The Rectory Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

We went here to celebrate my wife's 60th birthday. We booked one of the bigger rooms and had dinner in the hotel. The hotel is in a quiet location in a small village about 20 mins from Cirencester and 15 mins from Malmesbury. It's an attractive building set in lovely grounds, which contains an outdoor pool. The property and the grounds are obviously well maintained. The food was very good. Dinner was well prepared and service in the orangery dinning room was friendly and attentive. Similarly, the cooked breakfast was very enjoyable but the overall breakfast selection was probably no more than you'd find in a good inn with rooms. The bar is a cosy place to enjoy a drink and the selection of wines was reasonably priced for a place like this. TBH, the room was a little disappointing. Certainly it was a good size, but the space hadn't been capitalised upon. A roll top bath in the bedroom is a thing which some people really like, but there was no wardrobe and no comfortable chair in the room. So personally I'd sacrifice the bath for better use of space. Don't get me wrong, I knew it had the bath when I booked, I just didn't know it was missing a wardrobe and somewhere to sit and relax. That said, the bathroom itself was not without issues. The shower was very small and had a rainforest shower head. Unfortunately, it had no closing door, so the wooden floor got pretty wet every time it was used. Staff were all very friendly and attentive and certainly made us feel welcomed and well looked after. So how would I summarise? Actually, it's not that easy. I think if we'd just come for dinner we'd have been perfectly happy. However, we live quite close by and decided to stay as a birthday treat and I found the accommodation a bit below the standard I would expect at this price point. Maybe I'm being too picky? Maybe if you live in a city and are looking for a country house hotel you would see more quirkiness than shortfall? Because our room was definitely not bad, but to me, a little bit of redesign would pay huge dividends. The Rectory has many things going in it's favour; it's an attractive building, with beautiful grounds in a quiet village. Food, service etc. are very good. We just found our room, unexpectedly, a...

We stayed in the cottage which is lovely: spacious, warm and cosy with a wood burning stove. The beds are very comfortable, with lovely linens. We had a lovely dinner in the restaurant on Saturday evening, although portions are small but delicious. Breakfast is very good in the conservatory. The grounds are very nice even in winter. It was great to be able to have our daughter’s dog with us in the cottage. Lunch in the sister pub impressed me less. The hotel reception staff were charming.||The cottage is ideal for a family celebration, but there is a silly lack of attention to detail that was niggling for the price we paid for 3 nights. Only 4 dining chairs for a party of 5 (cottage takes 6). No where to hang coats in the entrance hall - ended up with wet coats on dining chairs. Nowhere to hang the towel in the downstairs cloakroom. Kitchen was rudimentary, just 2 rings, 1 pan, no microwave, no side plates- we had to wash dinner plates to eat dessert. Cupboard and fridge full of breakfast items when breakfast in the hotel was included in the price - a welcome cake would have been much more welcome than juice , bread and cereal that we didn’t touch. The lighting in the sitting room was horrid, just two overhead lights and a standard lamp. It was desperate for some table lights. The downstairs bedroom had nowhere to hang towels (the shared shower room was upstairs). It was impossible not to wet your hair when taking a shower.|It was my birthday which the hotel knew and at dinner a young waiter brought a candle in a sweet and just dumped it in the centre of the table, a distance from me without ever having ascertained who birthday it was. Very unprofessional. But despite the above we had a great time as it was ideal to be together in...

Not dog friendly, let down by service & standards - you can get much better elsewhere for less.

The grounds, house, bar and restaurant were fabulous. The food was brilliant however unfortunately the experience for us was let down by staff (including management), cleanliness and unfortunately the claim to being pet friendly rooms is not the case.

Despite seeking advice from staff at booking on which rooms are appropriate for a dog and considering she is older we were put in the loft rooms. The stairs on the 2nd floor above are absolutely not safe or suitable for pets or children they are far too steep and our poor dog slipped down the stairs twice. Nothing was offered as an option to help despite my willingness to pay more for a room on the lower floor instead I was told “she will get used to it”.

When taking pets you also are charged a daily rate for cleaning but our room was covered in hair before we arrived. The other issues of cleanliness were the bedding .. stained and unclean in particular the throw.

The restaurant management were also disappointing charging service charges when collecting our own drinks and doubling the cost of our lunch courses for no reason at all when there are prices already available to be chosen. It was all an odd experience.

The food however is a reason to visit it honestly was brilliant but I don’t recommend a stay.

My concerns and issues were swept aside only hearing back from the hotel manager 3 weeks after our stay and me chasing our complaint with no resolution offered.

It’s disappointing that such a brilliant building with fantastic chefs is tarnished by cleanliness and some staffs attitude as this could be a really...