The Ivy House — Restaurant in England

Bed and Breakfast, booked well in advance. We also had lunch there prior to the family wedding that was the reason for the visit. ||Rambling old building, facing onto fields (across a busy road), family friendly garden (dangerous, large hole in the grass on approach to garden with no warning sign) to the rear. Sheltered seating/dining area with outdoor heating/lighting, as well as the Bar area for meals. Bar meals were good – well-presented and tasty food. The coffee is good quality and the beer is well kept. Access from the car park is via steep steps. Tables and chairs in the covered area had not been cleaned for the wedding reception booking. Bird mess is not welcome in a wedding reception. Insufficient cutlery and only small plates were put out for the buffet/wedding cake, and the vegetarian food did not contain any fresh veg/fruit.||‘The Captains Room” is a very small double-bedded room which faces out over the road to the fields beyond. We noticed the road noise straight away, single glazing in the only window and no curtains. Not a popular room judging from the powerful smell of the drains when we opened the door, stifling heat and the dust in the teacups – certainly not the like the sample room photograph on the website, surprised we were put in such a space when we’d booked well in advance and the room charged out at nearly £100 per night. The air cooler in the room was too noisy to use when trying to sleep and we disconnected the small fridge for the same reason. We had to wait until the wedding disco finished before going to bed – the noise in the room seemed as loud as in the disco itself, something to bear in mind if you stay when there’s an event on. ||The Room has low beams/doorway into the en suite and a beam near the toilet – even I, at approx. 5ft 5 inches, had to be careful! One of the beams has been thoughtfully covered in leather to lessen the impact if you hit your head. Ducking (or grousing!) is part of staying in older properties and we don’t mind that, nor do we mind smaller rooms for short stays, but they do need to be well laid out, clean, fresh and comfortable to offer value for money. The lack of space to even put one toiletries bag in the bathroom nor space to separate/air the towels we used (there were plenty of clean, white fluffy towels) was a shame. The shower, though it works well, is a grubby area. I had a shower holding my (miniature) hair and body shower bottle all the time because the only place to put it was on the tiny soap holder which was fitted at an angle so my bottle kept falling over! The hot water in the sink tap is very hot and the tap fitment is loose. The carpet in the bedroom is old and stained. There is very good coffee available in the room and fresh milk/oat milk is available from the Bar rather than the usual stale, fiddly catering packs. The only chair in the room is in the small hanging rail space (no room for a wardrobe) - there is no usable space to put the chair anywhere else in the current layout. When I was in the bathroom, I heard a sudden loud cracking sound – the bed had broken as my husband got into it - he’s 6ft but not overweight. Three members of staff came quickly to our assistance and fixed the bed when we phoned for assistance. We spent a hot, uneasy night, with a strong sense of the precariousness of the bed, sleeping on its furthest edges to lessen the risk of injury in case it gave way again. ||We were asked how we slept when we came down to breakfast, and we were honest about it, expecting that would be reflected in the final bill. It wasn’t. My husband was offered and accepted a bottle of wine – We’d decided in advance we didn’t want the wedding memories to be overshadowed by that room. I’m a non-drinker myself (one of only two guests at the Reception drinking non-alcoholic wine, so they were well aware). A bottle of wine after such a night hardly hit the spot.||My husband left a small item in the room which we were told would be sent on to us but it has not been received.||Overall experience - 2 stars despite the good dining experience - It’s a shame to throw away potentially good experiences over matters that are well within the owners’ control to get right - high standards | of maintenance/cleaning, good quality furniture and workable...

Hey, how about a bit of honesty, Ivy House? What really gets me about our really disappointing stay here was that it’s easy to manage customer expectations and over achieve – as a customer I can forgive mistakes and compromises when there’s a genuine reason or counterbalance but when such a load of minor and major failures in basics accumulate, it really means that standards aren't anywhere near good enough. ||What am I talking about? Well – the photo on the website of two of their ‘five comfortable rooms’ shows a crisp white comfortable looking bed, a little bit of space (within the limitations of a room in an old building), some nice touches re furnishings, a bit of a light and airy feel and a contemporary, natural colours carpet. It looks freshly painted as well. All in all, we were looking forward to staying there. On the TA review site here, they’ve also posted some photogenic rooms.| |But what was it really like? Well, we didn’t get either of the rooms in the website photos – or if we did, then the photos were taken ages ago. What did we get? A room that was really dingy, poorly lit with hardly any natural light and tiny windows – all lights had to be on during daytime. Ivy growing through the velux window which seemed permanently open (understandably as the room was like a sauna). Stained carpet. The creakiest and most uncomfortable bed/mattress. Slightly grubby – particularly the nooks and crannies of the bathroom. A lack of finishing detail in workmanship – again nooks and crannies. The most basic of showers, at least you won’t waste water because you will want to be in and out as quickly as possible. A hot water pipe runs under the room and heats the room constantly – the choice to cool down (or at least attempt to) is to open the small windows and be disturbed all night by the road noise (it’s a fairly busy A road) or use the fan they provide which works very well and is almost as noisy as the road but constant. With the heat, the noise, the creaking bed, the mattress giving no support we had a really disturbed and uncomfortable night. And that’s one of the most important things about a hotel, getting a comfortable night’s sleep. ||This was the worst night’s sleep we’d had for years and I really resented paying for it. Ninety quid. Not worth it. ||Their own description of their hotel states: ||Five deluxe doubles – we didn’t stay anywhere ‘deluxe||Spacious and stylish – not spacious, quite cramped around two sides of the bed. Not stylish in particular. Dingy, yes||Beautifully appointed rooms – you are having a laugh aren’t you? ||All manner of mod cons to make you feel right at home – no mod cons whatsoever. Bare minimum. If you’re counting wifi as a ‘mod con’ then you’re 20 years out of date.| |There's a flatscreen television for your entertainment – an old tech TV that's quite small, you haven't actually been able to buy TVs that aren't flatscreen for about 20 years or so, but if that's one of your selling points.....||A wonderfully comfortable double bed – a pretty uncomfortable old unsupportive mattress and a loud series of creaks every time you turn over.| |A deliciously fresh breakfast to wake up to – at last, a little redemption. Breakfast was quite good but to be honest it’s the standard you should expect anywhere. It wasn’t anything special and why do places still insist on serving up clichéd, tasteless, bland tomatoes when there are some really great flavours out there? And why do they over-microwave the baked beans so they start to dry out? Service wasn’t particularly with a smile, we’re sorry we seem to have disturbed your lie-in.||I really don’t like leaving negative reviews. Having worked in hospitality, I do know how much effort it takes to be good. But when standards are poor, and expectations aren’t set well and not met then it needs saying how it is to try and get...

Hey, how about a bit of honesty, Ivy House? What really gets me about our really disappointing stay here was that it’s easy to manage customer expectations and over achieve – as a customer I can forgive mistakes and compromises when there’s a genuine reason or counterbalance but when such a load of minor and major failures in basics accumulate, it really means that standards aren't anywhere near good enough. ||What am I talking about? Well – the photo on the website of two of their ‘five comfortable rooms’ shows a crisp white comfortable looking bed, a little bit of space (within the limitations of a room in an old building), some nice touches re furnishings, a bit of a light and airy feel and a contemporary, natural colours carpet. It looks freshly painted as well. All in all, we were looking forward to staying there. On the TA review site here, they’ve also posted some photogenic rooms.| |But what was it really like? Well, we didn’t get either of the rooms in the website photos – or if we did, then the photos were taken ages ago. What did we get? A room that was really dingy, poorly lit with hardly any natural light and tiny windows – all lights had to be on during daytime. Ivy growing through the velux window which seemed permanently open (understandably as the room was like a sauna). Stained carpet. The creakiest and most uncomfortable bed/mattress. Slightly grubby – particularly the nooks and crannies of the bathroom. A lack of finishing detail in workmanship – again nooks and crannies. The most basic of showers, at least you won’t waste water because you will want to be in and out as quickly as possible. A hot water pipe runs under the room and heats the room constantly – the choice to cool down (or at least attempt to) is to open the small windows and be disturbed all night by the road noise (it’s a fairly busy A road) or use the fan they provide which works very well and is almost as noisy as the road but constant. With the heat, the noise, the creaking bed, the mattress giving no support we had a really disturbed and uncomfortable night. And that’s one of the most important things about a hotel, getting a comfortable night’s sleep. ||This was the worst night’s sleep we’d had for years and I really resented paying for it. Ninety quid. Not worth it. ||Their own description of their hotel states: ||Five deluxe doubles – we didn’t stay anywhere ‘deluxe||Spacious and stylish – not spacious, quite cramped around two sides of the bed. Not stylish in particular. Dingy, yes||Beautifully appointed rooms – you are having a laugh aren’t you? ||All manner of mod cons to make you feel right at home – no mod cons whatsoever. Bare minimum. If you’re counting wifi as a ‘mod con’ then you’re 20 years out of date.| |There's a flatscreen television for your entertainment – an old tech TV that's quite small, you haven't actually been able to buy TVs that aren't flatscreen for about 20 years or so, but if that's one of your selling points.....||A wonderfully comfortable double bed – a pretty uncomfortable old unsupportive mattress and a loud series of creaks every time you turn over.| |A deliciously fresh breakfast to wake up to – at last, a little redemption. Breakfast was quite good but to be honest it’s the standard you should expect anywhere. It wasn’t anything special and why do places still insist on serving up clichéd, tasteless, bland tomatoes when there are some really great flavours out there? And why do they over-microwave the baked beans so they start to dry out? Service wasn’t particularly with a smile, we’re sorry we seem to have disturbed your lie-in.||I really don’t like leaving negative reviews. Having worked in hospitality, I do know how much effort it takes to be good. But when standards are poor, and expectations aren’t set well and not met then it needs saying how it is to try and get...