Larkfield Priory Hotel

We needed a place to stay not to far from the channel tunnel and because we were traveling with 5 there was not much to choose from. We already knew it wasn’t the best hotel and upon arriving we were greeted by broken glass in the car park, peeling off paint and shouting guests but at least the bed seemed comfy. The room felt awfully hot and up in further inspection we found out that there was a huge heating pipe running through the room emitting so much heat that the room was above 30 degrees as it is also a heatwave. And no, it could not be switched off and no other rooms available. The shower from the kids bedroom only had hot water. After hardly any sleep we tried to see if we could get some compensation but the staff was extremely unhelpful. They obviously don’t care about people’s experiences and they have their cash and fill the rooms anyway.

Arrived in carpark general area was like a rubbish tip clearly not maintained at all and not even any parking bays marked out. Walked in hotel receptionist was friendly and helpful, this is where the good points ended ! Stairs up to the room, corridors, carpets were all very dated, tatty and not very clean. Entered the room which when we first walked in looked like it was ok but on closer examination we noticed how bad it was cobwebs on curtains, bird mess covered the windowsill. Only 1 bedside cabinet and no plugs anywhere near the bed there was a couple in the room all over the other side of the room, there was a fan in the room the cable was about 2 foot long so we had to move the table to put it on to get it near the bed to give us any relief from the heat ! Good point only 2 pillows requested some more and they arrived promptly. Tea making facilities were ok but didn’t anticipate the milk being off, would have expected a bottle of water and a couple of glasses to take tablets at least. Bathroom was adequate but the grout between the tiles on the flooring was filthy. Evening meal was an experience half the menu unavailable as the clay oven was out of action, was not good value for money at all and only thing we could have was a curry and rice and the service was poor. Breakfast was woeful went to make tea the milk turned lumpy again ! Made waitress aware but I didn’t bother to refill once she changed it, only 2 good things about the breakfast was the bread was fresh although only white on offer and the eggs were freshly cooked, bacon cremated and sausages certainly were not freshly cooked looked a few days old. All in all a dreadful experience and would never return fire exit door banging all night where people use it as a smoking area is more in keeping with a refuge for the homeless than a hotel couldn’t wait to leave !

I've known this location from when it was the Hunting lodge then the Lakefield Priory. Stayed last year (2025) under the new Hamlet name and was disappointed but not put off. It's local to family and our journey is around 5 hours in the car. Advertised as Dog friendly but that's a stretch. Only a handful of rooms can be booked with a dog and it's purely because they use lino on the floor not carpet. Cut to June 2026 stay. It's obviously a hot month and to have a hotel without any air con more efficient than and a standing fan just doesn't work. We booked a course or if weeks prior for room and breakfast with the dog. Arrived around 9pm or just before. Checked in at the front desk which wasn't smooth but we got it done. Nothing was said about breakfast and absolutely nothing was said about the extremely loud and overbearing birthday party going in in the function room. We opened the adjoining. Door from the lounge area of the nar and could barely hear ourselves. We went to the room as it was through a fire door and figured maybe it wouldn't be audible. Well it was, along with the room next to us that had the TV on clearly trying to drown out noise. However it went figured it would be a late end and so tried the window due to the heat. Opened the window to the courtyard and the music, noise, talking, vaping was in your face straight away. So we went to the front desk. I asked what time the party finished and was told around 11pm. Another 2 hours at that point. Now, Freddie (I think was his name) was great. Interested in helping, tried to help and tried to get his manager the hotel owner to help. To be fair if not for Freddie nothing would have been sorted. Another couple came out with their bags and said they could not stay there with that going on. So it was not just us. No one said anything about a party going in as we would have not stayed. So 2 different rooms later we found one that was at least quiet. Rajasthan kg and small but quiet. I might add that this was Freddie's doing, by this point the hotel manager didn't appear interested and we didn't see him again. He had said there were no other options. It was if course because of the dog. Seriously, it's not the cleanest place and we have a low melting medium breed, you'd never know he was there. There was still noise out from of the hotel from party people leaving and people taking but it did stop. The heat was terrible in the room but we got through it. In the morning we figured breakfast was around 8am so we walked the dog and came back. We could see about 3 or 4 couple already eating so went to go to a table around the edge with the dog. Was told no dogs allowed in the dining room. We had to sit in the bar/lounge area then go through to get out breakfast and walk it back via the dining room, bar and lounge. Again, no one had said a word about restrictions for the dog and us at any point. Food was not great. The pastry selection was okay but the cooked food was simply lacklustre. Could only have fried eggs not even scrambled. It was just done without much effort really. No one even checked us in or that we had paid for breakfast (we had). It's not somewhere I will go back to. Freddie and the young person (girl as an identifier apologies) were nice and truly deserved to be working somewhere better. It's a dog friendly place who's owners do not like dogs. It's a quiet hotel that is anything but and it's service is off iron rust and nowhere near silver. Don't go, don't stay, don't wake up in the morning sad and sorry.