that perhaps the hotel could negotiate discounted rates for guests (we have stayed in other places where this has been done) but we did not have time to pursue this with the hotel. One of the great advantages of this hotel, its central position, is also one of its great disadvantages. We were in the front of the hotel, the noise from the street from pubgoers etc is a nuisance. There is a popular pub/nightspot directly opposite the hotel where customers queue to be allowed in and this creates a lot of noise then and also when they are leaving. To sum up, given the downsides, we felt that the hotel was too expensive, and for that reason would probably choose to go elsewhere another time.