The Crown and Thistle

“ Firstly, the receptionist was not very helpful about parking; she said that as she didn't drive, she couldn't really help. We ended up leaving our car on the street.

When we walked up the two flights of carpet-covered stairs to our rooms, we were appalled by the state of the carpet which was covered in stains.

The beds were not made properly - they looked liked they had been made in a hurry with the sheets lumpy and not fitting properly.

The lighting in the twin room was very bad with just a desk lamp providing the main lighting apart from the bedside table lamps which were dim. The lighting in the ensuite was also very inadequate and we had to turn the light over the mirror on to provide extra light.

During the night the twin room became stuffier and stuffier as a large sheet of perspex had been placed over the glazing of the only window - we could not open the window for ventilation.

My husband, had wanted to pay the bill the night before we departed, due to the fact that we needed to be in the city centre of Oxford very early in the morning. He was told by the receptionist that it wasn't necessary to pay the bill now as she would be at her desk at 6.30am in the morning and would deal with it then. She was not at her desk in the morning at that time; nor was anyone else. We had to wait until a receptionist (not her) turned up at 7am.

The ONLY person who seemed to be conscientious and efficient and a good representative of the hotel was the woman who made our breakfast. She was courteous and willing to help with our enquiries as to the best way to travel into Oxford. She looked after our needs at breakfast and made us feel welcome.

We definately would not recommend this hotel to anyone though to balance things out, the sheets were clean and there were tea-making facilities albeit the kettle looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time and ditto for the toilet which, whilst the inside of the bowl looked clean enough, the outside, going down the shank, was stained.