On arrival we found no-one to welcome us, but our key had been left in an envelope in the porch. Unaware of this, we rang the bell and eventually were met by the chef from the Bean Restaurant which share these premises.
Although friendly, she did not appear to have any interest in the B & B, so handed us the key and we found our room ourselves.
We had booked Great Willowherb, which had a good view across the bay, but had a shower actually in the room, not in a separate bathroom. Not suprisingly, the room smelt damp and musty on arrival.
Once we had settled in, we were suprised to discover a number of services were not provided or only available at extra cost e.g. cups had to be taken downstairs to be washed, waste bins were not emptied unless put outside the door, no toiletries other than soap provided, no room servicing (beds not made & no cleaning), towels changed at a cost of £1 per towel.
In our view, these are the standards we would expect to find in a hostel, not in a B & B charging £70 per night.
The basic problem seemed to be that no-one was running the place. Breakfast is provided by The Bean Restaurant whose staff have no involvement with the B & B.
The Bean is a vegetarian restaurant and as such might have been expected to provide high quality vegetarian food for breakfast. One day we had croissants which were some of the most pitiful, dried up offerings imaginable - what a disappointment after reading other TA comments.
Only on departure, did we meet anyone connected to the B & B and even then we were not asked anything about our stay.
In conclusion, the impression we have is that these are just rooms above a restaurant with no services that you would expect from a B & B, so be warned!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
6 February 2012
We are disappointed to have had dissatisfied guests and would always take complaints as constructive criticism and try to address any issues raised. On this occasion we will address things in the order they appear.
Our location makes it very difficult for guests to specify exact arrival times so we offer flexibility with check-in times- early and late arrivals- but also a 'meet and greet' service if guests prefer it.
We are currenlty installing heated towel rails in all en-suites and have ioniser/dehumidifers available for damp days and drying clothes should there be any unexpected showers.
While we do not offer the same room servicing as expected in a hotel we do service rooms on request and have revised our room information to make this clearer to guests.
The B&B and the Bean Inn, although separate businesses, run as a team and we are sorry for the experience this guest had with breakfast croissants. If any guest is unhappy with their breakfast we would be happy to offer another choice from the extensive breakfast menu.
It is fair to say that we do not always ask our guests on departure about their stay but we do hope that if there are any problems we can deal with them during your stay. We do not always get it right and we do apologise for this.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC