The Ox Pub & Rooms — Restaurant in England

a very poor experience from a tired, dirty and poorly managed business.

booked a specific room via booking.com, all confirmed by the hotel, when I turned up I was told that it wasn't available that as I had only paid £79 that I would be staying in a small standard room - which wasn't was agreed.

staff member on her own (not safe for health & safety) very stressed blamed manager who had left and then stated that she was leaving at the end of the shift because like her colleague, it was badly run.

asked me for a suggestion to resolve the situation!!!

when I requested as refund as paid when booked, was told that as the hotel hadn't been paid by booking.com yet, that I'd have to wait until the hotel had been paid which maybe several days.

no senior management on hand, only when I suggested that contact be made with head office, that I spoke with them, did I get a refund and even then I still had to argue the point!

the bar was dirty, the outside tired and dirty, the car park full of rubbish and when shown to the alternative room (small double) I saw dirt and rubbish in the stairwell, the bed base was stained as were the net curtains.

I had to wait during the whole process for forty five mins to resolve it, no offer of a drink or to take a seat, given that I'd driven three hours to get there - people at the bar were kept waiting dirty glasses everywhere and foodstuffs, everywhere felt tacky and sticky.

Given the poor customer service, poor condition of the property and interior areas I'd be very mindful about wanting to stay here - if felt tired and grubby, not as the pictures suggest -...

Firstly, I never read the Tripadvisor reviews for this place prior to booking and I'm glad I didn't as I probably would have steered clear! ... having now read some of the more damning comments I can't fathom out how things could have been so bad for some! I wouldn't normally book a stay at pub/bar offering rooms preferring purpose built hotels and service; however on this occasion had little choice. What I can say about the OX is that I was pleasantly surprised by the size and quality of the room in addition to the cleanliness. We stayed in room 15 which is top floor so wouldn't be suitable for less able people due to the 2 flights of stairs however for us this was not an issue at all. A kettle and and water/biscuits are also supplied and replenished daily. Breakfast is available until 10am but we did not take this so cannot comment further apart from to say it looked good. The bar area itself is very nice and there is a good selection of drinks available. We ate at the Ox on the Saturday night at very late notice; the lady looking after the bookings went above and beyond to arrange a dinning area for us as the bookings were basically at capacity. As a consequence we had a very pleasant evening at the OX. The food was good; a mixed platter for starters and a a couple of Wagyu burgers finished off with a couple of deserts. Additionally, I can honestly say the service throughout from every staff member was superb, it was a very busy night for them and yet I don't think any customer was impacted adversely. It is only a short walk to Poole shops and the Quay. I would recommend staying...

The AI review was ok, but it was the best price closest to where we were going. Plus their pictures showed Kir Royale cocktails, my wife's favourite. As this was for her birthday, that swung the deal. I had requested a quiet table for dinner, which was acknowledged by Booking.com, but the standard email from the Ox didn't . I repeated my request and thought no more of it. On arrival, the restaurant and dining area looked very nice, the staff were friendly, then pointed to the stairs leading to the bedrooms. I'm just glad we only had a couple of things for a one-night stay; to say they were vertiginous is an understatement. No offer of assistance was made (we are in our late 60's), but more worryingly, no comment was made about dinner. The room was in a very poor condition, apart from the shower room which looks very new. We would find out how poor later. We dropped our bags off and went to have a drink. Not only did they not have Kir Royale, the barman didn't know what it was. We went to the Britannia instead. Much better. ||We returned to our room and settled down for the evening. No such luck. There are 5 other pubs within 150m of the OX and at kicking out time, the noise was horrendous! I checked to see if a window was open, but they were all closed. The reason it was so noisy was the windows are only single glazed! As the Ox is right on the main A35, the rest of the night was not restful. We left without saying anything the next day, as I couldn't think of anything positive to say. In fact, if we had booked for 2 nights, I would have cancelled and...