Firstly I will start my review with a couple of the positives as, despite our bad experience with this place, I am still able to appreciate the good parts. The hotel itself is very quirky and quite beautiful. We had a cell room which felt luxurious and clean and was a very good spacious size. The bed was amazingly comfortable. And the location for Oxford City was perfect.

And now for the bad....

We booked our room on the basis that we paid £75 for the room if we spent £100 on food and drink within the restaurant. My partner & I therefore booked a table and had a 3 course meal and a bottle of wine. Within 2 hours of returning to our room my partner was then up all night on the loo - not exactly how you want to spend your anniversary get away. My partner was convinced that the chicken terrine he had eaten that night was the reason for him being so ill. He was up on the hour every hour until about 9am.

From 6am we attempted to get hold of a Manager or person on Duty and we were told by reception that someone would be in touch with us. After 2 more hours we still hadnt heard anything and despite the reception being made aware my partner was unwell, no one offered us anything or came to see if we were ok which we were really suprised about. After about another hour or so we eventually heard from the Hotel Manager who wanted to run through a very timely questionairre with my partner about everything he had eaten for the last week!! The Manager conducted this over the phone and again nothing was offered to us to make sure we were ok. If anything the Manager was argumentative with my partner about whether or not his illness was caused by the food he had eaten in their restaurant. My partner advised the Manager that we were not prepared to pay for our restaurant bill due to our bad experience and that needed to be removed from our bill before we checked out.

When we went to the reception to check out we were then greeted by the Deputy Manager who wanted to speak to us about what had happened. It soon became apparant that he just wanted re-confirm to us the Hotel's supposed good reputation and how they were renowned for their food before they became a Hotel. My partner was still not feeling well at this point, and again we were not offered anything and we were very suprised at how he wanted to discuss this quite loudly and openly within reception among other guests checking in. Surely that isnt going to give them a great impression?? I found this man to be rude, inconsiderate and quite pompous and he clearly had no interest in what we were going through or how my partner felt.

When we checked out the food bill had been removed from our charge and we paid for our room and left the hotel. The Manager advised us that they would carry out their independent checks on the food from the restaurant that night and let us know in due course.

Approximately 2 weeks later we received a letter from the Hotel which again just seemed focused around promoting their reputation whilst informing us that predictably their checks came back all ok. We were not surprised by this and ultimately they didnt check the food that my partner consumed so in essence this was their word against ours. There was no mention within the letter about us paying the bill and therefore we considered this to be a closed matter. However we were still surprised that the Hotel didnt offer us anything in order to compensate us for our bad experience and attempt to keep our custom. But at that stage we were happy for it all to just be over.

Nearly 2 months later I have checked my bank account to find that the Hotel have taken it upon themselves to just withdraw the money anyway! This actually has made me overdrawn within that account which I have now been charged for. We were absolutely shocked and disgusted that they had done this without any prior warning. We would have at least expected to be invoiced by the Hotel if they were indeed chasing the payment for the meal that made my partner ill.

The Hotel were able to just take this payment when it suited them due to them pre-authorising my card when we first checked in during our stay. I would highly reccommend people to not agree to this in future as it is basically paying for a service before you have received it and then that company can just take your money whenever it suits them, regardless of whether you have made a complaint or not.

On realising the payment had been taken we immediately tried to get hold of the Hotel Manager on the Friday and the first communication I received from him was the following Tuesday when he returned my call. Depsite me calling every day and leaving messages for him. Evidently if he does not work there over the weekend then there is no one in charge to deal with any problems! Which seems a joke in itself. It was also very funny to us that he only decided to contact us the day that our bank successfully done a charge back and we received our money back. What a coincidence for him to suddenly then get in touch.

On finally speaking to this guy all I can say is that his attitude stinks!! Whoever hired him to be a Manager needs their head tested. All he wanted to do is argue with me! Everything I said to him which were facts about how we had been treated he kept coming back to me and saying that he disagreed and how he wanted to counter act my argument! I explained to him that I wasn't lying and these were facts about how we had been treated by his Hotel and all he could say to me was that he disagreed. I have never dealt with anything like it. Clearly the "customer is always right" motto goes out the window with this place. They are not prepared to learn from their mistakes and try to improve their customer service. They think their reputation is enough to carry them! And again, we were offered nothing to compensate our bad experience which has been made even worse now by how our complaint has been dealt with afterwards. A complete disgrace!

If you pay top whack then you expect a top service. Unfortunately that isnt the case with the Oxford Malmaison! Clearly this place is struggling which is why they are offering deals on their restaurant. What goes to prove this even more is that they are prepared to argue with a customer to great lengths over a £122 bill.

If you do make the mistake of staying at this Hotel then I advise you to not waste your money eating in their overpriced restaurant and definately avoid the Chicken Terrine!