The Old Bell Hotel, Malmesbury

On first impressions, when we arrived for a short stay at England’s oldest hotel, we were very pleased. This very quickly turned to disappointment when shown to our room it was full of the smell of fish frying and noticed outside our window was a flat roof with all the extractors from the kitchen plus a fire staircase that was frequented by staff. The room was tired looking and as this was a special two night break, we realised we were going to get only what we had paid for! We had to wait for long periods of time for waiting staff, including waiting over 40 minutes for a jug of water and two glasses, after three repeated requests for it. At dinner my rib-eye steak was inedible, being made up mainly of fat and connective tissue. The waitress could not understand what I was trying to say, (language difficulty) . We had to wait some time before the manager came to see us. After I explained what was wrong with the steak, he then said the chef must have cut it badly (nothing to do with the cut!) When I asked for it to be reflected in the bill, he smirked, as though I was just after a free meal. Although the bed linen was freshly laundered, one of the sheets had an old large stain on it; the valance on the other bed had a deep long stain on it, ending in a stain on the carpet. The wallpaper had a couple of holes in it. The windows were filthy. The inside of the toilet bowl needed a clean, as did the base of the toilet pedestal. Beading on door to room was thick with dust. Dressing table lamp did not work, lights in the ceiling did not work, and glass panels in door to en-suite gave no privacy. On the plus side, the beds and pillows were very comfortable and there was a good television in the room. The staff, mainly foreign were polite, and the breakfast was nice and the service was good. All in all we were so disappointed that we decided not to stay for our second night and checked out after breakfast. Even though I said to the gentleman on reception we were leaving a day early, he did not enquire why or ask if we had had a good stay. Clearly they had been paid and were totally disinterested. We would most definitely do not recommend this hotel.