Thelionwinchcombe Reviews 1

After a horrendous and mammoth failure on the part of the Horse & Groom who completely messed up our reservation with them, they (H&G) booked us into the Lion. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was or how far we’d have to drive, so I telephoned the Lion and asked for the check in details, they seemed a little confused at first and asked when I had booked (I felt my heart begin to sink) but after a while they came back and said “Oh yes, we still have your room we were expecting you earlier (I didn’t understand what they were on about) anyway I repeated “what’s the latest check in time?” and she said “we’ll the bar closes at 10pm so you’ll certainly need to be here by then” I thanked her. We arrived at the Lion Inn at about 9:40pm and it was pouring with rain, we had to park on the road outside and we hurried into the tiny reception area, I gave my name and the young girl replied “Oh we thought you weren’t coming”!
I asked about parking (bearing in mind we were total strangers and had no knowledge of the area) she said “well you can leave it parked on the road outside until 8am but then you’ll have to move as it’s restricted parking during the day and you may get a ticket” I asked if they had their own parking and she replied “no we have no private car park, you’ll have to move to a pay and display in the morning” but she didn’t say She where this was. “Breakfast is from 9am” so then I realise I have to move the car and find somewhere else to park before breakfast! She then told us our room number and directed us through a door to the outside rear of the property and said “just follow the stone steps up and you’ll find your room, the keys are in the door” So out we went, in the pouring rain, through a short dimly lit alley with some outbuildings, then we had to climb a dark flight of what seemed to be quite precarious and wet stone steps with a light which only came on once you had got half way up. We finally opened the door to our ‘room’ which was about the size of a very small box room just big enough for a very young single child. The first thing to hit us when we opened the door was the heat! It was like a furnace, overwhelming and unbearably hot. The radiator in the room was not on but the source of the heat was coming from the small en-suite shower room (yes it had an en-suite) which was modern, though small, yet still half the size of the bedroom. With no window the staggering heat from this tiny en-suite went straight through to the bedroom. The heat was coming from the towel rail which was impossible to turn off or down as both valves were seized solid and could not be operated. I measured the surface temperature of the towel rail at 64.8°C (the legal limit being 43°C) which is certainly enough to inflict a serious painful skin burn, particularly as the rail is so close to the W.C. pan that it is very difficult to avoid touching it with a naked leg when sitting on the loo! The bed, a small double, was quite a tight fit for the two of us but despite this, there was very little space left to manoeuvre around it in this ‘bijou boxroom’ and despite a reasonably comfy mattress sleep was difficult and minimal due mostly to the suffocating heat, even with the window open (which introduced rain and wind noise)! Plus, a very irritating, intermittent, loud mechanical noise every 15 or 20 minutes, for 3 or 4 minutes at a time, which seemed to be coming from somewhere below and went on all through the night! I think we may have been above the kitchen and this noise could well have been a large fridge or freezer compressor cutting in and out. At 8am I go to move the car. The pub is part of a long terrace and the only way to the street and our car is through the pub, but the door is locked, a notice on the door tells me that the door will be unlocked when the pub opens at 9am! I wander through the rear yard and seating area and find a gate and, surprise! The gate opens onto a large car park with tons of spaces! Would have been nice to have been told about this the night before! I now have quite a long circular walk, in the rain, through two roads, to reach my car and move it to the car park before I can think of breakfast. Other notable negative observations are:- There are two massive bedside lamps each side of the bed, these lamps are precariously balanced on very tiny tables and there is little room left to put any personal items, not only are the lamps too big for the tables they are also far too big for the miniscule room. More importantly and significantly worrying is the fact that each table lamp is connected with twisted electrical flex at the base and this flex is badly frayed which represents a serious safety hazard and a real risk of potential electric shock or worse! There's much more to say but Trustpilot doesn't provide enough space for these reviews so it's best to see my review on Tripadvisor.