Ye Olde Bell Hotel & Restaurant

This is is a very charming hotel with lots of history. I was warmly welcomed on arrival and the problem with my room tv was promptly resolved. My room was nicely decorated and the bed was very comfortable resulting on a good night's sleep for the three night stay. The lady welcoming for breakfasts was fantastic, friendy and very efficient and well organised. The breakfasts are cooked to order. The cooked breakfast looked fabulous but I prefer omelette and each day they were fabulous too! A good range of fresh fruit and pastries to compliment. I only ate in the restaurant for one night and it was an excellent experience. Fish and chips again cooked to order which made for a lovely meal in a nice dining area. Lovely hotel and great staff.

I have stayed at this hotel previously and had a lovely experience in one of the courtyard rooms, so unfortunately this stay was particularly disappointing. I arrived at around 6.30pm and the lady who checked me in was lovely and extremely helpful. I asked whether there were any courtyard rooms available, but the hotel was full and I was allocated Room 31 in the main building. The room itself was fine, but the hotel overall is beginning to feel quite tired. The carpets could do with replacing or refreshing and some of the communal areas felt grubby and in need of repainting. However, the real problem was the soundproofing. I went to bed at around 11pm and at approximately 1am was woken by a group of guests talking and shouting in the corridor outside my room. One guest mistakenly thought my room was hers, before the group eventually moved upstairs. Unfortunately, I could then continue to hear them from the room above. The insulation was so poor that I could hear conversations and noise from both the bathroom and bedroom extremely clearly. I was kept awake for well over an hour. I appreciate that hotels cannot control every inconsiderate guest, but they can provide an adequate level of sound insulation between bedrooms. In this case the walls/floors felt paper thin, which made the experience feel far below the standard I would expect from this hotel. There was also little interest shown at checkout — nobody asked how my stay had been and there was no offer of assistance with my bags. Perhaps most disappointing of all was what happened afterwards. The hotel contacted me directly asking me to provide feedback on my stay. I responded with a detailed account of what had happened, including the positive comments about the receptionist as well as the problems I experienced. They never responded. Not even an acknowledgement. If a hotel actively asks guests for feedback, I think it is reasonable to expect that serious negative feedback is at least acknowledged. Ignoring it completely rather undermines the point of asking for it in the first place. A very disappointing experience, particularly as I had enjoyed previous stays here.

Had a fabulous evening of celebrating our Daughters 50th birthday! All 9 of our family had the Steak Night, and were looked after by Billy & his amazingly dedicated staff team. The steaks were delicious, thankyou to the Chef for giving us so much choice! Its not just another meal out, Ye Olde Bell has always had that special place feeling !! Thankyou so much Lynda & Alan & Emma