I surprised my wife for her birthday by booking us into a 1920s murder mystery in this beautiful Victorian Gothic hotel. The overall experience was worth doing but the hotel 's amenities... weren't great. Like the previous reviewer, we also had issues with power in our room (Room 5). Fortunately no flashing bulbs, but no power at all. Even the lights in our end of the corridor were out and it's really odd that the staff supposedly hadn't noticed this until now. They eventually gave us an extra lamp, but there was no opportunity to move rooms nor was any other kind of compensation offered. Besides the lighting situation, the room looked tired and in need of some work doing: flaking skirting boards, broken curtain holders and tile cracks were all included - the latter were in the bathroom, with a big one in the bath area, which will become a BIG problem in the future if it's not fixed soon. But also, the carpet hadn't been hoovered as we found loose screws on the floor. I also noticed dead spiders in the downstairs Gents, so it seems the hotel takes shortcuts with their cleaning schedule. The bar was alright, and the bar staff were quick and attentive. Great choice of wines and spirits, but not much of a beer selection (mass-produced lagers and bottles of Doom Bar basically). The evening meal was also good overall, especially the cheesecake. The service was lacking though - all drinks orders involved us having to get up and visit the bar, which is difficult during a murder mystery, so I missed some bits. There was only one small jug of water brought to the table for all 10 of us and it was never refilled. The bread that came with the soup was stale. The main course took a while to come out, and it had blatantly been kept on the gantry for ages as the vegetables looked scorched. The dessert then took over half an hour to come out, and by the time they were serving coffee the murder mystery was already over. Breakfast-wise, service was almost non-existent. The full English was pretty average but at least it was hot, and they brought out extra eggs. There were no glasses or mugs anywhere and every single table was dirty. In the end I had to clear some plates away just to sit down and eat. Cutlery was just piled up on a tray by the TV, and there were no napkins. No one served coffee either, and when we went to get some ourselves the coffee was cheap instant coffee and really watered down. But the icing on the cake (which in a way was kind of funny), was making coffee in the room. As the kettle boiled, the steam set off the fire alarm! What's stranger is the first time round that didn't happen! So yeah, nice building from the outside, but the inside really needs work.
78 Reviews