We
stayed at the Cotswold House Hotel due to a wedding that was happening there, so
it wasn't really by choice but after seeing the website, we were really looking
forward to it. The checking was pleasant enough, with helpful and friendly
staff. We had to unload the car then drive round the back to the private car
park, then walk through the gardens back to the hotel. The gardens were very
much ""typical English country house"" and of a high standard. Once in we were
shown to our rooms (they had already placed the bags in it), which was down the
most bizarre maze of corridors. The reason for this was that the hotel consists
of many buildings together in the high street and as they've bought a building
next door, they've extended the hotel. Quite novel.The interior of the hotel; reception, seating areas, hallway, corridors, etc.. was really funky and exciting. Even the toilets had a DVD playing in the wall and cool fibre optic lamps in the ceiling - all very nice, but it's a toilet?! Anyway, when we were shown to the room we were initially disappointed - it was not spacious. It had a lovely large bed, a chaise lounge, table and television, all crammed in what was really quite a small room. The room was decorated extremely well and it was certainly comfortable. The bathroom was again, small, but quite funky.
During our stay we spent time in the lounge, which we thought small, we found it difficult to get service at (20 minutes wait?) and were very hot (being middle of the summer and the room having inadequate ventilation). As a second impression, not too good. We later attended our friends wedding in a nice, air conditioned room looking over the gardens, and ate in the main dining room, which was an extended building opening on to the gardens. The food was very good and the staff attentive.
After
the wedding had finished we wished to have a nightcap in the bar / lounge, but
this appeared to be a problem. We had to wait a long time, then find staff who
were then reluctant to operate the bar. After being made to feel that we were
putting them out we went to bed. On return to the bedroom we found it swelteringly hot. It was a hot day and we had left the bedroom windows open, but when we came back we found the maid had closed the windows! They was a fan, but this did little to ease the stifling heat. We had a very uncomfortable night's sleep and actually got up early just to get in the car (air conditioned!) and get out of there.
Our view of Cotswold House Hotel is that it's nice, but VERY overpriced. For £300 one expects a certain standard of accommodation, one that has air conditioning and is of a reasonable size - not a small, crammed room with inadequate ventilation, plus some reasonable facilities (apart from 'nice garden' they had little). Cotswold house did not meet our expectations.
