The Hampton Court Guesthouse

The room was clean and the shower was really good. Being upstairs made it quiet, though there were lots of stairs. Breakfast was fair, but it didn’t feel worth the B&B charge. We had to wait to order, and it seemed they’d forgotten us until we stopped a waitress. The breakfast room was very small and cramped. It’s a way out of the centre, though I knew that when I booked. It was okay, but pricey, and I expected more for what we paid. Most expensive B&B I’ve ever stayed in.

The rooms were roomy, the beds really comfortable, and we could walk to bars, restaurants and attractions. The train station was close too. Breakfast was very good, nothing like the stale hotel buffets you sometimes get, and the staff were easily the friendliest I've ever come across. They really made an effort to make our stay nice. The shower was the one drawback, with the temperature swinging from freezing to scalding every couple of minutes and only briefly becoming comfortable.

Three weeks before our trip, the hotel cancelled the booking I'd made about ten months earlier through a booking site for under GBP$100. They said my card had declined when they checked it, though I used that same card to book somewhere else afterward. I emailed the property and heard nothing. The booking site didn't reply either, even after I contacted customer service and updated the card as requested. When I tried booking directly later that day, there were no rooms for my dates, so I can only guess my cheaper booking was cancelled and resold for more. After reading Google reviews, I see this has happened to other people too. I had to book another hotel at a much higher price. It left a sour taste, even though my other holiday bookings haven't had this problem.

We were pleased with our stay, and breakfast was a nice surprise, with plenty to choose from: Scottish breakfast, cereal, toast, muffins and fresh fruit. We ended up at Hampton Court after Point A Hotel cancelled the reservation we'd made three months earlier at the last minute, without explaining why. We hadn't realised some rooms had shared bathrooms, which was a bit of a shock, but the staff were very helpful and we paid a little more to get a room with its own bathroom. They were very polite throughout.