The Mousetrap Inn — Restaurant in Cotswold District

We stayed at the Mousetrap for for 2 nights over Easter. We have stayed several times before over the years with various different owners and have always been satisfied. Unfortunately, it is not somewhere we would now recommend.| |The good: The bed was comfortable. The linen and towels were clean. The breakfast the first morning was very enjoyable. The young lady employed there, Amelia, was a delight, she was so hard working, friendly and professional.||The bad: The room was very small, we knew this and didn't mind, cosy can be good, however, it was dingy. The decor is in a very poor state - walls marked, wallpaper falling off the wall, paint chipped to an extent I’ve never seen before, chunks of plaster missing. The complimentary biscuit was 4 months out of date. The teaspoon came with tea already on it. The long-life milk had 7 days before it died. Dust on the kettle. Old pillows, flat like pancakes. Spilled shampoo on the bathroom windowsill. Rust on the window frame. Curtain falling off the rail. Roller-blind mechanism broken. Scaffolding outside the window. The breakfast the second morning was not to the same standard with overcooked bacon and burnt toast.||It’s a shame that the cosy fireside chairs, which are shown on the website, have been removed from the restaurant/bar area and the fire wasn’t lit, even though it was Easter weekend and quite cold.||When at the breakfast table and, again, spotting tea already on my teaspoon, I was prompted to report my dissatisfactions regarding the room to Amelia when she asked me if I had slept well. She listened to my comments and said she would ask Michelle, the owner/manager to speak to me. After returning to the room later, we had been given an extra pillow each, fresh milk and the offensive biscuit was removed but not replaced.||Michelle did not take the time to speak to me during our stay and so, upon leaving, I challenged her about the state of the room for which she had charged us £190 per night. Although, I acknowledge, she had corrected some of the minor issues, the decor was just appalling. I expressed my amazement that, at the start of the season, she was not embarrassed to be letting out her rooms in such a dilapidated condition. Unfortunately, she gave me lots and lots of excuses. | |She told me – “Booking.com set the prices, we don’t have jurisdiction over that”. I had however booked directly with the hotel. She said “Do you know how difficult it is to get staff around here? I’ve told the staff to do a clean sweep of all the rooms. I don’t know where she got those biscuits from. I’ve sacked a member of staff. We’re going to be re-furbishing some of the rooms. Do you think I want to be here and not with my family? Do you know we had a fire here last year?” I acknowledged I did know about the kitchen fire and expressed, it can’t be easy running an establishment and, as I was also aware she hadn’t been the proprietor for very long, I wished her well in her venture, however, I also advised her that none of her said difficulties should be expected to be of my concern. I told her I didn’t think she was listening to my complaint and had offered no apology. She then responded, in a raised tone, with her face reddening, “I’m 44 years of age, I've got ears, I do know how to listen you know”.| |I had heard enough of this lady’s defensive rhetoric and told her I had to leave. To my surprise, she then said, again in her raised tone “OK, I sincerely apologise and I agree with you 100%. When this week’s out of the way (Easter), I’ve got your email, I’ll contact you”. As it was a busy period for her, I accepted this, trusting that she would have the decency to be true to her word. Unfortunately, she did not. I therefore emailed her to express my disappointment that she had not been in touch and requested that she offer me a part refund, since she agreed with my complaint 100%. She has not responded.||It's a shame that our stay was not as expected, considering the cost, which we obviously knew when we booked and were quite happy to pay for a room of a reasonable standard. This was not the case, and, given the opportunity to rectify matters, Michelle has not had the decency to contact me as promised, moreover, I can only presume she knows I am right, she said as much, but she's had my money now and sadly, her greed has gotten the better of her morals. You've let the side down Michelle, considering you're a fellow Northerner.||I do hope young Amelia, with her natural hosting skills and professionalism realizes her potential and in the future “goes far".| |We didn’t eat here, instead we ate at the Rose Tree in the village, which was spectacular. However, the Mousetrap does have some good reviews for the restaurant, so maybe just...

