The Bird In Hand, Knowl Hill — Restaurant in England

Our one-night stay at the B&B on Saturday, April 26th, 2025, proved to be quite underwhelming. While the property initially presented well, several issues detracted from our experience. The building itself has a pleasant exterior, and the initial impression upon entering was positive. Check-in was swift, and the staff efficiently directed us to our our standard double room first-floor room. A significant portion of the room was under the eaves. The single, high-set skylight offered no discernible view beyond the sky. Security felt somewhat lacking, with only a chain lock on the inside of the door. The bed, two single mattresses pushed together, was firm and noticeably higher than my home bed, though not as tall as Premier Inn's. In-room amenities included tea and real coffee with a French press, a thoughtful touch. However, as a non-caffeine drinker, I was only provided with a single camomile tea bag. A small fridge contained fresh milk and two bottles of water, with a rather steep £5 charge per bottle if consumed. The fridge became a nuisance overnight, cycling on and off and disrupting my sleep. While I could have unplugged it, I opted not to. The room also featured a radio tuned to Classic FM upon arrival (leading to a moment of questioning if we were in the correct room!) and a Freeview TV. The TV's functionality was limited, with approximately a third of the channels not working, including BBC1 HD (no sound) and BBC News HD (no picture or sound). It appeared the TV needed retuning, as defunct channels like 4Music were still listed. Charging options were scarce, with only one double socket with USB ports located under the TV, and no bedside sockets. The bathroom was adequate, featuring a shower over the bath. However, the absence of a grab rail made getting in and out potentially difficult. The toilet was notably unclean and appeared grotty (see photo). The towels were acceptable but showed significant signs of washing. Toiletries were limited to basic, large-bottle dispensers without any extras like shower caps. The panels under the sink and behind the toilet looked somewhat damaged. The wardrobe contained a meager three coat hangers, which would be insufficient for longer stays or multiple occupants. A hairdryer and ironing board were provided. Our evening meal in the restaurant was unremarkable. The food was acceptable in quality, but the limited menu felt overpriced for standard pub fare. The selection of only two real ales was disappointing for a brewery-owned establishment. Surprisingly, the pub remained very quiet throughout the Saturday evening, the reason for which was unclear.Breakfast the following morning was a genuine letdown. The B&B rate included their "smaller cooked breakfast" (with a £4 surcharge for the full English) and a single, small serving of tea, coffee, or juice with no refills. Considering the smaller breakfast cost £14 if ordered separately on a room-only basis, its quality was particularly disappointing. While other menu options were available, there was no buffet. My request for water was never fulfilled. The bacon was excessively fatty, and the eggs were unusually small. The sourdough bread was unpleasantly tough. This breakfast did little to prepare us for the day ahead. Throughout our stay, we were never asked if we needed anything further or offered an opportunity to provide feedback. Despite booking directly with the pub, I later discovered that Booking.com offered a better rate. Upon checking out, we were not asked about our experience, although I subsequently received two automated emails requesting a Google review. Overall, our stay was disappointing. While the building has potential, the issues with the room, limited amenities, poor breakfast, and lack of engagement with guests left a negative impression. I regret not having chosen an alternative...

Abysmal customer service. Staff here are argumentative, aggressive, and have an air of contempt for guests. We stayed for one night, as part of a wider wedding booking. We arrived on the day of check in at 1:30pm and inquired about checkin. Was told we couldn’t have the room until 3pm (fine, we didn’t mind) but one staff member (a lady) told us we could the key for the room until she was quickly corrected in front of us by another staff member (a man). Fine. We asked how late check in was possible as we were going to a wedding (which they knew since this was part of a group booking). They said 11pm, which of course didn’t work for us as we were headed to the wedding. They said they could leave the key in the door of the room for us. This is obviously less than ideal, as it gives anyone access to the room and one could potentially come back to an unwelcome surprise in the room. They assured us they do this all the time and haven’t had issues. Well, that’s great for them, but let’s not start now and it was obviously not our preference. Now, why couldn’t they give us the key? Well we were told it was because we were going to a wedding and guests lose their keys which becomes an issue for the hotel. All very silly given if we had stayed two nights, we would’ve had the key already and wouldn’t this still be an issue?

