Grim's Dyke Hotel

My birthday treat was to be a Gilbert & Sullivan evening at Grims Dyke. My wife thought it might be a bit expensive to stay the night but enquired anyway and was told that, as an August Special, we could have any room or suite for £65 a night including bed and breakfast. She booked The Gilbert Suite and it was just wonderfull - huge bedroom overlooking the gardens with four poster bed, beautiful high ceiling and all the little extras that you usually pay a high premium for. Lovely bathroom with huge cast iron bath and a feeling of opulence.

The hotel is the former home of W S Gilbert but is not typically Victorian - all angles and quirks. Lovely grounds with lots of surprises - would not have expected redwood trees.

Gorgeous rose garden too.

Ok, we got it cheap, we had front row seats for the performance and the best table for breakfat. But we had a brilliant time enhanced by friendly staff amd lovely weather so absolutely faultless.

I have been stayinging in the Grims Dyke for 7 months, 3/4 nights a week.

I can honestly say thet the service that i have recieved from all staff ,everything from checking in at reception to using its wide range of services has been excelent.

The staff are very friendly and helpful no matter what the time of day or night.

The standard of the hotel is excellent and the suroundings are breath taking.

... but that was too much for them to be able to manage.

Stayed here are part of a wedding group. First the positives:

- fantastic location - peaceful and calm

- lovely building with a nice setting

On arrival though most of the rooms were not ready and this was still the case well after the stated check-in time. For example, the bride's parents couldn't get into their room until after 4pm (when check-in was supposed to be 2pm).

I was lucky and my room was ready at 3pm...

...or so I thought. When I turned up the room hadn't been cleaned. I was told that it definitely had been cleaned so I had to find someone from housekeeping myself and explain that a bed that had been slept in, used towels in the bath, and tea and coffee mugs still dirty didn't constitute a cleaned room.

The room itself was fine, if very basic and a bit tired. However, when we tried to use the shower we found it didn't work. We called reception who said this was a known problem with the room (!) and they would send someone to look at it. 10 minutes later and no-one had turned up. I called again and was told that I would just need to be patient and someone was on their way. After the 3rd phone call someone turned up and spent 10 minutes fiddling with the shower. Eventually they got it working (scalding hot). When I enquired why they let people stay in a room without a working shower he said that it wasn't broken - if it was he wouldn't be able to fix it. After 5 mins argument he finally admitted that the shower was faulty and they "often" had to send people to the room to "fix" it. I presume "often" in this case means "every day". I didn't get a proper apology - just a token few pounds off the bill after I demanded they tell me what they were going to do about it.

If you do have the misfortune to be staying here make sure you aren't in room 111. that way you at least have a fighting chance of being able to get a shower without waiting 45 minutes...