After reading good reports on the internet I booked a room online. Arrived early evening after a long journey from London. NIGHTMARE, the hotel was in complete state of devastation ( I found out later there had been a fire in August 2009). Tried to find the owner and spoke to someone who claimed to be him (called himself Mr Murphy) the told me to "p*** of his land. What a plonker.

We booked the hotel in July 2009 and was looking forward to a break after the New Year Festivities. Upon arrival we had a no welcome and found that our room had a rather smokey atmosphere. The lighting was non existent but we were able to enjoy the stars through the ceiling in the room. Its a pity the owner did not inform us he had suffered from a little fire as we had experienced a tiring drive up from Plymouth.

We stayed at The Otter as we were at a wedding there, the food was excellent, we ended up staying two more nights. The staff were friendly and welcoming and the food in the restaurant fantastic!!!! Our room was lovely and breakfasts brilliant, overall a great stay.

Four of us stayed at the Otter in September for a wedding reception.
The place was very dated, not refurbished and had a musty funny smell. Our room had a shower which never got above cold ( the other room we booked didnt even have a shower), the towel rack kept falling off the wall, door number fell off etc.... The view from both rooms was of the carpark and a busy road - not the 'stunning durham countryside' as told in their website even though we booked well in advance and some rooms with views were empty.
The wedding buffet was atrocious - just very cheap pastry and bread products not a piece of lettuce or tomato in sight ( bride and groom were very upset and embarrassed at how poor it was as the had paid at least 10 times what had probably been spent on it).
THe Otters only redeming feature was a decent cooked breakfast in the morning, but I would not recomend the accomodation to anyone. Definately not a romantic setting for a wedding reception