Hobbit Boutique Hotel — Hotel in Westdene

Hobbit house use the Hobbit theme discreetly. Hobbits are merely a theme not a shrine to Tolkien or his book. Each room has a Hobbit character name and image. Beautiful pictures from the book decorate the walls to take followers of Tolkien straight into his magical world. It may even captivate those who know nothing about hobbits enough to buy the book or watch the movie.

The Hobbit house is tastefully decorated with old worldly furniture, subtlely coloured wallpaper, leather couches, and it even has homely creaky wooden floors too! The house is filled with an eclectic combination of tassles on chairs, a bar fridge hidden in an old cupboard, delightful window seats, bookshelves and old light fittings, not to mention the interesting collection of headboards and free standing wardrobes. Although Hobbit house has lots of old furnishings it never succumbs to being a stuffy museum. Each bathroom has its own delightful surprize like a colourfully painted "old" bath or the really interesting bath/shower in Frodo room!

Everything combined gives Hobbit house a quiet, homely feel. You arrive as a guest, but somehow the house folds its arms around you and makes you part of its gentle heartbeat : footsteps on the wooden staircase, the comforting fireplace, sundown piano playing, the early morning bacon smells wafting through hallways, seeing the lush garden shades and shapes through the wide diningroom windows ...if any of this does not make you feel a little nostalgic and at home, then you should not book at the...

As a B&B the Hobbit is lovely. Rooms are good, breakfast was nice enough, and the gardens are beautiful.

However, I was really disappointed that not more was made of the fact that it is Tolkien’s birthplace. A real marketing opportunity is missed here. Besides the rooms having the names of the characters, and there are framed prints of illustrations from the books on the walls, I got the feeling that the fact that is is a national monument of the birthplace of Tolkien was purely incidental to the main focus of running a B&B.

We were there on the 3rd of January 2021, and nothing was made of the fact that it is Tolkien’s birth date. I had to point it out to the proprietress in fact. Put up a banner or something?

Then, create a reading corner, display his books, have some for sale with a stamp inside of the house or something. People would be delighted to purchase a book at his actual birthplace.

Have some postcards of the illustrations, what about the Christmas card photo of the family outside the house with Tolkien as a baby?

Some displayed information about his birth and baptism in Bloemfontein perhaps, and a biography of his life thereafter?

Not to mention other memorabilia for sale that could supplement the upkeep of the place?

The wall behind the bed in room 19 ‘Fili’ is badly scratched, and the basin in the bathroom is leaking into the cabinet and onto the floor.

These are just a few ideas that I think would lift the Hobbit from a pleasant B&B to a world-class...

IMPORTANT: We did make a change last-minute (which seemingly resulted in us being allocated the last available room), which might have altered the experience compared to the expectations.||We were greeted by a very friendly lady, who organised our parking inside the perimeter and recommended a really fantastic restaurant for the dinner. The room was not too large, but featured enough storage space. The bed was comfy.|The property itself had a shared lounge, a few books on shelf (which we did make use of in the evening) and a lovely inner garden.|The breakfast was great and we enjoyed the good coffee as well.||Negatives:||The room was getting old (which is fine). However, there was no room to the bathroom and toilet, which was not comfortable when one person was asleep, and another needed to use the loo. That created quite a disturbance. The A/C was barely functioning, which made sleeping at night challenging - I was only able to fall asleep after 2 AM, when the weather outside got cool enough and it was possible to open the window and let some cooler air in. WIFI wasn't really functioning. There was no hairdryer...