The Oliver Hotel of Oxford, by Oliver — Hotel in Oxford

Recent stay at the Oliver in Oxford was nothing short of a disaster, marked by appalling service, unprofessional staff, and a complete disregard for guest satisfaction. We were in town for a wedding after the semester had ended. This hotel failed on every level, turning what should have been a pleasant trip into a frustrating ordeal.

We arrived at 4pm, an hour after the promised 3pm check-in time, only to be told our room wasn’t ready. We were forced to wait until 6pm—two hours later—before we could finally access our room. This delay was unacceptable, but the reason became clear when we saw a member of the cleaning staff lounging in an open room, scrolling on her phone instead of doing her job. The lack of urgency and professionalism was astounding. The staff blew off our concerns and acted completely unapologetic.

When we finally reached our room, we were horrified to find a previous guest’s underwear in a complimentary tote bag in the closet. I brought it to the front desk and the woman was stunned but did NOTHING. WHAT THE HECK?!?! Front desk girl wrote down some random notes in a note pad, but did NOTHING. We didn’t even get an apology. SOMEONE ELSE’S UNDERWEAR was in the closet!! This blatant oversight in cleaning is not only disgusting but raises serious concerns about the hotel’s hygiene standards. It was clear that no thorough inspection had been done before handing the room over to us. GROSS!! And they just didn’t seem to care.

The bathroom was a bit grungy at best. The floor was obviously not fully cleaned. The grout and corners were pretty gross.

The next morning brought yet another issue: no hot water. After a restless night dealing with the prior disappointments, we were forced to start our day with cold showers. When we reported this to the staff, their response was infuriatingly nonchalant. They offered no apologies, no solutions, and no sense of urgency to address the problem. It was evident they couldn’t care less about our comfort or experience.

From start to finish, The Oliver demonstrated a shocking lack of accountability and customer service. The staff’s indifference, coupled with the unclean room and basic amenity failures, made this one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve ever had. We were in town for a wedding and this hotel and staff caused truly unnecessary stress. There are other hotels in the area....

Honestly, I’m just super disappointed. My husband and I live about an hour outside of Oxford, and we decided to stay for the weekend so we could do more than just an afternoon in town. I’m 34 weeks pregnant and we didn’t want to go too far.

We paid $1500+ to stay 2 nights in a suite here…and I’m disappointed. I’d like to say that you pay extra for service, but that’s not the case.

Upon arrival, the receptionist told us that our room had recently had damage and that one of Our showers didn’t have a door. She said that someone would come in while we were out at lunch the following day to fix it.

After politely requesting another room and expressing our displeasure of paying full price for an incomplete room, she said that they didn’t have another room open. We told her we didn’t want anyone in our room — and then she changed her story and said they would come when we left.

Get to the room, there’s no “do not disturb” sign. We like our privacy and we travel with valuables. We never have our room cleaned while we’re in residence at a hotel. I requested a sign but they said they didn’t have one but would put us “on a list” so no one would enter our room.

The next morning at 9 am house keeping knocked and entered our room.

I called down to the front desk where “Sarah” answered the phone and told me the manager wouldn’t be in until Monday but she would have the manager call me that day.

I never received a call.

So to summarize my experience: I paid $1500 for 2 nights with an incomplete room The hotel management wanted to renovate the room while we were in residence. They said they wouldn’t enter my room and they did. I was promised a manager call and never received it.

In addition, if you’re considering this establishment during their transition of ownership, also consider: No valet No concierge service Free internet is 15 mb (AT&T is Rocking 40mbs without wifi) In room dining ends at 8:30 even though it says 9 on the site. Our thermostat stayed on 65 the entire time and it never got down under 71 (I’m pregnant and this was a SUPER bummer)

If you’re looking for pure luxury and zero service — this is the...

My husband and I spent our wedding night here after our reception at The Graduate. I called months in advance to book a room and ask about arrangements as far as our luggage goes and getting it to the room earlier in the day as we would be busy with wedding festivities. At the time they said it would be fine to have my husband’s brother check us in to take our luggage to the room so it would be there after the reception and have our room key waiting at the desk for us. I called again about three weeks prior to the wedding to make sure our plans were still ok and everyone was on the same page. After our reception, my husband and I walked from the Graduate to the Chancellors house to get our keys (which we thought had been arranged prior to) and we were asked for our drivers licenses. I was in a white gown with a bouquet of flowers. He was in his tux. Our luggage had already been put in our room so we didn’t have a license to show. The fact that we would need to show drivers licenses right after our wedding reception was never mentioned to me. The man at the front desk recluctantly “made an exception” and had us sign our check-in sheet and gave us the keys.

We chose The Chancellor’s house because we wanted somewhere nice to stay on our wedding night. It was a nicer hotel room but we could hear people coming on and off the elevator through the night which makes it much less of a getaway experience. Not to mention we were already a little irritated about almost not being let into our room.

I tried to be ahead of the game and get everything arranged prior to. But we weren’t treated very special at all. Not that I excepted people to go out of their way for us but, it was our wedding night. I’m assuming there were more affluent people staying in Oxford that night and we were just another young couple.

My husband was born and raised in Oxford and we both think this is typical Oxford customer service, below par because they can be. No...