Hotel du Vin & Bistro Cambridge

The bed was large and comfortable, and I liked the room once we got there. The bath was enjoyable, the water pressure was good, and there was a nice range of tea and coffee. The staff were accommodating, and the location worked well for us. I’m sure we’ll stay again, hopefully with a bit of help next time. Getting around the old building was a struggle. It felt cramped and like a rabbit warren, especially with our pram and bags. There’s a small lift, but we still had to carry things up stairs to our room. They knew we had a baby and pram because they’d set up a cot, so it would’ve been helpful if someone had offered to help us at reception.

The old-fashioned layout was really cool, and the bar made the visit. Poppy was so friendly and hospitable. She recommended me, a wine connoisseur, the Altitudes Red, and it’s become a personal favourite. We’d heard good things before arriving, but the experience still blew us away. 10/10.

Sunday lunch service was in full swing and the restaurant was packed when my cousin, his wife, their son and I arrived for food and drinks without a booking. Poppy looked after us, taking everyone downstairs to the bar for a drink while we waited for a bistro table. She made a big fuss of my nephew, little Marlowe, and made us feel very welcome. All the staff were accommodating. A really friendly place to eat great food!

The location was excellent, and the building has charm. Our room was lovely too, with beautiful furnishings, a bed I wanted to take home and L'occitane toiletries. But for what we paid, the service and problem handling fell well short. We wanted to love our stay, though the poor training, trouble resolving basic issues and lack of flexibility over a takeaway breakfast made it hard to recommend. Better staff training and more attentive management could make this a fantastic hotel, but that wasn’t our experience. We’d chosen Hotel du vin for our Cambridge trip because of its reputation, strong booking ratings and reasonable value, and we’d decided to spend a little more on accommodation. At check-in, we asked whether we could get a breakfast bag on the last day, since we had a 2 am departure for our flight. The receptionist said they didn’t do that. We’d paid extra for the quite expensive breakfast and couldn’t remove the final day from the booking, so that was our loss. Something also seems to have gone wrong with the room assignment. The central heating was off, and we woke to a room at 12 degrees Celsius, or 53 Fahrenheit. The thermostat had no effect. My husband went to reception, where a different person said they’d turned the heating back on centrally, but the room stayed cold. After our third complaint, we were told they’d done all they could. As a last attempt, a staff member came up and manually turned off the system feeding outside air into our room. That worked, halfway through our stay. Other incidents also showed how poorly trained the young staff were in hotel operations and solving problems. Nobody was rude, and everyone we dealt with was polite, but politeness only goes so far when basic things aren’t working.