Denbies Vineyard Hotel — Hotel in Mole Valley

We stayed here recently for a couple of nights while visiting the area having chosen Denbies based on its location and TripAdvisor reviews.||The location turned out to be the star of the show - we thought it was a real treat to be on a (UK) vineyard with great views and lots of opportunities for taking walks on the public footpaths that criss-cross the estate which seem to be very well used. The restaurant with its shaded patio area also makes great use of these views and it's a really nice place to sit and eat. If you get good weather then it's a lovely place to be.||In terms of the hotel itself - the communal areas are all modern and pretty well appointed (reception, the bar and the restaurant) and the room that we had was clean, comfortable and a decent size if perhaps a little nondescript - there's not a lot in the room that links you to that vineyard outside and it perhaps feels a little sterile.||We ate breakfast and dinner in the restaurant here for 2 nights and we found the food to be tasty and enjoyable if not, perhaps, something "special" that you would write home about.||In terms of service - this was a little patchy. One night in the restaurant ran like clockwork while the other seemed to be a little bit random with staff taking 30 minutes to find glasses of (their own estate) wine. That said, we still had a pleasant evening and everyone that we interacted with during our stay was friendly and helpful.||Overall, we enjoyed Denbies and we'd look at it again if we were in the area - it'd be great if the restaurant service could be sharpened up just a little and the hotel could do more to put its wine centre stage...

This review is a conflicting one as not all these issues are the hotels but reviewing the overall experience of staying two nights with our dog.

Firstly, if you are bringing your dog, be aware that Denbies do not really understand what being "dog friendly" is. We arrived to find out aside from the room and the vine fields, we could not take our dog anywhere with us. This meant dinner and breakfast with her locked up in the room. No ability to explore the inside buildings of the vineyard or do any tastings. We were given very mixed feelings about the vineyard train tour, the lady at the reception of the vineyard said it might be ok but if someone has an allergy or phobia of a dog, we couldn't join the tour. She also said it's really only for small dogs (??). So we were left with the option to either book it and hope for the best on the day or not take part. We didn't bother booking in the end so travelled to the other beautiful vineyard's in the region who were as dog friendly as you can get and welcomed us with open arms.

The room we were given was great for us with our dog and they did kindly provide treats, bowls, a towel, blanket and a dog bed. This is where the hotel seemed to understand dog friendly. We had a very comfortable stay.

Dog issues aside, the food at the restaurant was impressive for the price and we really enjoyed our breakfast each morning. We felt it lacked an area for drinks when you weren't eating.

Service in the hotel was great. In the vineyard itself, awful.

Lots of beautiful walks in the nearby area so that really helped...

We stayed Sunday 21st October, we were charged £110 for Bed and Breakfast. The room was very dated and in need of refurbishing the radiator did not work in the bathroom, and when we notified the Manager he said he would bang it and when that did not work he said he would crank it up downstairs needless to say it did not work. Breakfast was not an event full experience, the poached eggs came out half cooked the rest of the breakfast was stacked in a warming unit and was lukewarm put onto cold plates this was not good.

Two loaves of bread sat by the toaster in their plastic bags for you to take out and toast, not good from a hygienic point of view.

The continental breakfast consisted of fruit salad and pineapple out of a tin, and the fruit bowl had fruit in it which looked like it was passed its sell buy date.

Their was only strawberry Jam to use on your toast, whether they had run out of marmalade or just not bothered to top it up I do not know.

Frankly I could not be bothered to ask as who wants to keep getting up from the breakfast table to keep asking if you can have this that or the other.

When we handed in the keys the guy did not ask if we had an enjoyable stay because he new we had not.

I work in the services industry and frankly if we gave that kind of standard of service charging £110 for B&B we would be out of business, so maybe they feel that the location is all they have to...