Wheatsheaf Inn (Hotel) — Hotel in Cotswold District

This was a very last minute solo trip. My first stay at a 'pub with rooms'. Only a 'deluxe double' available so booked that. Got Room 10, ground floor room at back of the pub which opens directly out into the courtyard where the garden room restaurant is. Has a bath and sinks in the room and a separate WC.|Pros:|- in a cute Cotswolds village handy for Bourton, Burford & Cirencester|- room decor was very nicely done, bed was very comfortable. Felt more like a room in someone's house than a hotel|- Dyson hairdryer|- made things easy having good food available within the pub, I ate on one of the nights and it was nice|- (very small) car park for guests, had no issue getting a spot|- friendly staff in the restaurant|- nicely done tiered terrace in the garden||Cons:|- room location did not make for a very relaxing stay (a shame as the decor was lovely). Right next door to the kitchen and 3 steps from the garden room restaurant. Conversations in the kitchen and by guests outside the door were audible in full. They may have restrictions on what can they do with the windows as its such an old building but this was really noticeable - it wasnt background noise, it was being able to hear full conversations. If I had been staying with someone else rather than solo, Id have felt very aware that if we could hear them, they could hear us. Pack earplugs in case you get this room, or just be sure to say not room 10 please!|- room service. Guest guide said it could be ordered via app - at breakfast, the app didnt list any drinks. Tried to call reception with the vintage in-room phone but it didnt work so had to phone the pub on my mobile to say I couldnt order drinks on the app and to place my breakfast room service order that way instead. So a bit of a faff just to get a couple of pastries and a drink delivered from the kitchen right next door.|- window shutters - multiple slats not attached to the frame so had to adjust these individually.|- bath. I much prefer a bathroom. For couples booking this room be aware of the lack of privacy. Theres a shower attachment on the bath but its not a very practical option with the style of bath. If you're a shorter person, you wont be able to touch the end and will keep slipping down into the water|- lack of communication in an emergency. On 2nd night, pub alarm system kicked in at 1:55am. We all left our rooms assuming thered be a staff member to direct us but nobody was. Although we couldnt see or smell a fire, with no staff present and alarm still running no option but for us to call the Fire Service. They got there before the staff member who turned up after driving from half an hour away, and told us it was the carbon monoxide alarm. 45 minutes after the alarm had started, the staff member told us that the Fire Service said it stemmed from the cellar and we were all ok to go back to our rooms now. This was without confirming whether carbon monoxide had been detected (we assumed not or it surely wouldnt be safe but this wasnt said outright). Like several other guests, I wasnt able to go back to sleep for a long time - until 4am - and this substantially impacted my plans for the next day. On checkout, I asked the acting manager for more information. They said the alarm was triggered by a faulty sensor on the panel in the cellar and that carbon monoxide hadnt been detected. They apologised for the disruption and offered a 50% refund on that evening's room rate. While we were compensated, this should have been handled much better. It's quite a scary situation being in a building you're not familiar with when there appears to be an emergency and no staff on site to guide you (I understand a kitchen porter had been on site but they didnt make themselves known to us guests outside). A previous review mentioned a similar incident 18 months ago where they also felt there was a lack of communication so this is clearly an area the business needs to address. Some written info on what the overnight arrangements are at least, as we had no way of knowing whether a staff member would be coming to assist or not.||Overall this is a charming place - clearly effort has gone into the look of the rooms - but it wasn't the 5 star accommodation that Hotels.com sold it to me as (the pub claims to bill itself as 4 star, in which case they should ask third party hotel sites to correct the categorisation). Charging £224 per night is going to give guests high expectations and I only paid that much as it was listed as 5 star. While the decor was very nice, the room was not well located and due to the resulting noise, I would...

(Context: For work I travel a lot and would usually stay at one or two places a month, depending on the areas I am visiting. Over the past few years I have visited many places - including spas, hotels, Airbnb's and even an accidentally booked pigsty! So for this reason I am well equipped to make a review, one which may influence your choice in booking a stay.)

