Marlborough House Hotel — Hotel in Oxford

I am leaving this review based on facts I experienced this week. ||||1. It is a GUESTHOUSE, NOT a Hotel.||While it is advertised as a 4-star hotel on google map and Agoda/Booking.com, it is a guesthouse. On google reviews, the property identifies itself as a "guesthouse" and blames customers on the review who MISTAKENLY (due to their misleading name) thought this place was a regular hotel. I've never seen the word "guesthouse" when making a reservation on Agoda/Booking.com, where this property is classified as a hotel. I suggest this property change its name to "Marlborough House Guesthouse" to prevent future confusion for customers.||||2. Hair on the wall, constant noise of water flow, damp smell. No AC. ||As soon as I stepped into the room, I found a hair on the wall (photo attached as proof), next to the mirror, making me question the cleanness of this property. There was a damp and weird smell in the room. Some sort of water pump seemed to be running nearby, making constant noise of water flowing in the room. The door was thin, with poor soundproofing.||||3. False Advertisement and No Responsibility. ||This property advertised their "Single Room" as having a bathroom with a full bathtub with a room size of 29m², which is the same size as their "Double Room" and "Superior Double Room". This property used photos of a bathroom with a full bathtub and a room with a round table in addition to a desk, with enough space to open your luggage. The "Single Room" I received had no such features. No full bathroom but just a tiny shower booth. No dining table but just a desk and bed packed in a small room. You cannot open your luggage in this room. I traveled a lot, and I could see that the room is just roughly the size of 10m² if one cannot properly open the luggage. While one may not exactly measure the room size with eyes, it was obviously different from the room advertised on the Agoda/Booking website, including the bathroom. It turned out that this property used photos of "Double Room" for the "Single Room". Whether intentional or not, it was a false information being advertised. ||||Sometimes, mistakes happen and I understand that. As long as the hotel acknowledges the issue and makes arrangements for that, there should not be a problem. The response from this property was, however, very disrespectful and rude, with no willingness to take responsibility for their own fault for making the wrong advertisement and not being able to provide the room in the photo. The staff was only saying "You booked a single room and it's not refundable". This property was not willing to change my room at the rates I booked this place. The staff seemed to be just trying to escape the situation and their mistake. They saw the photos and room details that they themselves uploaded for the "Single Room" with their own monitor on the Booking.com management system. After an hour of arguing upon arrival, I realized there was no hope that this property was going to take responsible action toward their false advertisement. This is clearly against the Consumer Rights Act under the UK law. ||||During the communication with this property, seemingly the owner (Kavita) said she would not want a customer making a noise at their property and would want me to leave with a full refund, with such an arrogant attitude. I returned the room key and left the property. After taking a few steps from the property, the other staff (Anita) chased me, yelling "Your room is nonrefundable!", immediately changing their own words. This property seemed to only care about its money. While the owner of this property pretends to practice Buddism, you can also sense her sarcasm in her responses to other customers' critical reviews. They appeared to appreciate positive reviews or compliments only, while dismissing or blaming critical feedback from customers.||||In my humble opinion, over-tourism and lack of modern hotels in Oxford led to the survival of such an arrogant, rude, and poorly managed guesthouse, claiming itself to be a 4-star hotel. I ended up looking for another hotel. I would recommend Easy Hotel Oxford, which is nearby. Easy Hotel Oxford provides clean rooms with professional and efficient hotel management. ||||If anyone still wants to book this property, do it at your own risk. I recommend using 3rd party booking instead of direct booking, to ensure that you can make claims in case there are issues with your stays. Again, it's a shame that this guest house is rated as a...

A mixed bag, overall; I certainly would not stay again.

The main reason why is that in spite of the Buddhist/Indian quotes and leaflets scattered liberally around the place, unrequested, promoting peace and harmony, kindness, etc, all very nice, there’s a huge gap between the philosophy being espoused in this literature and the actual reality of the B and B. In reality, it’s a pretty hard-nosed business, a bit chilly.

