The Feathers Hotel

Historic Charm: The hotel is housed in a stunningly beautiful and iconic historic building, often praised for its Tudor architecture and preservation of original features like ornate ceilings, fireplaces, wood paneling, and Jacobean design.

We booked into the Feathers for an overnight stay during one of the hottest weeks, so we opted for a balcony room. The room overlooked the car park and was very modern and spacious. When I booked it, it did say twin room, but one part said one large bed and the other said twin beds. I assumed it was a case of they could zip the beds together, so I emailed the hotel asking that we have a large bed. Of course, there was no response because I don’t think this hotel knows how to communicate, and we arrived to twin beds. Upon arrival, we parked in the car park. We were quite early, so we popped in to make sure it was okay to park there. The couple in front of us were also early, and the receptionist was lovely to them. She offered to check whether their room was ready, etc. When we approached right afterwards and explained that we parked in the car park, she just said, “Yeah, that’s fine,” and didn’t offer to look if our room was ready. We asked, and it wasn’t, but she just had a complete 360º with her attitude and came across as really rude. Then came the time for check-in. Again, the couple in front of us were greeted by this time a male receptionist. They were informed that they take a £50 deposit for the room, and off they went. When I went to check in, we had the same issue again: a surly response, and when it came to taking the deposit, the card machine just pushed it in front of me with no explanation as to what I was paying for, etc. Back to the room, our balcony was nice enough but only had one chair, which given it’s a twin room you’d think two would be standard. Then three men— who worked for the hotel— just came walking up onto our balcony, with no introduction or a wave to say they were there. Fine, they have to maintain stuff, but when someone is relaxing in their room, having three men show up unannounced is a bit disconcerting. These workers would also have seen there was just one chair on the balcony and two people, but of course, they didn’t actually bring another chair. The other issue was the room was right above the kitchen where you had the chefs sitting outside smoking whilst on their breaks. That put me off eating in the restaurant because they could barely summon any kind of smile or customer service either. We did have a drink in the bar area, which is a really nice space, and the bar staff were absolutely lovely, really friendly and helpful. Plus, the Aperol Spritz was amazing. We had a little scout around the hotel and it’s a really interesting building. I did find it a little strange that the central heating was on full blast though, especially when it was 27º outside. Overall, lovely room and in a great place, but the customer service has put me off ever returning.

Lovely charming old building full of history. Room was spacious with great views. Facilities in the room were well thought about. Perfect location in the centre of Ludlow.