Harben House

Newport Pagnell is a lovely historic town in its own right, with a quiet, comfortable holiday feel and an old English atmosphere. If you want to visit the town but avoid a Victorian building with ghosts, this hotel suits that well. From the window you can enjoy a nice view, depending on the floor, and still imagine ghosts looking out at it. There are great air panoramas and a lovely atmosphere around the old town. The location is excellent: right by Aston Martin heritage, a beautiful park, and a bus stop, with nice restaurants and great shops just around the corner. It's about 15 minutes by bus to the central railway station, and in a quarter of an hour you can reach central MK mall, the theatre, or Campbell park if you prefer the modern area. For a three-star hotel, though I'm no expert, the suite is huge. It's a modern building and everything works, including the TV and shower. There's also a spacious lobby with fukra black armchairs in a modern style, without fake neo-baroque pretending to be antique, which is great. The hotel has a huge parking area too.

The staff were generally friendly and helpful, and I had no major problems in my room. Some colleagues did have cold showers on our first morning. My main concern was how restrictive the meal times were compared with other hotels in the same price bracket.

The staff were amazing, but they couldn't work miracles. I couldn't get into my room until 7.30pm, and the lift worked for only about 10 minutes each day. From the ground floor to the third is 70 steps. The food wasn't good apart from breakfast, which was plentiful. A friend's room had ants, and my shower wouldn't turn on, though a staff member came to help along with a very sullen maintenance man. The toilet was in the corner of the room with no door or divider. I filled the basin, went to get a towel, and it had emptied itself. There was one more very disturbing incident I can't put here. Ben, the manager, even cleaned my toilet himself.

Good value for the price, with small but comfortable rooms. The main annoyance was the fire doors: they all slammed loudly whenever someone went through, with no soft close.