Stayed here Thursday 2 February 2012. Lovely room, very comfy bed all with a little crooked house feel - good fun and a FAB breakfast!

However, on arrival when we were shown to our room there was a very loud whining noise outside the window which we discovered was the kitchen extractor fan. We were assured that this would not disturb us during the night as it would be switched off by 2215. As we were going to be out during the evening this was not a huge problem for us. What became a problem though was being woken by the sound of the fan being switched on at 05.40 and being unable to sleep due to the whining and extreme noise. We were forced to call down stairs to complain and to be fair the fan was then switched off until we went down to breakfast.

Unfortunately after having managed to go back to sleep we were then rudely awakened again at 0815 by the bed (in fact the whole room) vibrating! It felt like we were on top of a washing machine! In fact we think that this was exactly the case as the strange vibrations happened on a fairly regular basis right up until we actually checked out. Most disconcerting! At check out we were not asked how we enjoyed our stay or if we had been comfortable – perhaps the reception staff knew what we might say!

The hotel advertises valet parking with your car taken from outside the hotel on your arrival and being bought back for you on the morning of your departure. Having paid our bill and arriving at our car (which had been brought around front for us at 09.00), we ended up being thrown into an argument with a traffic warden who was about to issue a ticket. Seemly there is no arrangement with the council to extend parking beyond the hour which is the maximum stay for opposite the hotel and this was now 10.20. Others were not so lucky – the poor gentleman in the car beside us who checked out just after us found he had got a ticket. As the hotel checkout is 1100 it would seem prudent to either not return the cars to the front of the hotel until at least 1000 or fetch them as people check out. We are sure people would rather wait 5 minutes for their car to be fetched than incur a parking penalty.

These few niggles were a complete shame as we loved the hotel with its quirky sloping floors and nooks and crannies. The room was well decorated and extremely comfortable and without the noise and vibrations our stay would have been perfect. As for the parking it is obviously not best business sense to advertise valet parking and then have your guests incur parking penalties, particularly as most guests will insist on the hotel reimbursing them this cost. A cost the hotel could easily avoid. This shouldn’t put you off staying there as we would stay there again but be aware of the parking and don’t stay in room 20!!