Courtyard Hotels in Exeter

We stayed because our husbands were going to the rugby and the girls having a trip into Exeter. Location of the hotel was perfect not a long walk to the train station for us to get into town. On arrival at 12.30 reception was full queues of people trying to check in or leave bags. A man was sent out to take our car registration and names and then we could wait in the bar until they were ready for us. The boys waited in the bar and we headed off. They were checked in before 3 when they had to leave for the rugby which was good but to be honest we knew we were early and would have been happy leaving the luggage. We were told out of the 3 couples we had an upgrade to what turned out to be an accessible room and to be honest it isn’t an upgrade. I would have preferred the room we had booked which certainly wasn’t accessible. One of the other couples was over charged by £70 on check in - which we did sort out on our return. Whilst shopping we checked to see if our mobile key was ready but no we had to go to check in and do that on return to the hotel so they could Id us seems to defeat the object. On arrival back joined a queue again to activate the mobile key. It seems to be the longest slowest check of any hotel I have stayed in. When we finally got to the front we were given a normal key as it might take a while for the mobile one to work. Good job because it took nearly an hour to activate and then when I tried it it wouldn’t work with my phone. We then went to the bar before dinner again it was packed we managed to get a table but only 2 servers so wait for drinks was a little long. Price was ok. We had a table booked in the view for dinner and the food was lovely and reasonably priced. Again restaurant was very busy but the staff were lovely. Couldn’t have water. On the table as the waitress informed us they had run out of jugs, we said we would wait but she said no they had no jugs? She had to keep topping up from a bottle and she wasn’t allowed to leave the bottle on the table. Perhaps a trip to the next door IKEA May have sorted that. The main meal came with various items missing off of each plate, salsa, salad and chips. Overall was nice though. Breakfast was an another matter, we sat in the bar as the restaurant was packed. The design of the restaurant for breakfast is awful. People queueing for hot food past the croissants and bread and toaster so someone is always in the way. The fruit and cold meat and cheeses on the end of the hot line so missed by a lot of people. Only Greek or soya p,Ian yoghurt noth8ng flavoured, ran out of compote and fruit. Had to ask for the orange juice to be topped up. Just very disorganised and badly set out. Now I know it was a busy rugby weekend but the hotel are obviously fully aware of this. The staff were pleasant and the food in the evening lovely, in the morning ok. The room was clean and lovely - definitely not an upgrade though so please don’t make out it was. I would stay again if husband was going t