Widbrook Grange

Relaxing stay at country house hotel

We enjoyed our stay at Widbrook Grange and would recommend to friends. The staff were super friendly and helpful and the food was delicious. We were slightly disappointed to be in the pigsty rather than the main house and the room lacked character to match the ambience of the house. A couple of niggles were the fact that only 1 easy chair when there is room for 2, also no coat hooks for outdoor coats. The weather was wet and windy and there was no lighting between the main house and our room. A nice touch would have been umbrellas for guests use in the main house to get back to room.

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A very nice break

Would love to have been able to give it 5 but a couple of issues prevents this

First the positives, and there were plenty. The hotel is a lovely old restored farmhouse and outbuildings, just the sort of place we love. We were there for two nights to celebrate my husband s birthdays and the trip had been a gift from our daughters. The staff were extremely pleasant and very helpful, clearly wanting to make our stay special. The room (18) was lovely and warm when we arrived, spacious, with a super king bed, which was extremely comfortable, good quality bed linen, a well stocked tea tray, and quirky decor. The gin bar was amazing and the barman really knowledgable, he made some great recommendations! The food in The hotel was faultless - my husband is a complete food philistine and even he enjoyed it all. The diner menu is limited, but we felt there was sufficient choice. It was all well cooked, served in reasonable time frame, and delicious. Breakfast was just as good and set us up for the day. It could so easily have been a perfect couple of days away - BUT - I feel I must mention the negatives.

They say first impressions are so important- the sign at the entrance to the hotel say Widbrook Grang! It wouldnt have take very much for someone to repaint the E! The sign for reception is very small and to begin with we were uncertain how to enter the hotel. These are only little niggles, but if you are running a hotel that purports to be of a certain standard, then these things should be addressed. However our biggest issues related to - a - the bathroom which was clearly in need of some TLC. Peeling paint, cracked tiles, chipped bath, a badly patched up ceiling, and the hook had been moved on the back of the door but no one had bothered to fill the holes or paint over the patch. However by far the biggest issue was the awful smell in the room. You couldn t fail to notice it, and we very quickly realised that it was the smell of decomposing mouse!

Not really what we expected and in other circumstances we would have requested to change rooms, but this was the only room in the hotel with an accessible shower (walk in, as opposed to climbing into the bath). I have mobility issues so we had no choice but to stay put. In total we told 4 members of staff about the smell on the first evening. One told us that there had apparently been an incident a couple of weeks previously, but she thought it had all been sorted. The following morning, despite the wind and cold, we opened all the windows and my husband went to reception to request that they put an air freshener in the room. When we returned in the evening, the windows were closed, but the smell was still there. When we checked out I raised the issue again and said I felt that they really needed to do something about it, but also that the room clearly had not been properly checked before our arrival. They did give us a very small discount on our final bill and apologised but I am afraid for us the damage had been done. It was such a shame as we had been looking forward to it very much, and to be honest it was a lot more expensive than we would usually pay, for a couple of nights.