Old Swan & Minster Mill

The room was mostly clean, though the bathroom could have used a little more attention to detail.

We didn't pre-book breakfast at the Swan when we booked the room, and trying to add it after was pretty confusing, probably due to the language barrier with the hostess. She was nice, but we had no idea what we were going to be charged until we were paying the bill.

The bedside lights in 103 didn’t work and were not repaired even though we reported the fault.

We ended up with loads of bites the next day

Room was dated and not good value for money.

TV in room which had 2 didn't work. Room was hard to find and not pram friendly. I think it should of been cheaper than what I paid on booking.com.

Breakfast was low quality and bland.
In the older property, very noisy floorboards combined with busy hallways outside room caused a lot of disturbance in the morning and woke me repeatedly.
For the price, a daily room service should be a minimum.

The cleanliness, staff were rude. Not being told the extra charges.

No mirror at all in bedroom. Lights by bed not working. No bar or services at all in Old Minster, only in Swan.

Where do I even begin.

Firstly, NEVER allow the staff to book you into room 102. This room is directly next to the front entrance and reception. You hear everyone coming and going. People coming in late from nights out at the various pubs and staff arriving at work. I took my pregnant wife away for a weekend and we got absolutely no sleep on the first night.

Thankfully we were moved to a sauna/sewage outlet (room 130) on the second night. We were both so exhausted that we just gave up in the end and slept.

Rooms are all tired, covered in cobwebs and dead flies. This hotel certainly does not reflect the “luxury” description plastered on the sign when you drive in. The location is beautiful, the gardens surrounding the buildings are lovely and the walks are fab. It’s just a shame absolutely everything else lets it down. When you’re competing with the farmers dog up the road, you really should get a handle on these small details or you won’t be around for long.

ABSOLUTELY everything is a surcharge in this hotel. We paid for “breakfast” nowhere does it state that it’s only a continental. And it’s a poor execution of a continental as it’s not a help yourself buffet. You can pick things off a super limited menu. If you want a hot breakfast it’s an additional £10 per person. Want an extra coffee £4.25 want an extra anything… you guessed it, £4.25.

The staff then had the cheek to argue that this breakfast surcharge was detailed in the booking confirmation. The booking confirmation you receive AFTER you have paid for the stay. Classic. After some back and forth we were refunded this charge.

The staff also maintained they had absolutely no idea this was mis communicated on booking. But if you look back on the reviews (something I foolishly didn’t do) you can see many others have had the same issue. So clearly staff are aware of what’s going on. They just hope people pay and get on with it.

The hotel looks like it has a pool in the listing. And it does.

Beds so old you rolled into the dip in the middle

This is only a small niggle, the extractor fan sounded like a generator going off, it was so loud, so didn’t turn the lights on in the bathroom during the night

- overpriced
- dinner was tiny and overpriced
- the bar was deserted and eery

Nothing

The hotel was unfortunately quite dirty. The carpet in our room had very obvious large stains and didn't look like it had been vacuumed very well. The bath tub was stained and there were hairs (from previous guests shaving I'm assuming) above the sink. Just generally dusty and in need of a good refresh. Carpet in the hallways of the hotel were similar. Cleanliness should be a given, but at almost £300 per night for our suite, we definitely had higher expectations.