The Sir William Fox Hotel

Small room far from the city centre but it does what it says on the tin

Clean room. Friendly staff. Nice breakfast. Would stay again. I wanted to leave a possitive review as although it might have been a little dated and had a few squeaky floor boards we had a lovely night. Hand sanitiser dispensers outside each room was also a plus :-)

We stayed in the suite, which is very spacious and overlooks the leafy quiet road. Staff are friendly and helpful and our room was clean and comfortable. Feather duvet and good quality mattress ensured a great night's sleep and the excellent full English breakfast set us up for the day. Highly recommended.

We were in room 2 which was not shown in any photos online! It was absolutely awful , damp patches on the walls, three plug in air fresheners, to hide the damp smell! Carpet filthy, huge room no wardrobe just a rail with only one hanger! The bed was faux leather and every part of it was scratched and ripped! The mattress was marked! The bathroom door didn't close properly, the units in the bathroom were old and wooden well past their sell by date! The bottom of the shower screen was dirty and black mould! The white blinds in the room were dirty and dead flies on the window ledge! Most of the bathroom lights didn't work. They did change our room the next morning to room 15 which was much better, but, still dusty, the Windows didn't open and it was very hot weather, also when I tried to close the shower door it came off the rail and had black mould. Will never be back. When we complained about room 2 they didn't seem interested . I guess this Is why they charge you before you even see the rooms! Do not pay until you see the room!

we arrived at the front door and was greeted by a young man when asked about the parking he was unable to offer advice. the decor is very dark and dingy. The room itself was very dark decor and the floor was very squeaky. the ensuite was basic and in need of updating .the lighting in the bathroom was poor once the shower curtain was drawn it blocked all the light . the shower was ok but looked dirty. The bed was very uncomfortable and on closer inspection it was a 5ft mattress ontop of a 4ft 6(double base). the cheap waterproof mattress protector made us sweat which was unbearable in the current hot weather. The duvet was very lumpy and too heavy. The service at breakfast was poor, no good morning tables not set to a basic standard ,milk left out during hot weather not ideal. not enough tables for guests to sit at some guests made to sit outside good job the weather was dry. Tables were not cleaned in a covid safe manner in between customers. Basically the whole place needs an overhaul and customer service training given to all staff. We left the premises without anyone saying hope you enjoyed your stay so we were unable to give any feedback. In fact the only staff were the breakfast chef and the waitress who was working hard but had no customer service skills whatso ever. On a positive note the hotel was in a good location for our needs.

I had booked this hotel following a recommendation in the national press highlighting the less visited beaches around the UK coast; my wife being a huge fan of open water swimming and beaches in general. Sadly, as I was to find out, that was in March in the fervent hope that by July, and our anniversary, the restrictions that had curtailed many previous UK bookings would be sufficiently lifted. So the plethora of horror reviews weren't visible at that time. We arrived at around 3:00pm after a lovely restorative lunch at the nearby SeaChange Cafe; well after the advertised 2:00pm room access time. Suffered the same ignominy of other reviewers of searching an otherwise empty hotel to find someone to show us to our room. Went out the front to ring the bell several times, searched the restaurant area and other accessible points to no avail until around the fourth attempt we were seen to. The fact that the phone was visible with multiple flashes on the amber "message" light suggested we weren't being treated unusually. Same situation as other reviewers in that we were first asked to pay for the total cost of the room despite having paid a 50% deposit back in March via their own booking software!. To add insult to injury we showed the transaction record identifying the paid 50% amount and were then subject to a painful maths exercise of several goes at a calculator to divide the full amount by half to get the residual balance [which was patently obvious the same amount we had already paid]. Which somehow ended up different to our original payment? As the room was advertised as "including breakfast" I had enquired, at the time of booking in March, whether we could be afforded a vegan alternative to fit with our diet. Never received an answer. Emailed directly 4 weeks before our visit, again, to be told that a vegan breakfast would not be an issue. Reinforced that at the time of the tortuous booking in process. Unsurprisingly for the next morning's visit we were presented with the challenge of whether we wanted Black Pudding with our Full English! Reiterating for the fourth time our vegan diet we were then presented with the elements of the said Full English that were vaguely vegetable or fungal [Baked Beans, Mushrooms and tomatoes] with two slices of dry toast. Now, to be fair, we weren't expecting smashed avocado on granary preceded by overnight oats but with the level of emphasis and the current demand for plant based diets our expectations were certainly higher than the result. In consequence we left early the next day, avoiding the culinary delights of the day before, and enjoyed a fantastic spread of vegan breakfast scran in Durham on the way home. I had ,sadly, not investigated the hotel's food hygiene rating beforehand [that'll teach me to be trusting of national press reporting] and was mortified, later, to see a Chronicle report of 2020 showing a one-star Hygiene rating for the hotel. To the room then. The room, a "Suite", was large and well la