With 5-star hotels there's an expectation of quality and attention to detail or, where things do go awry, they are sorted quickly, efficiently, and not repeated, This hotel fell way short of the mark on all of these criteria on our three-night mid-week break.
Where expectations were not met: 1) Disposition of the front-desk staff. Morose and unwelcoming - it wouldn't hurt them to crack a smile or say "good morning"; 2) Our room keys stopped working on two consecutive days. Apparently they'd been set up incorrectly on check-in. Once was a mistake. Twice was inept; 3) We had to ask for milk, tea-bags, water to be replenished - not done as part of room servicing; 4) We had to ask, at 3pm, for our room to be serviced; 5) We were billed for the continental breakfast despite inclusion in the room rate. It was deducted from the final bill but shouldn’t have been on there anyhow - told it's a "system thing". 6) For a much-advertised mid-week break why is the spa routinely closed on two weekdays.
Where expectations were met or exceeded: 7) Exceptional door and restaurant staff - friendly, attentive, and welcoming. Perhaps they could train the front-desk staff. 8) Location - great for city sight-seeing; 9) Quality of continental breakfast; 10) Most of the spa facilities
A school report might shorten this to "must try harder" or "careless, could do better" or. Or both. As it stands, the Grosvenor doesn't deserve 5 stars, either in a review or as a hotel.