The Bear of Rodborough Hotel

Good location - few niggles

Positives: The location is stunning with great views and lots of good walks. Check in was smooth with efficient and polite reception staff. I d particularly like to mention that the restaurant and bar staff (especially the younger ones) were brilliant, very keen and served us well. Breakfast was good and dinner on the first night was reasonably ok but I feel it is overpriced for what you get.

Negatives: The room door plus bathroom door were very stiff and difficult to open. I have mild osteoarthritis in my right hand and I found the front door almost impossible to push open. On entering the room we immediately spotted a shattered lightbulb hanging from the light fitting on the wall and when I reported it to reception the next day I was told, by whom I presumed was a manager, that they were aware of it as it had been broken by the previous occupant. I was surprised that if they had known about it and that nothing done about replacing it until I reported it. On the whole the room was clean but there was a layer of dust on the drawer unit opposite the bed. Bed was not to my liking as the mattresses felt too hard for us but I appreciate that s personal preference. At breakfast on our first morning I requested our room was cleaned (as instructed on arrival otherwise there would be no housekeeping service). On returning that day the room had been serviced but the dust remained.

On our first evening two guests sat outside having a drink at the deck chairs overlooking the stunning view. They left their empty glasses which were not cleared away for two days afterwards. On the second night we ate in the bar. My partner ordered shepherds pie and I was dismayed to see he was served with what I d describe as a child s portion in a small ceramic bowl along with a tablespoon of green veg. Very overpriced, small and very disappointing - we made sure to eat out on our last evening.

This is a lovely hotel with stunning views, a charming group of young bar/reception/restaurant staff and I would like to return but sadly a few small irritations and an overpriced, average food menu puts me off.

1 night stay Saturday 4th September

1. It would been helpful to have been informed in advance that there was a large wedding on this day, taking over most of the hotel. As we had come for an anniversary it was a bit disappointing!
2. When allocating rooms it would been helpful to have asked us if we wanted a room that directly over looked both the outside bar and the wedding. It was a warm evening and with no room aircon we needed the windows it was very noisy until way after 12pm
3. I was disappointed with the food, I ordered the grilled prawns, they weren't grilled, fried in a pan in an odd jus and quite clearly from a pack that you buy in a 9.00!!. We also ordered the cheese topped courgettes unfortunately they never came with the main ccourses, they eventually arrived as an additional course!

I don't think we would return!

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We were extremely disappointed with the room, particularly as we were staying for five nights. For our room to be described as a good double was frankly dishonest - you could barely squeeze past one corner of the bed as it was so close to the wardrobe. When we questioned this with the hotel reception it was very apparent that they were aware of this, but we were told that the hotel was fully booked and they were unable to move us.
We also had a very bad experience on the first night in terms of service, waiting for 3/4 hour for a drink and over 2 hours for our meal, which when it came was awful. We understood that this was due to last minute staff shortages, and in fairness we couldn t fault the level of service and meals for the rest of our stay.