Dragonfly Hotel Bury St Edmunds

Thanks for being part of the success of our recent international summit.

Rooms great, people great, nice breakfasts. The evening meal I had when I arrived wasn't great but it was passable and I was happy I could eat fairly late. If it was my hotel, it's the evening meals I'd be looking to improve. The rest is fine.

Overall not a good experience.
Reception staff were unhelpful and follow dubious business practices. They attempted to take debit card out of sight rather than offer the reader. An extra payment has to be made in advance to cover extras.
Parking is "free" but you are required to register with an external company.
Long corridors and stairs are steep, no lifts and no offers of assistance with cases.
Decor and rooms are tired and require a deep clean.
The bed was comfortable but no storage or hanging space for clothes and luggage. Lack of plug sockets near the bed for charging phone.
WiFi is available but, again, requires full personal registration with provider.
Room information was completely out of date, for example, referring to COVID controls which no longer apply.
Breakfast was adequate but completely self service and food is kept hot under tureens which made it all soggy. Tables are not laid out at all.
Heard from another guest that many dinner menu options were not available and bar area was extremely noisy and not welcoming.
Hotel is convenient for Bury and A14 but does not warrant a 3* rating.
Avoid staying here if you can.

Having never stayed here before, I am ever optimistic. Initial thoughts were that the place looked tired. The room was small but adequate for my 1 night stay, but it was filthy. Everything had a covering of dust, except the fan in the room, which was thickly covered. The bathroom was horrible with black mould on the ceiling, tiles and bath. There is rust around the taps and the shower curtain was stained. The sink was cracked and looked dirty. After seeing this I decided not to eat in the hotel as I can only imagine what the kitchen cleanliness was like.
This hotel was booked for me by my business. I will be ensuring that no one from the company stays here again.

The staff were very helpful, particularly Marcus on reception and in the bar.
Breakfast was good but tables were not wiped down in between guests so you had to look around for a clean one. No saucers with cups?? and juices and bread bin not topped up

I stayed at this hotel on 30 March 2018 and the management stole money from me. They accused me of smoking in the room when I don’t even smoke. I questioned them about it and they never got back to me, it was never possible to get through to management despite calling them many times. Please be warned if you stay here, they have your card details so them take 100 pounds from your car without any warning. Stay away. Also this hotel is disgusting

The only reason I gave it 1 star was so that I could give my review otherwise I would've gave it big zero rating. Firstly do not give them your vehicle registration at reception or they end up charging/fine to your account without your knowledge until the day you check out.. They are daylight robbing people and the Management turns a blind eye to it. The only way the rooms get any hot water is when someone in the hotel turns on the kitchen taps. Surprised the Environmental Health Officers hasn't closed the kitchen down. Management have no customer skills, No Head Office contact number available to directly speak to someone rather than some office clerk online who just quickly whisks you away with BS. Very understaffed, inexperienced Management who don't take accountability for their actions. unpaid hours for former employees and probably rob them blind with so-called parking fines just for attending an interview at their hotel or using the car park during shift at the hotel, but clearly Management doesn't do anything about it as long as they are paid. Absolute disgusting Company to work for. HR department doesn't respond if it concerns a wage/salary issue, nobody picks up the phone or replies to
emails. I would say that Marcus is a top bloke, the Estonian lady at reception deserves a pay rise and Babs the Breakfast cook deserves more respect. My advice is to never apply for any job there, waste of time! and as a guest I recommend do not park there at all. Use the parking spaces within the town centre, at least you know what you're paying for.

Didn't stay the night there but went to Christmas party there . While I was on the dance floor drinks that weren't finished had been cleared away. When the disco finished we were ordered by staff to leave the dining area and go and sit in the bar area which wasn't very big. There was also no way of getting even a soft drink as the bar had closed even to people that had rooms booked.

Issues
The room only had a small amount of storage space. We had problems with getting hot water in our ensuite, we had to run the tap for 3+ minutes in order to get any at all. When we checked out on a very cold and icy morning, the car park had not been salted, making it very difficult to get to the car. Admin for checking us into the room and the car into the car park was in different places.
Good Points
We were able to adjust the temperature in the room. The bed was comfortable. Although there was a very noisy disco on one night during our stay we were not disturbed at all in our room. The staff were always friendly and polite.
The hotel is situated on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds and is very convenient if you don't have things to do in Bury St Edmunds itself - the traffic going in and out of the town centre would have added a lot of time to any journey.