Old Swan

My partner and I live in a neighboring village to The Swan and after a long walk we popped in on Sunday for a coffee and hot chocolate. The service was first class so we decided to return on Weds for their curry night. From the moment we arrived the staff were incredibly attentive and all very cheery and friendly. The service was slick from start to finish With regards to the food I have to say it was the best curry either of us have eaten - portions and quality were perfect We will definitely make this a new regular visit. As for some comments on here regarding the price - I found it very reasonable and on par with the area in fact the curry night was excellent value. You are in the Cotswolds!

We stayed at Old Swan and Minster Mill on Tuesday 26th of August for what was supposed to be 2 nights. We booked one of the rooms that had space for our daughter, room 125. We were greeted by friendly staff, and headed to our room. On entry, up the stairs I noticed thick cobwebs on the door and the staircase, and when entering the bedroom, the floor (carpet) looked like it needed a hoover. I then noticed thick dust on the bedside tables, and all the edges of the bathroom where the tiles met the walls, as we were going to be using the fans in the night due to warm weather, I checked to see if everything g else was clean, so that dust wasn’t blowing around all night. The room was filthy, I am not being pedantic, the window sills were sticky with dust, the shelves in the open G-Plan style tv unit was thick with dust, as was the skirting boards. I tried to plug the fan into the wall and noticed a huge health and safety issue: a plug pin had been snapped off and was stuck in the top of the three prong plug socket, with the switch turned on, for those who don’t see a problem, the top prong that was wedged and snapped off in the socket is the one that creates the circuit of electricity. If our four year old daughter had found it before I did, who knows what could have happened. We went for dinner that evening to the Old Swan pub, and we were served gone off steak, which we saw a few times in the evening and early hours of the morning. The waiter was friendly, but unfortunately had an unpleasant smell/odour. I did mention the uncleanliness of the hotel room on the day of check in, but the cleaners had gone, and a lovely lady from reception was going to come in and give it a clean, but she hadn’t had time, as cleaner clearly wasn’t part of her job role (and shouldn’t have to pick up the slack of cleaners) I’d also like to note that the room needed more than a quick whip around with a dusting cloth (see attached a photo of one of the flannels I used to give a quick wipe around the dusty areas, photos are of both sides of the flannel) It was filthy. We decide to check out that morning and was assured that the manager of the hotel would be in contact with us to discuss reimbursement of the hotel stay for the night we did stay. We are yet to hear back from this hotel, and will be sharing this review on my forum that I share with over 1,000 independent travel agents like myself. Very disappointed from all angles of this hotel and do not recommend. We paid £300 a night for this hotel, and have stayed in cleaner hostels whilst travelling around Thailand as a young tourist. Avoid at all costs!

Just got home after a one night stay at the Swan. Firstly, booking - the booking prior to arrival is rather confusing and wasn’t sure which one we were staying in, a more modern hotel/ spa or the pub the other side of the road, the pictures are a little misleading and confirmation isn’t very clear. We wanted a room in the Mill but ended up with a room in the pub. We confirmed our arrival time as requested prior to arrival and check in was 3pm so we got there for 3pm and confirmed this too. However, when we arrived , the room wasn’t ready, we did have plans too so this was a problem, we waited patiently and was told “20 minutes” as it’s just being cleaned… 30 minutes later nobody got us, so we headed back inside and asked and 40 minutes later we were in the room at 15:40 The room is what you’d expect from a pub that old, however we were a little disappointed as we were hoping the room was in the mill not the pub. We were also told that the WiFi was down, being a rural location, this was an issue for us as signal is pretty much non existent and we rely a lot on our phones for directions and information etc. we quickly headed out late to our plans, when we returned back we wanted a few drinks in the pub, but again more problems, our first round was a lot cheaper than our second round despite buying the exact same drinks and measures. We didn’t feel like we could query it due to the service we’ve received so far in our experiences and felt it would cause more issues than it’s worth. Our room had a broken fan which didn’t work either properly and an asthmatic person could probably blow out more air than that fan, this made sleeping impossible on a hot summers night. I guessing the only thing that made the room superior was a sofa next to the window. The next morning we went to breakfast and felt again, wasn’t value for money, the food was nice and service was better but portion and options were limited, we didn’t pre book breakfast so we paid after, I wasn’t given a receipt prior to paying and just passed a card machine and then receipt after I paid to discover a service charge on it which I wasn’t aware of or mentioned on a menu. Hopefully it can go towards buying a new fan or costs of WiFi. When we checked out as well, I’d already paid for the room prior to arrival but the staff member tried to say we hadn’t paid? We are pretty laidback people and I stay in hotels in rural locations often for work, once a month and this in comparison just wasn’t value for money. The grounds of the mill are incredible and lovely and some of the staff were friendly just slow but just felt disappointed and not what I wanted or paid for but not sure how to address it. I questioned myself and my booking too, and when looked online during the stay, I saw that a nicer room was cheaper in the Mill for the night we booked, and knew we would of enjoyed our stay more if it wasn’t for all the confusion.

Very strange experience here. Just wanted a lovely cold cider on a sunny day, however, I must’ve turned invisible. Three staff at the bar. One serving. Two either trying to take food orders for no one as everyone at the time wanted drinks so they went back to stocking the fridge or drying glasses right in front of me. Another chap came to the bar and the one lady serving drinks asked him for his order. Simple bar etiquette! Urghhhhhhh

We received a very confusing welcome as staff were talking to each other then another couple whilst asking us for allergies and showing us to our table. The food was very good although not as described. I had the sausage and colcannon mash but the cabbage came separately. What was jaw dropping was the price of a glass of wine...... £12.75 for a 175ml chardonnay. I was asked if I wanted a large glass but at £17.50 it was a definite no! The wine imo was also not great. Drink prices are way too expensive compared to other local restaurants. The drinks prices sadly would put us off returning.