The Barnstaple Hotel — Restaurant in North Devon

Security is lapse the reception desk empty when you walk into the entrance of the hotel ||The main reception is tucked away around the back of the hotel and the front door desk sits empty so when you arrive at the hotel no one to greet you you have to try find someone to ask where is reception it’s a bit of a walk away ||Reception desk should be at the front of a hotel to greet clients - they’ve got this all wrong here ||||Room furniture is so dated ||Sheets bed pillows clean comfortable ||Curtains marks and stains obviously not cleaned enough ||Bedroom door has large gap had to use a towel as a draft excluder ||||Noise from scaffolding works being carried out at the hotel hammering banging workmen’s bass radio playing - no reduction in price because of this - no chance of a sleep in ||||Outdoor pool so small and closed ||Indoor pool is so small picture isn’t accurate - in real life it’s a tiny pool ||Extreme moisture in the air not well ventilated at all ||||Indoor swimming pool was extremely busy overcrowded as much of the public and children come to swim anytime or day ||no protective time for paying hotel guests only to use the pool even though they’ve paid high price for a hotel room||||Seating by the pool but as I said air is over moistured you can’t breathe ||They need to merge the indoor and outdoor pool into one super large pool with a conservatory roof building with clear windows for light ||||They’d get more customers as more space to swim ||Atm it’s too small a pool for the amount of swimmers using it||||In the restaurant the staff are polite smart dressed attentive ||||the food beautiful wonderful food I enjoyed very much no complaints ||||Symphony of banging doors as you eat - the in/out doors to the kitchen from restaurant squeeky needs wd40 and they keep banging loud every few minutes when staff go in and out which was jarring and you cant relax in peace and eat your dinner when doors are banging constantly ||||Even sitting at the far end of the restaurant the banging doors to/from the kitchen was annoying ||||Music in the restaurant is too loud not background music at all - music and loud banging doors - can’t relax and have a meal to that ||||Staff need to sit and have a meal and be observant to sound and atmosphere ||||Restaurant quite small everyone’s crammed in ||||Parking is free plenty of spaces...

Disappointing Experience for a Birthday Stay with a Baby

We stayed at The Barnstaple Hotel to celebrate my birthday, hoping for a relaxing and enjoyable break. Unfortunately, the experience fell well below expectations and left us more stressed than celebrated.

Before our stay, my husband contacted the hotel to ask if they could do anything complimentary for my birthday — even something small. Sadly, the answer was a flat no, with no gesture or acknowledgement on arrival.

We were travelling with our 5-month-old baby, yet we were given an upstairs room with no lift access. Shockingly, we were told we could leave the pram in reception — which is hardly practical for any parent. To make matters worse, the room was the farthest possible from the stairs, making it difficult to manage with a baby and bags.

We inquired about a downstairs room and were told it was available, but the staff also mentioned that a door in that area slammed loudly whenever someone walked through, which would have been disruptive for our baby’s sleep. So we stayed upstairs, despite the inconvenience.

The bathtub was clogged, so water drained extremely slowly, which made bathing unpleasant and added to the frustration.

Dinner was another disappointment — there was a hair in my husband’s broccoli. Staff noticed but offered no apology or goodwill gesture. It wasn’t until checkout, when my husband raised the issue himself, that they offered to remove the drinks from the bill. This should have been handled at the time, not after the fact.

Finally, we were told that checkout was at 11 a.m., or extended to 1 p.m. for an extra £10. We rushed to leave by 11 a.m., only to find out afterward that we actually could have stayed until 1 p.m. at no charge — something that would have made a huge difference when travelling with a baby.

Overall, it felt like a series of poor decisions, lack of care, and missed opportunities. What should have been a special and enjoyable birthday stay turned into a stressful and...

I'm writing this as a vegan, travelling with 2 non-vegans. This hotel has a separate vegan dinner menu with a couple of starters and many main dishes. The food was very good so we had dinner there every night in the bar (better menu for us than in the restaurant, and an earlier 6pm start. The restaurant doesn't open until 7pm.) The chef made me a lovely vegan biscoff cheesecake a couple of times, so I didn't feel deprived of a decent dessert (better than the usual offering of fruit salad or sorbet!) and they do have vegan ice cream. I would suggest offering some simple desserts like vegan pancakes which are so easy to make. The bar and restaurant are wheelchair friendly. Breakfast was very good too as they make the vegan cooked breakfast fresh in the kitchen to avoid the cross contamination of the public buffet! They have marmite if you ask for it, always a plus for me. So all good on the vegan front! The rooms are great too, and the pools are a bonus (but too hot really, especially the outdoor one heated to 32 degrees in the summer!) Service is excellent with very friendly, approachable and competent staff. This was our second stay and we wouldn't...