Having stayed at the Dukeshead Hotel with the family the weekend if you like freindly pubs & hospitality this is the place to stay
lovely refurbished lounge & sports room by the new owners
i fully reccomend anyone staying one night or more in this lovely hotel

The hotel is lovely, the room did have a low ceiling,but it added to the cosy feeling of the joint. Spotlessly clean,as was the bathroom.The bar/restuarant area was periodic, with an old rustic feel. The food was hot and well cooked by a skilled chef,(the owner).Even the regulars to the bar are warm and welcoming.My wife is diabetic, when I asked them if they could make a snack for my wife at ten o clock, they were more than happy to! It was £60 a night, but it was worth EVERY single sheikel!!

I had booked to stay at The Dukes Head Hotel on Saturday 17th July 2004. On arrival we were asked to pay up front, which I thought was a bit strange, but did not argue. It cost £60 for the night for a double room, which I paid for on my debit card. As we got shown to our room, my initial impression was that it was extremely unsatisfactory. There were two keys on our key ring, one for the front door, and one for our room. The front door we went through had been left open, and this gave me an immediate feeling of discomfort, and a niggling feeling that it was not very safe.

When we got to our room, we were immediately reminded that the hotel was right on a dual carriageway, although the pictures on the internet (the website is www.the-dukes-head-hotel.co.uk) are taken so that the road appears minor to say the least. However, the noise of the cars was ridiculously loud, even though our room was at the rear of the building.

The second thing that we noticed was that outside our room was a yard of some kind, in which two big dogs were barking away. They were running around in the yard area, in which there was also a caravan, making the area look very unsightly. This area was adjacent to the garden area of the hotel, separated by a wooden fence. The noise was unacceptable, and very annoying.

The room itself was full of little black flies. There were even some on the pillows and the bedding. They were also in the sink of the en-suite bathroom, which itself smelt of damp. It was such a bad smell that we had to close the door to stop it smelling in the room. I went to open the window to get rid of the smell, but not only did the dogs go mad and bark even more, but I realised it would have been quite unsafe. Right beside our window was the top of the stairs from the fire exit, and just like the front door, this door was also left open. Even if it had not have been, the proximity was so close that anyone could have climbed into our room from the fire escape steps.

We decided to go outside to discuss what to do, as we were both very unhappy with the room. On going into the garden, the dogs immediately started howling even more, and we could hear them running around. As we looked up to our room, we saw again just how close the fire escape steps were to our window, and on seeing it from the outside my fears were increased further as it would have been so easy for an intruder to enter our room.

Aside from this, the ceiling in our room was extremely low, probably about 6’2” or thereabouts, which made me feel quite squashed in. I know this was not a fault with the room, but it did add to my distress.

After sitting in the garden for about half an hour, we decided to leave. The hotel was beyond unsatisfactory, and neither of us were prepared to stay there. I was very upset, and in tears at the state of the place. I am a student and £60 is a lot of money to me, and I had saved it up to treat my boyfriend to a night away. I was so upset that it had been ruined by the state of the hotel, and we decided to go and ask for a refund, as we did not wish to stay there.

We went down to the bar area, which was where we had signed in, and asked to speak to the man who had shown us to our room, who was the owner of the hotel. He was very rude about our position. He said he would fix all the things that we were not happy with – but we explained that even if he could, we would not be happy to stay there after how our visit had begun, and we did not agree with him that the problems could be rectified to our satisfaction. He did not sound at all pleased, and his tone was rather aggressive. He refused to refund my money, saying that he could have sold the room to two other couples that day alone, and many others had called during the week to book it, and he was not losing his money just because we were not happy with things that could be sorted out. I was in what can only be described as floods of tears. I felt bullied and cheated, and was in disbelief with his attitude. I think he should have sorted out everything we were dissatisfied with before he showed guests to the room – to leave it until they have to come and ask is simply not good enough. We continued to describe the things we were unhappy with, and ask for our money back (as we had not, after all, used the facility we had paid for). He finally agreed to give us a 50% refund (£30), and firmly refused any more. We decided to accept this as I was really in no condition to be standing there arguing. He made me cry by his intimidating and challenging behaviour, at a time when he should have been as apologetic and understanding as possible. He gave us this refund in cash, which I thought was strange seeing as I had paid on my card.

I am not satisfied that he has held on to £30 of my money, especially after the way he made me feel and the distress he could clearly see he was causing me.

I cannot believe that a hotel is allowed to operate with such a bad-mannered and discourteous owner, who clearly does not care much for his guests.
It ruined my whole weekend, and even thinking about it now is upsetting.