Village Hotel Swindon

The hotel has 154 guest rooms, which are split between standard and club rooms. All rooms have comfortable beds, a work desk, a flat-screen television, ironing facilities and an en suite bathroom with a rain shower. Club rooms cost an additional £20, which gives you access to the gym plus premium TV channels.

Buca di Beppo is the hotel’s Italian restaurant but with a menu that includes Korean barbecue pork tacos, halloumi and vegetable skewers, teriyaki salmon and the Buca burger, it is not particularly Italian. Ironically, you need to head to the hotel’s Village Pub & Grill to get a pizza although the hotel’s bar has all the charm of an airport departure lounge. Fortunately, there is a proper pub (the Harvey) outside the shopping centre across the road from the hotel.

The hotel also has an excellent fitness centre with a 13m (42 ft) heated swimming pool, a spa pool, steam room and a sauna. Spa treatments are also available. Access to the gym costs an extra £5 if you’re staying in a standard room but it is free for guests staying in the hotel’s club rooms.

Free Wi-Fi wireless internet access is available throughout the hotel.

Village Hotels is a chain of hotels located mainly in suburban locations on the outskirts of large UK towns and cities. Village Hotels have a more upmarket image than most other suburban hotels. While the Swindon hotel may look somewhat dated from the exterior, it is nicer when you get inside.

Although the neighbourhood is pleasant enough with tree-lined streets and plenty of green spaces, it is seriously lacking in character. The hotel is surrounded by a massive car park that it shares with a bowling alley and multiplex cinema complex and across the road is the Link Centre (a leisure centre that includes a public swimming pool, an ice rink, trampoline park and the West Swindon Library) and the West Swindon Shopping Centre (also surrounded by a massive car park). This means that you have a big Asda supermarket and several places to eat and drink within walking distance but it also means that the immediate area surrounding the hotel has about as much charm as a motorway service area.

It is around 4km (2½ miles) west of the town centre. It takes around 15 minutes to get into the centre by bus (buses run every 10 minutes) or you can walk into the centre in a little under an hour. Lydiard Park is a very pleasant 20-minute walk from the hotel.

Despite being surrounded by acres of car parking spaces, parking is only free for the first four hours and is charged at £5 per day thereafter. However, parking is free from 5pm on Friday until 9am on Monday.