Victoria House — Hotel in Cotswold District

This property is directly on the main road. We stayed at room 7. 3rd picture was taken from the bedroom window, shows how close the property is to the pavement and main road. Double glazed uPVC sash windows but you can still hear the traffic. You can either sleep with the noise or suffocate with the windows closed. They do supply fans but again, its extra noise and doesnt really help with the heat. There are traffic coming and going throughout the day and night. It is noisy, dont expect a chance of a lay in! Because it is on the main road, there are also people leaving pubs and restaurants making noise or even the Thames Water men carrying out maintenance and repairs. Someone staying at the rooms on the ground floor even went outside to tell the men to keep the noise down because their window was directly on the main room where they were working.

The room was very cozy, id rather have a smaller bed and have more room to move around and sit. The bathroom is 5 steps along the hallway, which is a bit annoying when you forget something and have to keep going back to the room to collect, and of course using the bathroom at night. Bathroom is also accessed via code.

The whole property can be updated. The front door has holes and the cushions have holes. The property is essentially a 3 storey house converted to 7 rooms with some rooms ensuite (bigger ones i assume). It has a front entrance hallway and small communal fridge under the stairs. The carpet in the communal section is very rough and remember dont stand in the bath! The slanted ceiling (obviously roof extension) is very low and the bath is directly below it. Shame there is no shower facility.

As mentioned in previous reviews, yes, they provide bathrobes, toiletries, slippers and towels. Yes they provide welcome sherry and fudge. Yes there is no reception, you enter the property with code access. Yes, its good location to shops and a base for surrounding areas. There is a mobile number to call if there are problems (which i did). WiFi is good enough.

The cafes etc around the main road open 9am /10am some even at 11am, therefore difficult to find breakfast. Same for dinner, we went into the Porch and they informed us that they were not serving food that particular evening. The sheep across the road was a bit expensive and service slow (maybe its busy because everywhere else was closed/not serving). Good that Tesco was only 5 mins walk away, and further down an Aldi and Greggs at the petrol station.

Difficult to park. Again, can park in Tesco but the surrounding roads all have restrictions.

I did debate whether we should book the Sheep instead, but now realised that they are also on the main room which means same problem with noise. The rooms looked even smaller from the pictures. But they did offer breakfast. I would suggest staying at the Sheep and pay extra purely for the breakfast, if none of the other issues bothers you.

We hardly got any sleep for 2 nights and as you can imagine, we will not be staying...

Not as advertised.

I thought this was going to be an Airbnb style, self check-in place. It was, but I stayed in the dreaded room 7 with my mum. The bathroom is on the other side of the landing to the room, which meant having to remember 3 codes to enter the various doors: the front door code, and 2 floors up, our room's code, and the bathroom's code. Absolutely ridiculous.

It may sound like a minor inconvenience, but try making a cup of tea in this room, where you have to cross the landing, punch in the code on the lock, rinse the cups for another tea, then come back and type in the code for the room. Or in the middle of the night needing to go to the loo. What a palaver.

But the real reason for the one star rating wasn't any of this, nor do I rate it badly for being so small there was only enough room for two single beds (no chairs, no desk or table). The one star rating is for what I judge all accommodation by, the bed and shower. Without a good rest and shower, you cannot be properly rested or refreshed and it ruins the rest of your day, which is what happened here.

The pillows were made of some cheap, synthetic material, which made me very warm. So much so, that I woke during the night in buckets of sweat while the room was freezing cold! Eww

However, the shower was the last straw. There was no shower.

There was a bath, and due to the bathroom being on the top floor, a slope in the roof right above where the bath is, and as such, impossible to stand in the bath, and no place to attach the shower hose above one's head. So you actually have to HAND HOLD the shower head as you wash (last time I had an experience like that was in a 3rd world country)! Also, on the two mornings we were there, it was so cold in the bathroom I had to have a 'shower' first so as to warm the bathroom up for my mum. No way to control the heat in the bathroom, which seemed to be a separate control from the main room itself.

All in all, despite the room actually being quite beautifully made up, there can be no other description of Victoria House other than a clown show. Despite the overwhelming beauty of the Cotswolds, our stay there did dampen our spirits and left us feeling restless and tired. Each morning we awoke before dawn, but gave up on sleep. We got ready for our sightseeing and tried to stay indoors for as long as possible, but in the end gave up and favoured wondering about until nearby (lovely) breakfast cafés opened at 9 am.

And don't get me started on...

Stow-on-the-Wold was an excellent Cotswold base and Victoria House was a very comfortable and convenient accommodation. We stayed here 4 nights.|LOCATION: The location was very convenient but Stow is only small so anywhere in the town will be within easy walking distance of the market square, the pubs and restaurants and the historic sights. In the evening, it was very easy to walk to The Porch House or The Old Butchers, where we had excellent meals. |ROOM: As this is a converted terrace house, the rooms can vary a lot. We had a large, spacious room with a nice bathroom but there are a couple of cheaper rooms with an external bathroom so just make sure you know which one you are booking. We really enjoyed our room. It was a very comfortable, nice place to come home to after a day of exploring and sight-seeing. The decor was very pretty and in keeping with the historical charm of the building. There were old framed prints on the walls, a crystal chandelier and a big comfy chair to curl up in with a book. There were a few extra treats also - fluffy dressing gowns, bottled water, a welcome tray with tea, coffee, and biscuits, and a decanter of sherry. It’s worth noting that there is no elevator so if you’re on a higher floor, you’ll need to carry bags.|SERVICE: Victoria House is not manned so it’s self check-in and self check-out. A few days beforehand, we were sent a code to let ourselves in. This was quite straightforward and we had no problems during our stay. It is worth noting that there is no breakfast but there are several cafes like The Hive and Huffkins which are just around the corner. Both served lovely breakfasts. |PARKING: If like us, you have a car, then parking can be a little tricky. We arrived late at night so we were able to park in the street directly opposite Victoria House. However this was only available overnight and we had to get up to move the car early the next morning. There is limited parking in the town square (2 hours only) but we found a large, free carpark just outside town in the Tesco/Council carpark. We were able leave our car there for a few days and it was only a short walk...