Staff: World class service throughout the two nights I stayed. From entering the reception to departure, everyone was incredibly polite and helpful. Impressive effort and attention to detail to make sure my stay was as enjoyable as possible.

Reception/Inn building: Unfortunately they were re-decorating part of the bar area so was limited on space, but the restaurant was at normal operation. The parts that were open were all nicely decorated and felt homely - although the couch seat, as comfortable as it was, felt a little too low for eating. I would expect the price of the rooms to be more reflective of the stay once the refurbishment is complete. The clientele the hotel attracts is reflective of itself, respectful and civil, so I had no issue with an early night. A minor annoyance to the Inn's prime location is that the car park is very small, maximum of about 8-10 cars, so larger vehicles might struggle and may even have to find parking on the road on a busy day. I had noticed some older, perceptively unused buildings attached at the back which perhaps could be converted to a work area or small gym in the future.

Room: Cosy, very well decorated, great bathroom, powerful shower and nice soap. The bed was huge and also very comfortable. I was also impressed by the homemade shortbread and gorgeous coffee from the Nespresso machine. However, the only negative is that there was no desk (only a chair and seating on the window sill) - but this is likely to have been due to the lack of space in the room.

Food: On the first night I had the pie of the day (chicken, ham hock and leek) in the restaurant which was absolutely incredible - however the vegetable portions seemed small. Next time I would order extra gravy and perhaps a side of broccoli. I also had the homemade scotch egg which again was lovely. Night two I ordered room service for the prawn cocktail, which was good, and the burger, incredible - Although I had just been on a long run which fuelled the enjoyment of the food!

Overall a wonderful stay and I will certainly be returning when I am in the area next. I would strongly recommend staying here, either for business or to explore the beautiful...

Not worthy of being called a 5 star hotel. ||We arrived at the inn to see the small car park was full, so we were a bit stressed in finding alternative parking. We also had to wait a little while for the staff to check us in. Furthermore, it was very strange for my card details to be required & taken as collateral (in case we consumed anything from the minibar). We also ordered an apple crumble which was good. ||When we booked online (pretty pricey), we saw the room description said ‘all cosy rooms come with a rainfall shower’, so we chose one with an addition of a bathtub. However, we were very disappointed to arrive in our room to see a missing shower room. We queried this with reception and they said our room is not a Cosy Room and that we were upgraded. We explained that if we had known there was no shower room in our room, we wouldn’t have taken the room with the bath. They should have informed us about the choice of the upgrade, instead of just upgrading us without telling us. They said there had no other available rooms so we could not change rooms. Also, no compensation nor anything complimentary was offered after this. We were quite unhappy & dissatisfied with this start of our stay. ||The bath was very hard to use, the hot & cold temperature control very volatile & the nuts connecting to the nozzle head leaked water. It was very inconvenient to wash ourselves as the water would go everywhere. This was made even worse as the bathtub was positioned in the middle side of the room with wooden flooring underneath. ||The bed was soft & comfy with two pillows to choose from (each), sufficient room to open our suitcase & there was a good electric fan/air conditioner in the room. The dimming lights were also nice. However, there were no facial tissues available in the room, loose taps at the sink and a wardrobe that wouldn’t shut due to the hangers being too long. It was also inconvenient to take our suitcase up the stairs to our room since there was no lift available. ||Finally, we couldn’t sleep in the morning because noise went right through the doors and the cleaners would constantly chat, stomp and vacuum loudly; right outside our door. The chatter was also unimportant and idle talk that could have been removed, or they could have at least had the courtesy to whisper. This was very frustrating, especially since we hung a “we’re sleeping” sign on our doorknob. ||We had a very unpleasant stay here, were unsatisfied as we checked in and left feeling very irritated. We would not recommend this...