I’ve been working in Reading, England, a small city about 40 miles west of London, in the county of Berkshire.
The Maiwand Lion (pictured above) is a sculpture and war memorial in the Reading Forbury Gardens.
Reading has a variety of business hotels, but not a lot of chain hotels that I normal stay at when working in U.S. locations. Based on its location and relatively reasonable price for the area, I chose to stay in the Pentahotels location in Reading.
The Pentahotels brand dates to 1971 but its modern incarnation that is focused on an informal atmosphere and unique design dates to 2007. The hotel brand currently includes 23 hotels with almost half of its locations in Germany. There are five Pentahotels in the U.K., one in Austria, one in Belgium, one in Czech Republic, one in France, two in mainland China and one in Hong Kong.
Here’s a look inside the Pentahotel in Reading, U.K.
One of my stays at the Pentahotel Reading was in room 504. The property has 206 total rooms.
The king size bed is very comfortable. It dominates the room.
The room decor is functional, without a lot of clutter.
The closet is an open rack and group of shelves, right as you enter the room.
The desk is spacious and very functional for work with multiple electrical plugs in easy-to-access locations.
All rooms include free Wi-fi, satellite TV, and in-room movies. When you choose a movie, the price shows 0 pounds.
The bathroom is small in size, but is well laid out.
You cannot really see it in the photo above but the shower has a terrific rain head.
It room has cool toiletries that are replenished daily as you use them.
My bottom line summary notes on the Penta Hotel in Reading, United Kingdom:
The Pros:
- The hotel has reasonable rates in a relatively expensive location for business hotels.
- The rooms are modern with all the amenities needed for a business traveler.
- The breakfast included in my business rate offers diverse choices such two types of eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, cereal, fruit, pastries and much more. I especially like the self-service cappuccino machine.
- The rooms have plenty of plugs for charging all of my electronic devices.
The Cons:
- Maintenance is slow when items are out of service – whether the cappuccino machine or when the power plugs in your room don’t work.
- One of the two elevators has been out of service for most of the last two months during my multiple stays.
- I found the rooms to be too warm in autumn; the heating/cooling is either/or and cannot be switched from heat to air during periods of weather change.
- Pentahotels does not offer a loyalty rewards program for frequent guests.
Have you stayed at the Penta Hotel in Reading? Please share how your experience compared to mine in comments below.
Check out these other posts to look inside other hotels that we’ve stayed in around the world:
- A Peek Inside the Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel
- A Look Inside the Conrad Centennial Singapore Hotel
- A Look Inside the JW Marriott Hotel Mumbai, India
- A Look Inside the Hotel Elliott in Astoria, Oregon
- A Look Inside the Hilton Beijing Capital Airport Hotel
- The Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina Hotel
- A Peek Inside the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel
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