The Swan — Restaurant in East Hampshire

I've been stopping at the Swan for several years and it is full of atmosphere. The bedrooms are a little basic, and some have sloping floors - but it is a very old Inn. You can still see something of the historic coaching inn structure in the reception area, although all the other rooms have been swept away to make a big ground floor flexible bar-lounge area.

The snag is that it is owned by a Pubco. Greene King, in fact. They are taking too much money out of it to spend on fancy staff at head office. The menus and the atmosphere in the bar are modern, well thought out, and would be fine if you only called casually or stopped for one night. Stop any longer and the cracks begin to show - this week they had no spinach, and could do nothing about it because food (including fresh vegetables) are delivered weekly by head office. The menus are not local, or varied according to the skill of the chef - they are centrally dictated.

No money is spent on building maintenance at all. The historic sash windows are cracked and the paint bare, the outside walls are discoloured and ravaged by damp and unsympathetic cement repairs, plants grow in the guttering and all the downpipes leak. Some of the bedrooms have had a coat of paint, presumably to re-afix the aging wallpaper, and the furniture in the rooms is in reasonably good condition. But this historic building which has lasted 4 centuries may not see a fifth. I can't believe that dry rot is not ravaging the ancient timbers beneath the leaky bathroom floors, or roaring through the roof where the skylights and tiles go unrepaired.

I like the Swan. I enjoy staying there, and sometimes even eat there. The staff are usually friendly, if too rushed to give a true personal service. But it is clear that a hotel that could make a good family run business and be sympathetically looked after is actually run by an organisation that has no love of it at all, other than a place to attach the money-sucking machine. If I stop there for more than a few days I get so cross at the lost opportunities, unimaginative marketing, and sheer neglect that I end up going somewhere else.

The prices are high for what you get, both in the restaurant and in the accomodation, so I cannot give it more...

Room was really nice, although it wasn't a particulary hot night and it was really hot and stuffy, even with window open as much as it would go..... however, breakfast next morning from start was NOT good!!. We entered the food area, with 2 members of staff just stood chatting. We looked around, didn't know if we had to serve ourselves, a particular place to sit or give our room number to anyone. NEITHER member of staff acknowledged us. I then asked the male one, "do we just sit down anywhere?" and his reply was "pretty much!"..... so we chose a table, then went up to help ourselves to items. NO bowls. I then asked for these. NO side plates by toaster so got some from table. We ate our toast/granola... still no one had taken our order for breakfast or drinks!!. 15 mins had now fine by with these two members of staff passing us several times. Eventually I got fed up and another member of staff appeared. " Could you take our order " I asked. She had just started her shift and thought we were waiting for our food at to arrive!. Her name was KERRY and it seems she is the ONLY member of staff with any customer service skills. In due course our food arrived, not particularly impressed with that either. And our coffee was served.... NO milk. " Could we have some milk" I asked the male. In the silver churn apparently!. And this was empty! 3 other guests asked during a space of 5 minutes for milk too... this male then walked through swinging a plastic bottle of milk saying "Any one for milk?".....To be quite frank we had planned in staying around the area and going back for lunch but after this breakfast experience changed our minds!. Only one member of staff said "good morning" to us and this was a domestic staff member. And we were not thanked or anything else by the, what i can only assume was the manager at the desk when we handed our key back in...... Would I stay here again, probably not. Would I recommend it, no is the answer. I have been working in hospitality for over 22 years, and quite frankly I have sacked staff that have had better customer service than the two we encountered. A certain amount of this I feel comes from lack of training by the management but common curticy and common sense has to come into it...

I do not recommend staying or eating here.|We stayed in one of the superior rooms, which looked lovely on the website. All looked good and well when we arrived the room was clean and felt warm. This was mid afternoon. By late afternoon the radiator was tepid and the room was starting to get quite chilly. Luckily a small electric fan heater was provided in the room. The radiator in the bathroom was stone cold and did not come on at all during my 2 night stay. |Went down to dinner in the evening. We have never experienced such a poor meal in a hotel before. We both ordered steak. I had a rump with salad. The salad was cheap and mediocre and the steak was so tough and gristly it was inedible. Very overpriced for the such poor quality. We also did not recieve the 20% discount for booking our room directly through the hotel (which is actually more expensive |than booking through say Booking.com.|On going to bed we found the bed comfy enough but the duvet was dreadfully cheap, lumpy, thin and did not fit the bed adequately. I believe it was a double quilt disguised in a kingsize cover on a kingsize bed. I was cold all night for two nights. |I tried warming up in the morning with a bath. The bath water was obviously temperature controlled for safety but this was Luke warm. In an already cold bathroom due to no heat. Bearing in mind our stay was in the middle of a cold winter. |We did not attempt breakfast in the dinning area due to our awful dinner experience so bought ourselves instant porridge pots which only required hot water using the kettle provided. The only good thing i would say about this hotel is the staff we encountered. They were lovely, helpful...