Hotel berhampiran Hanborough, Church Hanborough

The Bear announces that it is where history meets luxury. We saw a lot of history but little luxury! There was an event in Woodstock which meant accommodation was scarce. We were going to a funeral and desperately needed a bed in he area. We have never paid £350 for Bed and Breakfast before, plus, of course the £10 car park charge, but decided it was necessary. Our room (34) was a long way from the reception and being in our mid seventies some help negotiating the various doors and stairs with our luggage would have been helpful. The room was very very hot when we arrived but we were pleased to see the air conditioning. However, the control pad was complicated and there were no instructions. We sorted it out eventually and the temperature started to drop. We left the room for an hour and when we returned the air conditioning had reverted to some preset programme and was attempting to return the temperature to 32 deg! It was the middle of the night before it became comfortable. Fortunately we had brought a bottle of water with us, there was certainly none in the room, just an empty fridge. The fabric of the roman blinds in our room was shredded, they looked pretty historical. Cannot fault the cooked breakfast my husband had, but the fruit salad we would both normally have chosen was cut in huge unappetising chunks. I had to tell the staff that the apple juice was fizzy and fermenting and the toast was overcooked and made from such thin bread it was almost inedible. When we arrived we were pleased to see one or two spaces in the carpark but it is so narrow that it is almost impossible to get into them. Took about 20 minutes of shuffling. The receptionist had omitted to tell us there was another area along the back road. We had a drink in the bar during our evening at the hotel which was spoilt by the loud conversation from behind the bar, mainly a monologue by the barman. We wont be going back.

Hotel ini indah, dan orang ramai lebih akomodatif. Rakan saya sedang mengepam kerana dia tidak membawa bayinya dan mereka menyimpan blok penyejuk beku yang dia perlukan untuk memastikan susu sejuk di dalam peti sejuk mereka semalaman sementara dia menggunakan peti sejuk di dalam bilik untuk memastikan ia kekal segar. Mereka memberikan kami gelas wain untuk wain yang kami bawa bersama kami dan juga membenarkan kami menggunakan corkscrew mereka apabila kami menyedari kami telah membeli sebotol dengan gabus. Semua orang sangat cantik dan saya pasti akan tinggal lagi. Lokasinya bagus kerana anda boleh mengejar taman dan menaiki bas dari berdekatan untuk masuk ke pusat Oxford. (£2 untuk satu, £3 untuk pulangan) pasti akan menginap lagi!

Looking at previous reviews of this hotel, I can only think that our experience here was an unusual one but we were quite disappointed with our stay. Our room (3) was tiny (in hindsight we should have booked a more expensive one), and was uncomfortably small for two people with nowhere to put bags down or hang up clothes apart from a few hangers on coat hooks. The lighting was poor and it had a very rattly industrial fire door into the bathroom, which seemed amusing at first, but wasn’t quite so funny in the middle of the night when it clanged shut if you let it go! In fairness, other rooms on the websight looked gorgeous, I wish we’d booked one of those! Not the hotel’s fault, we just expected our room to be better for the price. Also disappointing was that the food on both nights was below average with limited menu choice and lots of dishes being unavailable.. This was a shame because it was my birthday ‘treat’ but fell far short of what we expected from a so called ‘luxury’ hotel. I can only think they were having a couple of off days and we were just unlucky. On a positive note, it’s a very eclectic place, decor is rustic, bordering on scruffy but still interesting, the staff are very friendly and the bar and restaurant have a warm and welcoming atmosphere, but when we were there the poor staff were run off their feet which resulted in patchy service and difficulty reserving a table, However, despite the problems the staff were very nice people especially the bar manager who tried her best to make up for the various menu shortfalls and discounted our drinks and food bill as an apology, which we very much aporeciated, but sadly I still don’t look back on our stay and feel that it was all that great, not really as special as we hoped it would be given all the hype. Based on our experience I wouldn’t recommend it or go again.

I booked this hotel for a weekend get away foe me and my partner. It was an early birthday treat, i advised the hotel this upon booking and they were fantastic enough to put a banner up and left a few little goodies for her which was amazing, very nice touch. The hotel staff were friendly, polite and courteous. Would definitely look at booking again in the future if we are down that way again.

Booked in December for 1st-3rd July as we were going to Silverstone for the Grand Prix weekend and the Hollybush was pretty much the nearest accommodation to the track still available. I received email confirmation from both booking .com and the Hollybush direct confirming dates and expected arrival time in December. At 14.15 on Friday 1st July whilst we were in the stands at Silverstone watching the F1 I received a call from the Hollybush that there had been a mistake and they couldn’t accommodate us and basically didn’t care that we had nowhere to stay and only explanation was an error in the booking system.

Arrived late afternoon wasn’t aware of parking system but you log registration in lobby unfortunately this wasn’t working so we put our number on paper so staff can enter it after repair man came to fix which he didn’t so given direct number to hotel to cancel tickets if one arrives but one month on has not but still am keeping number. Staff on front desk great was given choice of room so we picked upstairs round back so quiet and did the job for our early visit to Bicester Village plenty of options to eat in services we never had to go out