Stayed in the family room with two young children. A double aspect room overlooking the garden - lovely and bright. We were made very welcome and the children enjoyed exploring round the hotel. Yes the rooms are dark in the main part but that's what you get when you choose a hotel that in a a building hundreds of years old. If you want big and bright, stay in a Travel Lodge. Breakfast was served at a reasonable time and was lovely. Plenty for the children and they found my son a specific yoghurt he wanted. We had comfortable beds and enjoyed our stay so much we have been back again and plan to use the hotel regularly as it is convenient to visit family. It doesn't need all the gimicks you find at big hotel chains - if you want those go elsewhere.

You will never get into this hotel, you wont be given a key and the old guy will wait up for you and the woman will tell you to be back no later than 1am so they can go to bed. A tired old hotel, not bar, no breakfast suited to contractors only but even they would probably prefer their vans!

I recently stayed at the Old Court Hotel in Braintree. I had been given information of the place by a friend who had also recently stayed there. It seems the building has been given an internal face lift. A little bit more modern.
I had been told that the building sat on the oldest street in Braintree and with that many ghost stories were also relayed to me. Beeing a keen ghost hunter i took with me all the necessary equipment. I had a very eventful evening and will be visiting the building again in the next few months. The owners were also a very nice couple indeed. Stuart the owner made me feel very at home.

I recently stayed at this B&B because there had been a problem with my original hotel (overbooked). As I handed fifty pounds over to the woman behind the grotty reception, I had this unmistakable feeling I was going to regret it. I did. The whole place is like something out of a eerie haunted house film. It’s very dark inside, even though it’s a bright sunny day outside. I also got the feeling my fifty quid was welcome, but I wasn't.

The small woman who runs and owns the hotel has a strong German accent and it’s hard to understand what she was saying, but what ever it was, she was obviously a very suspicious woman who constantly harassed me. Kicking out time was 10:30 and this was rigorously enforced even to the point of coming into my small room while I was on the very small toilet and asking me to leave.

When I'd come in the previous night everything was locked up, luckily she'd forgotten to lock the back door which leads from the garden, so I got in that way, I helped myself to my key from reception and tip toed to my room. The next day I was interrogated by the German woman and accused of breaking-in and stealing a room key for another room. I removed myself from this place as quick as I could.

As I made my way out, I began to feel relived to be outside once again in the fresh morning air of the towns' ring road system. I walked to the town centre (5-10 mins) and gratefully found a taxi.

Bed soft & small, shower small, room small, reception small, owner small minded. Only go to this place if you've got your mother with you and you can speak fluent German.