Tewinbury Farm Hotel — Hotel in East Hertfordshire

This was my birthday night away with my family and I was really looking forward to what looked like a very special experience. I’m afraid to say I was really disappointed both with the value and the service of the reception team (on a side note all the restaurant staff were amazing, no complaints there) We arrived early to take full use of the hotel, having lunch at the Granary and exploring the play park and animal trail, which was all lovely. However upon check in we were told that we had booked the room-only price, which I was surprised at - as the room was comparatively expensive, and also because the other guests that were checking in were all being told when breakfast would be available in the morning, so seemingly their price included breakfast. We had booked via Booking dot com so I checked the rates for the same evening and a room the same as ours was available at a cheaper rate than we had paid, which I could have absolutely swallowed except for the fact that it included breakfast. I checked Tewinbury’s website and it was the same. I went to reception and expressed my surprise and was told they couldn’t do anything about it because we had booked via Booking. I understood this of course (despite being confused that I could have booked a room-only rate, when there was no option to do so) but I had hoped that they would understand that from my point of view as a customer who had booked to stay with them, my experience was impacted by this weird inconsistency across their booking platforms. For us as a family, we had paid more than other guests, to get a limited experience. The receptionist said that she would speak to management and would give me a call. No one called and so I went to reception before dinner and was told that management had said they wouldn’t be offer breakfast within the price. I was disappointed by this and by the customer service but we went to dinner (again at the hotel), and tried to put it behind us but honestly it put a dampener on what was meant to be a special trip. In the morning we tried to make a coffee in the room but the coffee machine didn’t work, the bath had long dark hairs in it, and when I tried to phone reception I realised the phone wasn’t connected. We went for breakfast, and it seemed that all the staff were surprised that breakfast wasn’t included for us, as it was for everyone else! When we asked how much breakfast was, the poor staff didn’t know, it seemed that it was such an unusual question to ask. We were told it would be £68 in total for our family to have breakfast there (2 adults and 2 children) so we asked what would be included and it was a very basic buffet breakfast - cereal, and pre prepared hot food in warming plates. Fine if included in the room rate but certainly not £68’s worth! So disappointed by the whole thing - we just came away feeling quite sad, and not valued at all. The overall impression we had was that we got a worse experience than everyone else, through no fault of our own. I understand we didn’t book directly through Tewinbury, but it felt like we were penalised for this, and then further so by the breakfast being so unreasonably priced. I think Tewinbury need to think about their customer’s experience, regardless of the platform they book through, and certainly need to reconsider their breakfast pricing for people who might be left in...

Yes - There are two sides to a story - but the story that’s coming from this venue is flawed and inaccurate. I have nothing to lie about. Why would I question whether the contract states the venue doesn’t allow smoke confetti cannons when the girl who works in the events team specifically confirmed in person that we would definitely be allowed to use them for our Gender Reveal Event on the very first day that we came to view the venue. They then decided to point this out on the contract after verbally approving it and then said they don’t normally allow it but now will allow it for a surprise extra charge!!! This is pure deception. Their staff should be trained and qualified enough to let the customer know what is and what isn’t allowed if this was “clearly” stated on their contract as they say! They should have this knowledge about what’s on their contracts before confirming face to face.

With reference to this venue saying that we didn’t want to go ahead with their price, this is completely untrue and shows how desperate this venue is to cover their mistakes. Myself and my husband clear stated that we are happy to pay for the food and the venue but the food options that they offered didn’t suit the type of guests and event we were planning to have on the day. As this is our event, we should not be judged for this and certainly not be treated any different just because we wanted a less complicated and suitable menu for our event. We are the customer so if we initially asked the venue if we could get a customised menu to suit our event, I don’t see that there’s anything wrong with this?!!! This just shows how money minded and rigid this venue really is! They do not believe in catering for the customers needs and all they simply care about is making money instead of customer satisfaction. The food was only finalised after we had signed the contract because it was advised that they normally have a meeting a month after booking to discuss the final food menu at which point myself and my husband decided to go with their most pricey bbq menu so in actual fact we were not being difficult with spending money with them at all. It was purely due to their deception and lies about the smoke cannon being allowed and then not allowed and then allowed with an extortionate fee that we decided to then cancel this venue because we knew that this venue would probably ruin our event out of spite because they were already acting quite bitterly throughout the whole process once they knew were not happy with this surprise charge for the smoke cannons! I’m simply sharing a truly poor and upsetting experience with this venue and it shows that the venue cannot accept that they have clearly screwed over a customer so they are now creating stories and lies. If you are confident in your service, you won’t need to justify anything or try and come back with these lies. Any successful company or service should have the decency to accept when they have done something wrong. But this venue wants to hide and lie about the truth. A good service should involve honesty, transparency and striving for excellent customer satisfaction - All of which does not exist when it comes to this...

Terrible stay, even worse customer service. Avoid.

I had the misfortune of choosing the Tewinbury Hotel for a recent stay, during which I had invited some friends over for a catch up dinner.

I stayed in a lodge and paid what I consider to be a high rate for a one night midweek stay.

Very little went well with my stay, which is not the main reason I took to writing this review.

Below I will detail my experience, but the main point of writing this review is that the management at hotel will show very little interest in you as a customer if and when things go wrong.

At all times during and after my stay I made them aware of problems I was experiencing. Each time I was promised calls and follow ups, but none came.

I have travelled extensively for many years and have had much go wrong here and there. But this is the first time I’ve experienced such failure in willingness of a hotel to take responsibility for its product, that I’ve felt compelled to produce this review.

My advice is simple.

Stay here and things will likely go wrong. When they do wrong, this hotel will quickly move on without you.

For the record, here are some quick highlights of my experience:

• Room was not quite clean enough and there was food from a previous guest under the bed • The WiFi was inoperative on arrival and the issue was eventually resolved by logging me into the company network • The coffee machine was dysfunctional and blocked with debris from a previous visitor • Milk was rotten and the interior of the fridge in the room was at room temperature • Booked a dinner at the restaurant to catch up with friends. Was sat near a table of some 20+ business guests attending a course at the venue, who proceeded to be rowdy and shouting so loud we eventually gave up and left our dinner early. The restaurant made no attempt to ask them to be quiet and clearly are happy that their commercial course and venue dinners have this potential to disturb private diners and small parties. • Despite reporting all of my concerns, the promised follows up calls never came. I eventually went back to reception to ask why the manager hadn’t called me, to be told they thought I had left! • I have provided a detailed list of my concerns to the hotel management on the 20th November 2024 per the above experience, which as yet remains unanswered.

For the price paid, this hotel and restaurant must do much better and should really try harder to listen to its customers when they have something to say.

Sorry to have to recommend this...