Stayed here over the Christmas period, the location is lovely in a village just behind Blenheim Palace.
The hotel is kept clean and the staff are very friendly and very accommodating of your needs. Facility wise the hotel does not have much to offer in terms of daytime pursuits although based on the average age over 70 of the guests this maybe why and lack of space, no leisure facilities gym, pool etc. Although plenty of walking is on hand and Oxford or Bicester Village are about 20 mins drive away.
The restaurant is lovely and again the staff go out of their way to assist you the Manager was about all over the Christmas period which is rare. The food was good but the menu over Christmas was rather limited and the buffet on Christmas Day was poor for a rosette restaurant.. No problem with the breakfasts although the staff did have the habit of bringing out your cooked breakfast whilst you were still eating your cereal.
One problem with the hotel is lack of space for large groups, the drinks reception on the first night in the upstairs lounge could not fit all the guests in the Kir Royale cocktails were disastrous with the wrong ratio of cassis to champagne. After dinner you can either cram into the small bar area, sit in the lounge or as we did in most cases, headed back to our room.
The rooms are currently undergoing refurbishment with 75% completion although I cannot complain about the standard of accommodation. Although with many of the hotels these days the rooms are on the small size even the executive rooms although the suite we had was delightful. Note some of the rooms are behind the church where the bell rings every hour and the rooms on the high street were noisy on Christmas Eve as revellers partied from the local pubs.
Being an old coaching house I would not recommend this hotel for the disabled although there are some ground floor rooms these are only accessible outside through the courtyard. The main hub of the hotel has no lift and bedrooms are located on many different levels so not your conventional layout for a hotel. Also notable are many of the rooms contain steps either down into the living room or up into the bathroom these are quite steep so again not ideal if your not that steady on your feet. Lots of the light bulbs had gone in the communal areas and had yet to be replaced over our stay, guess the maintenance man was on holiday.
In summary ideal for a weekend break but not the best over a holiday period, but depends what you’re looking for.
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