We were booked in for 2 nights in a 'Superior Room' (at £97.50/night) but checked out early. Our superior room had no bathroom door (even worse, had a huge archway into the bathroom!), the view was spoilt by a cigarette-laden balcony with a single, mouldy, plastic chair and rusty railings and to top it all the noisiest sanitary system ever!!! We were informed it was faulty and would be fixed but didn't stay long enough to find out if that was the case. When we complained about the lack of doorway into the bathroom we were provided with a folding screen and told that 50% of the guests like the fact the bathroom has a huge archway where there should be a door and absolutely no privacy. Somehow I'm sceptical! After a sleepless night with very louds bangs coming from the sanitary system (without being flushed!) we checked out early. In all fairness to the landlady, when we complained about the room and said we were checking out early, she did give us our money back and only charged us for food.

However, you couldn't pay me to stay there. Even if you were lucky enough to have a better room, the food is average, service in the restaurant was very slow and the whole place smells of dogs and badly needs decorating. I've stayed in many B&Bs over the years but never one so awful. The only good things about The Red Lion are the location and the real ales in the bar. Dittisham is gorgeous and well worth a visit but I strongly recommend you don't stay in The Red Lion Inn.

We needed somewhere to stay over 1 night for a wedding in Dartmouth and needed a parking space as well. Options were very limited for places which would allow less than two nights stay, and the few in Dartmouth didn’t have parking spaces. I read the reviews here and though the Red Lion would be as good a place as any. The entrance serves as a local shop, and pub, which doubles as the reception. This confused me a little at first but we got a warm greeting and were shown up to our room. The room was a reasonable size and everything was clean. The pub area looks a little shabby. However, there were some great beers on tap, and the people were very helpful with plans for getting in to Dartmouth (the ferry was recommended as the taxi costs around £20 – which sounded steep, though the roads wind a lot, which adds to the time). We were advised to book, which we were glad about as there were just 2 spaces left on the ferry that day. It was a pleasant trip though and added to the experience (though add £10 plus £20 taxi return, it did stack up a bit).

We slept well and the breakfast selection was good. Staff were friendly throughout. However, the setup is very basic and the price does seem a lot for what you get. When compared to other places in the area though it offers fair value for money – other Hotel and B&B prices were extremely steep. With such high prices though, it really puts me off visiting such places in England. For instance, as an extreme example, this year I stayed at a four star hotel in the center of Tokyo (Shinjuku) for £55. Yes it was an offer and an England/Japan holiday choice is an unlikely A/B. It really highlights though how expensive things can be in England, which is a shame!

If you like somewhere that smells of wet dogs, allows dogs in the dining room, has beds with four inch mattresses that offer no support allowing you to feel the wooden slats in the devan base and doesn't offer you a cheery welcome on your arrival then this is the place for you.

We have never stayed anywhere that is so bad for many years, As someone who has spent many years travelling around the country and staying in B&B's large and small I have rarely come across somewhere this bad.

The stay got off to a bad start on our arrival, we waited in the bar for four or five minutes to be greeted with "oh people where did you come from", this following an earlier call to say we would be arriving between 9.30 and 10.30 pm on a Friday night. We were shown reluctantly to our room by someone who said he had never done it before. He did tell or show us where breakfast was served or offer to carry our bags.

The rooms are relatively clean although when it was serviced the shower tray was not cleaned, The extractor fan in the bathroom had not been cleaned for months the switch that turned on the extractor fan had to be played with to get it to work.

There was a stain on the sheet at the top of the bed

A dog was allowed into the restaurant part of the pub at breakfast time and was seen to eat out of a breakfast bowl. I thought the law was quite clear on dogs being in public eating places unless they were guide dogs, this didn't seem to bother the owners as their dogs seemed to freely roam the building without much control.

The pricing did not match the quality offered as we had stayed in the area a few weeks previous at a much more realistic price where our bags had been carried to our room and where we were given a really cheery welcome.

Our strong recommendation is that you stay elsewhere.

A very relaxing four nights at this friendly family hotel. Excellent en suite room with river views. Good food and atmospheric bar used by locals. It does not pretend to be the Ritz but does offer delightful informal relaxing surroundings which are child and dog friendly. All staff were really helpful and made our stay great. We will most definitely return.