Such high hopes, but oh dear...

I booked a night here as a birthday surprise for my husband, but oh dear, what a let down...In brief - no towels and not enough pillows in our room. Took from arrival at 5.30pm until 11.50pm to get some- several phone calls and in person requests later. We were located in the newly refurbished stable blocks, and although the rooms have been refurb'd to a good comfortable standard, the exterior of that area of the hotel still has a way to go.Dinner was a disaster. Hubby's beer was warm (this despite a temperature indicator on the bottle). Jug of tap water full of disgusting 'flotsam'-we sent it back, but a replacement never arrived. Final straw was a porcelain chip from a plate mixed in with my husband's dinner-he actually put it into his mouth without realising and was most unhappy! (he didn't appreciate my 'ooh nice fish and chips you have there' joke!!!) Staff were slow to respond to our complaints, although they offered us a free dessert, finally upgraded to a complete free meal for my hubby when he listed all the problems we had had. In the interests of fairness, I can say that my meal, vegetarian gnocchi was excellent, just a shame the meal was ruined by the aforementioned incidents.After dinner we decided to have a drink in the bar- but to our amazement they had run out of pint glasses, so hubby made do with a bottled beer (definitely not his night!!!). Another customer was swapping her drink from another bar within the hotel as she had been given vodka and orange squash because they had run out of orange juice?!I have still given the hotel 2 stars as it is a beautiful building in a pleasant setting, but we felt disappointed by a hotel of its supposed standing. Attention to detail makes a decent hotel, and Theobalds was sadly lacking in this department. Overall not worth staying there, especially when you can stay at Tewin Bury Farm just ten or so miles away for a comparable price, but a far superior experience.

A User - 12/08/2008 | report this review