Its a shame I feel strongly enough to be writing this on christmas day. My family went for a christmas eve lunch here as we are staying in a cottage nearby - this was to be the special christmas meal and the first one without my Mum who has recently died. So an important meal for us. I had looked at the menu when booking and there were vegan options on it so although it seemed more of a meaty place, I felt confident I would get something decent to eat. There were also a number of menus listed - sunday, daily, festive fayre on the website which between them covered quite a few vegan options when I looked again on the morning. Although I noticed that the celeriac main was marinated in honey which isn't vegan which rang alarm bells, it seemed that there was plenty of other choices and by then it would have been too late to find anywhere else anyway. When we got there, there was only one menu and it was the one with the celeriac. I pointed out that honey isn't vegan, but was told there was no way the celeriac could be done differently as it had all been prepped, the festive menu wasn't available that day and they weren't prepared to offer it to me - perhaps they didn't have time to cook it I don't know, but they did offer me maple squash off the daily menu, so I had to go with that, though I was quite underwhelmed. It turned out to be just pieces of squash with a hint of maple syrup and then the trimmings of a roast dinner. The vegetables were very nice and it was a large portion but it was just vegetables and compared to what the meat eaters were eating, was not very impressive. The waitress asked if I was happy with what I had and I told her it wasn't great, which she acknowledged. But I was still charged full price for it - £24. When I got home I checked the daily menu again and the maple squash was a side, which I had half-suspected - there was a main featuring heirloom pumpkin which presumably would have had something more special about it. I hadn't been told I was being offered a side as a main, which I think I should have been - although there clearly wasn't a choice anyway. I feel quite angry about this now.

The staff were very nice and tried to handle the situation but I never had an apology or acknowledgment that I had been offered a non-vegan dish which was marked as vegan, without an alternative. If the chef doesn't understand what is and isn't vegan it gives me very little confidence in what I'm eating anyway, so I wouldn't go back. They apparently are aspiring to be better for vegans (or want to get some of the vegan dollar I suspect) but they have quite some way to go. I've checked the website this morning and they haven't changed the menu which still shows honey as being vegan - so they clearly don't really care.

Its a cute little place with nice staff but a few other things were a bit odd. The starters were served before the wine. When we commented, the wine was immediately brought to us. We were asked if we wanted to try it and said no so the wine was just left, the top hadn't even been loosened. We were also told to go to the bar and pay, but for the type of place it was I'd expect them to come to you. There was an automatic service charge of 12% for which I would have expected the wine to be poured frankly. I also saw a different waitress to the one we had petting a dog. Not very hygienic when you're then carrying food to customers.

However on the plus side the meat-eaters loved their meal, and my soup...

The only reason I’ve given this place 2 stars instead of 1 is that it was at least clean. Everything else about our stay was awful, especially at £175 per night for a twin room.||Check-In & Parking|Check-in was through the pub bar, with no separate desk. We had to wait about 10-15 minutes behind regulars ordering drinks before being seen. Parking is a joke—only a handful of tiny, cramped spaces, and even if you manage to squeeze in, you’ll spend forever manoeuvring to get out. We had to park elsewhere on our 2nd night.||Room|The room was one of the smallest I’ve ever stayed in—dark, gloomy, and depressing. The beds were uncomfortable, on wheels that slid away from the headboard on the laminated floor. No bedside table by one bed meant I had to charge my phone on the floor. There was no seating or furniture beyond the beds, so nowhere to relax. And hardly any room between my bed and one of the walls which made it hard for my friend to walk by without knocking me every time he went to the bathroom. Curtains had to stay shut as the window looked directly onto the car park, giving zero privacy. To top it off, we were woken by a boy racer revving his engine outside at 8am.||Bathroom|The shower was cramped (not great if you’re tall or broad), and while the mirror had fancy lighting options, it was bizarre that this seemed to be the only thing they’d invested in.||Breakfast|Service was poor and unfriendly. Only one staff member was on, who made a point of telling us that and that she would come over to us when she could. My specific order was largely ignored, and instead of what I asked for (crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, tomato, mushrooms, mixed toast), I was served the standard breakfast with items I hadn’t asked for (black pudding, hash brown) and the bacon was not crispy at all. The meal was unappetizing. On the second morning, we skipped the included breakfast entirely and went up the road to Box Bush, which was excellent. Try there for brekkie!||Overall|This hotel cuts every possible corner while charging a premium price simply because of its location. At half the price (£70–90), it might just be tolerable, but at £175+ a night it’s a complete rip-off. Clean, yes—but uncomfortable, noisy, poorly run, and thoroughly disappointing. Stay anywhere else but here.||To the Owners:|Rather than replying with a defensive or dismissive comment, take this feedback on board. Guests are paying premium prices and deserve far better. Either make the necessary improvements or reconsider whether hospitality is the right...