There are lists of things you will be fined or charged for for all over the walls, pretty depressing - £20 per hour if you check out after 10am; so much per hour to park outside the house if you park after X number of hours; fines for night-time disturbances; etc.

We all know that we ought to check out on time and be quiet. I have never, however, stayed at a B and B which plasters lists of fines and charges all over the walls. It’s like a severely-run boarding house.

And the emphasis is on charging, the bottom dollar. And all this alongside namastes and love and peace literature. We ought to enact the philosophies we paste liberally around the place, and not create a severe atmosphere for paying adults!

I see from another review that the owner responds with some amateur psychology and transference (!) to another bad review - saying something along the lines of what you say reflects what’s inside you. That’s a bit disingenuous and allows her to sidestep possibly valid criticisms; let’s see if that happens here. I’d say don’t liberally quote Buddhist philosophy when your business practices are profoundly eye-on-the-money and a bit chilly.

There are positives:

Good VFM - two nights in a twin room with a kitchenette and basic croissant and cereal and yoghurt breakfast (to eat in your room - no breakfast room) for £229. A good price.

The kitchenette is handy if you don’t mind feeling that you’re sleeping in a bed sit, which is kind of what it is, a very small bed sit with bed and fridge and table and chairs and bathroom.

I was eventually, after arguing the toss, shown a kindness…I was taken into hospital on the first night of my stay and so only arrived back with my friend at 5.20am, after 6 hours in A and E with heatstroke and food poisoning. I rang reception at around 9am to ask, given we needed a little extra sleep as we had been up all night and I was sick, if she would allow us to go past the 10am checkout without paying, because I’d been at the hospital and wasn’t just running late and checking out late to take advantage. She said she would have to check, showed zero interest in my plight.

The ‘phone didn’t ring again. I rang again, she said she hadn’t been able to get hold of the owners. I know she is not the owner, just doing her job and having to keep her eye on the ££, which is the priority for her boss, or at least keeping us all in line. I had to argue the toss to persuade her that it might be showing the milk of human kindness to let me have an hour extra given we had had 3.5 hours sleep and I’d been taken to hospital by ambulance. She eventually agreed. So I appreciate that.

Negatives: as mentioned above re the air of don’t step out of line or you’ll be fined.

And it’s a bit cheap re fixtures and fittings - I’d say budget style, though the price perhaps only merits this, who knows, though I seem to recall staying in another, excellent B and B near it a while ago which had great fixtures and fittings for a similar price. I’d say check out other B and Bs on Woodstock Rd if like me you like nice fixtures and fittings, a little bit of luxury, etc - there are several that tick the boxes and their prices are probably not that much more than here. But if you don’t mind fixtures and fittings which are a bit cheap and sheets of A4 with typed lists of charges and fines and need the low price, it is clean and passable and the kitchenette is handy if you don’t mind sleeping in the bed...

This was a nice stay in Oxford. We traveled with a family of 5, two adults and three kids (14, 13, and 7 y/o). The rooms were both spacious (Rooms 5 &6), clean, and comfortable with a sitting table, chairs, microwave, and refrigerator. There was a modest continental breakfast included with our room price when we booked direct through them rather than through a hotel booking web site. I’m a light sleeper, so Room 5 was a little loud for my liking because it was right on a busy Main Street. However, once the windows were closed, it became much more quiet. So really, this is really only an issue on warmer days, because you have to choose between having a really warm or louder room. Room 6, however, was much quieter according to our kids. They said the room was very comfortable. The location encouraged some healthy walking and opportunities to take public transport, which I thought was great for us. It was a quick 15 min walk to Summertown, which had some great restaurants (highly recommend Mama Mia’s), and a quick bus ride into city center Oxford. The bus rides are quick, frequent, and affordable from the B&B location, so I would recommend that as the main form of transportation over paying the high price for a taxi. The receptionist at Marlborough House was truly lovely and very pleasant to interact with. I would give her 5 stars. The reason for my holding back on any higher rating was really the sound issue, breakfast, and finally the price of the stay seemed a bit high. We did have a nice and comfortable stay overall though. We were happy to not be in the bustle of the...