Now, during this time. We gave all our payment details for the stay across to them, so everything was sorted from our end. We started to leave but I came back to ask, if I come back after 3pm to check in, can I have the key then? To which I got a yes, and so we went to leave and made plans to come back during the wedding celebrations to come get this key. As we were about to leave the parking lot, the lady kindly came and gave us the key (likely realising how ridiculous the whole situation was). We appreciated this but to be quite frank, the back and forth and the blatant lies about guests/keys/weddings, were truly unnecessary and already gave us an indication of the type of place this is.

The next morning, we headed down for breakfast at 10:05. We were told that breakfast was from 8-10, and we had been informed this on check-in (which we absolutely were not because of their focus on themselves and their keys). Essentially, it was a too bad, so sad. They wouldn’t even give us coffee or water until I pointed out that it was literally the least they could do to make a bad customer service situation better. The lady did offer us a coffee at this point but we had such a bad taste in our mouth we just wanted to leave. Mind you, as we said goodbye to others from the wedding who were sat outside for breakfast, we could see multiple dishes just coming out.

The only acknowledgment from staff of having been absolutely horrific in terms of customer service was an “I’m sorry you feel this way” from the lady, which is more insult than apology. As we left, the man asked “what do you want us to do”, so let me re-emphasise what I said: give customer service. That was severely lacking here.

More top tips: don’t be rude, argumentative and aggressive.

If you’re planning to stay here, don’t. If you’re booking room blocks for weddings here, don’t. Look elsewhere. There are so many nice places in the area, don’t waste your money on a roadside motel experience with...

I stayed at this hotel for 4 nights because of a work trip, and unfortunately cannot recommend it at all.|•The door of my ground floor room opened straight into the beer garden, with garden tables being just a few metres away from my front door. This meant that I could clearly hear all the noise (singing, loud music, loud conversations) while in my room, and people also kept accidentally hitting my door. Not too bad or late as I stayed here from Sunday to Thursday, but I would imagine on warm Friday or Saturday nights you wouldn’t be able to get much sleep due to the noise.|•One of the pillows was absolutely filthy and stained and so was the duvet.|•The fridge was very noisy and right next to the bed, so it kept me awake all night. I was tempted to unplug it but then wouldn’t have been able to have milk with my cup of tea in the morning, as there were no long-life milk sachets, just fresh milk in the fridge. |•The lighting is very dim – there was no ceiling light, just two dim bedside lights and a dim desk lamp. So it was impossible to work or study in the room as it was so dark.|•Despite there being three good size mirrors, it was impossible to do my make-up as there wasn’t sufficient lighting anywhere, including the bathroom.|•The bed was really uncomfortable and I could feel the springs. After four nights, my back was killing me. |•Only one free power socket in the room, and it was nowhere near the desk, so it wasn’t possible to use my laptop while plugged in, and it wasn’t possible to use more than one device at a time. |•The obscured bathroom window wasn’t quite obscured enough for my liking and I felt quite uncomfortable using the shower / toilet. A net curtain or blinds would be good. |•You have to push / pull the front door quite hard to lock it and it is not obvious whether it has been locked, and could easily be left unlocked accidentally.|•Large gaps around and below the door, which meant cigarette smoke from the beer garden just outside my room got into my bedroom.|•One morning, around 6.30am, some contractors turned up to empty the septic tank, which was rather noisy and smelly. I was already about to leave for work so it didn’t bother me too much, but it is probably not the nicest way to be woken up when on holiday.|•No food shops nearby – the garage shop next door has a very minimal selection and no fresh fruit etc. Driving to the nearest supermarket was a one-hour round trip during the rush hour. |•Bathroom a bit run down and the shower curtain could do with a wash, or...