The Metropole Hotel - Llandrindod Wells, United Kingdom     

good parking provision to the rear. straight forward check in. good size rooms, some are better than others (had a few stays here). it sees the ones nearer the front of the hotel are better than the rear. great bar menu and quality fo food - good local real ale as well. right in the centre of llandrindod wells (2mins from station). good breakfast in the morning, eastern european staff do there best to accomodate. pool facility is good - gym is small and gets crowded with 6 or more in at once. overall a very good hotel

I've stayed at the Metropole on a number of occasions but have not been in the area for a couple of years. Friends told me the hotel had been upgraded since then and was much improved. Based on what they told me I planned a weekend break. I checked the hotel website for the base price and then tried other sites to see it the price could be bettered. It was so I used LateRooms at ?69 per night for a double room with breakfast for the two of us. Our friends were right. Yje hotel has had a makeover but it is still the Metropole. The same hideous green colour outside but with much nicer decor inside, We arrived just in time for dinner but decided to eat out - I'd spotted the Indian restaurant as we drove past. After a nice meal we returned to the bar where we found people attending a wedding party the next day. Their main topic of conversation was the price of rooms. Some, we overheard, had paid the same rate as us but others had paidmuch more - one couple had been charged ?140. No one it seemed had paid the same amount. The room was a bit small, a bit stuffy with the window closed and a bit noisy with it open. The bathroom was OK but with three different sorts of tiling. The shower was a bit difficult to operate. . Breakfast was buffet style in a sunny conservatory. Well it was sunny when we ate there and then shortly afterwards it started to rain. Our plans for a day walking in the Powys hills took a hit and we scuttledoff to Builth and Brecon instead. We returned to the scene which spoilt our weekend. The room had been very poorly serviced in our absence. Wet towels, put in the bath for replacement, had been placed on the towel rail. Tea/Coffee etc had not been replensihed and our cups, quickly rinsed but not washed, were where we had left them in the bathroom. The bed had been made by just thecover cursorily thrown over it. Bringing this up with staff brought shrugs of indifference. Will we stay here again. Probably because for all its faults its the best hotel in the county. But the faults need ironing out quickly. Oh and as a final comment we noticed two guests paying for their double room for the weekend - ?100 B&B. Some consistency here would not go amiss.