Horse & Groom Village Inn — Restaurant in Cotswold District

Good meal, awful room - pretty much uninhabitable.

We had two great dinners in the restaurant, but our stay was ruined by a bedroom so bad that we left a day early.

We stayed in room 6, a dog friendly room in the cottage annex. On the first night, we struggled to sleep, due to high humidity in the room - you felt a wall of air thick with moisture just walking in. Ventilation in the shower room was ineffective.

Then on the second night, people moved into the room above. They weren’t being loud themselves at all, but their floor was so creaky that we were woken repeatedly when they moved; and we could very clearly hear their voices through our ceiling, even though they just seemed to be talking normally. We barely slept at all on the second night.

A dirty carpet and a green LED that kept the room lit all night were further annoyances.

We decided to leave in the morning, a day earlier than planned, despite having prepaid, and as we cleared the room saw a likely indicator of the moisture being a serious problem - damp and mould patches at floor level, out of normal view behind a chair and a table. The window heavy with condensation was another sign.

I told the man who appeared to be the owner about it as we left, explaining why we were leaving a day early. He said he would look into it, but didn’t seem at all surprised. That mould had clearly been there for some time, and it isn’t realistic that they didn’t know about it. They should not be taking guests at all to the room we were in. I wonder if it may even be a health risk for some.

EDIT: I see the owner has replied. The reply does not make sense to me.

The heating was in fact completely off throughout the night. How would the owner know when the heating was on, to make the statement that he has? Housekeeping didn't come in during our stay. Dry heating from a towel rail or radiator could not cause high humidity in any event, unless there was already a lot of moisture present in the room. That's the significance of the mould - it's an indicator that there was already a lot of moisture around, and you can see from the pictures that there had been for some time. Mould like that does not form overnight. If the owner has responded by just removing the mould after the event, then he may well have missed the root cause. The amount of condensation that's shown in the picture is not at all normal. The only opening windows in the room were out on to the car park at ground floor level. It would be obviously unsafe for a guest to leave them open during the day when out. We did have them open when we could and when we were in (and we had to still consider the noise from the kitchen fan immediately opposite and the car park right outside the room), but with poor airflow through the room, the benefit was limited.

Again - how would the owner know when the windows were open? I doubt he was walking around outside the rooms through the night, checking which windows were open and closed.

Seeing the reply reassures me that it was the right decision to leave. Blaming the guest, no mention of the noise issues (noisy floorboards were not going to be fixed in a day), and missing the underlying point does not inspire confidence. The fundamental issue was that the airflow in the room was extremely poor. We couldn't afford a third straight night of...

The Horse & Groom in Upper Oddington is marvellous! I'd first visited about 6 years ago for dinner and was wowed by the food then. Returning in May 2023, with my husband, plus dad and his partner from Australia, I wanted to give them a great British pub experience and H&G more than delivered. ||There's new owners who thankfully were able to keep it open despite having just taken over when the pandemic hit (no mean feat given how many pubs/inns are closing in the UK). And they've retained everything that made this place great, whilst also bringing their own touches.||We stayed two nights. Rooms are fully kitted out with great treats and amenities. The shower in Room 1 was small but the BEST shower I've had in years of hotel stays - great water pressure, temperature, and lovely smelling shampoo etc. Bed was super comfortable (a little small but nothing to complain about). Breakfast is included and it's delicious - hearty, good quality products and lots of choices. They even very kindly accommodated us being a few minutes later than usual because we had an early start visiting a nearby racehorse trainer's yards. ||We don't have a dog but it's dog friendly and there were a few in there at night, so worth dog owners considering a visit. ||Definitely worth eating (and drinking!) in the bar. The bar team are friendly, and most of clientele are locals with good recommendations for things to do and see in the area. The food was fabulous - again, great selection. One of our group loved the pork chop so much she had it two nights in a row! My highlights were the Asian duck salad starter, and the Burger which is huge. ||Horse & Groom Inn in Upper Oddington was a wonderful place to stay. I only wish I lived closer and could use it as an escape...

The Horse & Groom in Upper Oddington is marvellous! I'd first visited about 6 years ago for dinner and was wowed by the food then. Returning in May 2023, with my husband, plus dad and his partner from Australia, I wanted to give them a great British pub experience and H&G more than delivered. ||There's new owners who thankfully were able to keep it open despite having just taken over when the pandemic hit (no mean feat given how many pubs/inns are closing in the UK). And they've retained everything that made this place great, whilst also bringing their own touches.||We stayed two nights. Rooms are fully kitted out with great treats and amenities. The shower in Room 1 was small but the BEST shower I've had in years of hotel stays - great water pressure, temperature, and lovely smelling shampoo etc. Bed was super comfortable (a little small but nothing to complain about). Breakfast is included and it's delicious - hearty, good quality products and lots of choices. They even very kindly accommodated us being a few minutes later than usual because we had an early start visiting a nearby racehorse trainer's yards. ||We don't have a dog but it's dog friendly and there were a few in there at night, so worth dog owners considering a visit. ||Definitely worth eating (and drinking!) in the bar. The bar team are friendly, and most of clientele are locals with good recommendations for things to do and see in the area. The food was fabulous - again, great selection. One of our group loved the pork chop so much she had it two nights in a row! My highlights were the Asian duck salad starter, and the Burger which is huge. ||Horse & Groom Inn in Upper Oddington was a wonderful place to stay. I only wish I lived closer and could use it as an escape...