Barrows House

We visited for a friend's wedding and it was perfect. The wedding and reception were inside the building and we were extremely impressed. The food and service was exceptional. It is a beautiful town and I would love to come back one day. We had a large group for dinner the night before the wedding and then a larger group for the reception and everyone commented that the food and service was outstanding.

I want to give a huge shout out to the Barrows House team, particularly Renee and Colleen, for going above and beyond to make sure my family had a great vacation. My family of four (including a 3 year old and a baby) arrived at a rental house on Saturday for a week long vacation and were extremely disappointed with the accommodations. I was scrambling and reached out the BH team late that night to see if they could relocate us to one of their rentals. They answered my request that evening, and by the next afternoon, we were in a beautiful home managed by the Barrows House. From there on out, we had a magical stay. They literally saved the day for our family and for the vacation that we were so looking forward to. I am forever grateful for their kindness and will be a lifelong guest of and advocate for this special hotel!

Barrows House is a beautiful property and well maintained. The outdoor salt water pool is exceptional. The restaurant is nice and the food above average. The wait staff and bartenders are friendly and hard working. Overall, my experience was good and I would visit again but not before trying other places in the Dorset and Manchester area. I do have a few minor complaints. First, the floor in the bar area was really sticky during both days of my visit. It appears the floor is not cleaned on a daily basis. Second, my room was stocked with coffee, tea, and water but there was only one decaf pod out of the 20 stocked. The rooms are not serviced on a daily basis so fresh towels, and coffee pods, can only be had by asking at the front desk. My main complaint is the front desk staff. They seem poorly trained and not very professional. Here is one example, from several, during my stay. Breakfast is served at either the Dorset Bakery or the Dorset Inn, both of which have the same owners as Barrows House. I was given a voucher for breakfast and told it could be used at either establishment but never told that the days alternate between the two establishments. On the day of my departure I did not have time to sit for breakfast at the Dorset Inn. I went to the bakery but they declined my voucher and informed me that breakfast was only being served at the Dorset Inn. We spent $15 for coffee and bagels and then went back to Barrows House to check out. When I informed the desk person that I had to purchase breakfast there was no offer to reimburse me. This should have been a simple, $15 gesture to ensure my return. But the desk person never considered this, and I was not going to ask, so when I return for my semi-annual visit I will consider other establishments. This type of situation, and there were several, could easily be remedied with better staff training.

Did a last minute getaway over MLK. Looked for small dog friendly inn\B&B with fireplace preferable wood burning. Saw this place and looked perfect. Stayed in the blue jay way while has 5 rooms. Three downstairs that share a common space with a wood burning fireplace. Two upstairs which you can pay extra for private second room which has a gas fireplace. We got in just before ten so staff had left and sadly the extra room we paid for had not been unlocked. No one was downstairs so we settled in there. There was no kindling to start the fire and only couple sheets of paper. Luckily got fire started and enjoyed it. They did unlock room next morning. Couple nights later did see someone had set up fire with newspaper and kindling. They do not do room service during stay. Not sure if this a covid thing, staffing or something else. Do give you door hangers to request things. If need water or clean towels do not want to wait so went over to main building when wanted something. Winter is not peak season for this place as too far from ski slopes to get that crowd. Do have tennis courts and pool which judge are good during summer. When not crowded the breakfast is served at the bakery which shares ownership. Over the weekend you walk quarter mile to the Dorset inn. Breakfast was good there but service was spotty as sometimes great and friendly and others involved long waits.

We had stayed at this property years ago and remembered it as being very charming. We booked a last minute getaway and chose the Falcon's Flight suite because we like to have separate sleeping and sitting areas. When we checked in, the very pleasant person at the desk said she would lead us to our room because it was in a standalone cottage (the Inn has rooms in the main building then a number of other buildings scattered around the property). She then led us out through the back parking lot and up a path that led between what appeared to be a maintenance shop below some other rooms and a large dumpster filled with construction debris. Our suite turned out to be the upper floor of a building that housed the pool changing room on the first floor and abutted the pool. The suite itself was painted in dark red and had little natural light so the overall effect was dreary. The bedroom overlooked the pool so we heard children splashing and yelling most of each day -- they weren't being naughty, we just mention this because if you're looking for quiet, this location wouldn't be for you. When we went outside to sit beside our cottage, we were once again greeted with a view of the construction debris and dumpster, as well as regular garbage dumpsters in another area of the parking lot. For just under $450 a night, we were really expecting something much better. Then there was dinner on both nights. The first night was OK, food and service were acceptable. On the second night, I didn't want a large dinner so I ordered what I thought would be a dinner sized Caesar with shrimp ($28 in total). When my "dinner" arrived, it consisted of a small heart of Romaine lettuce with 5 small leaves in total, and 6 small shrimp. We had to ask our waiter for rolls (which he'd initially forgotten) so I'd have something to fill up on. Dorset is a lovely village but we discovered that a much nicer place to stay is the Barrows House sister property, the Dorset Inn. That's where we'll go next time if we decide to return.

My wife and I had a delightful dinner at the beautiful outdoor patio. We both had the salmon that was grilled to perfection with delicious accompaniments. The service was fantastic and we were particularly impressed with Alex who went out of his way to adjust the sun screen to provide us with some shade from the setting sun. We'll be back again!