Hitchin Priory Hotel

Location

Poor wi-fi, very tired hotel, disappointing breakfast

The building is beautiful and you can really see the character of the property and the history within the walls. Staff were friendly and couldn’t be more helpful. Location was perfect as we were able to walk in town to local shops and restaurants.

The rooms were extremely dated and run down. The TV did not work, the water didn’t run hot, even after running for longer than the 5 minutes to warm up. We had no lamp in the room so relied on the main light to use in the evening. The carpet was gritty and was in major need of a hoover and clean, my socks were black after walking around on the carpet for only a short while. Overall, the room was very basic and rundown, it needs a good refresh. We had issues with teenagers running through the halls, banging on our door and smoking in the communal hallway with no clothes on (aside from underwear) this was at 11pm and what we anticipated to have a relaxing weekend away ended up being a nightmare and we couldn’t wait to go home.

Comfortable warm stay, in center of historic Hitchin. Room good size. Staff great, friendly and helpful. Free parking a short walk from the property. Breakfast was satisfactory, several choices - buffet cooked breakfast, etc.

Just a few niggles... a milk jug on the hot drink counter (in the b/fast room) would be helpful. Only having one small milk jug for a b/fast room is not ideal. The toilet flush in our room was temperamental, sometimes running/ dripping ++ too long, so the system not filling up! But I could see it being a problem to fix, as it was connected into the wall. Pictures in room need to be cleaned regularly. Plus heating (radiator) in room, need better controls, it was either very hot or off. Hotel would properly save a lot of money with their heating bill, if they sorted this out...just get someone in to fix the control on the radiator and then have housekeeping staff, check it for a suitable temperature, every time a room is clean. Lastly, need gardener in to cut back all the over grown trees in the car park, especially this time of year, with all the sticky sap falling off the trees. An untidy car park is not a good first impression for guests. Apologizes if it is in the hotel details, but maybe advise guests to stop at the front door, to offload luggage before parking car. A bit of a walk from car park to front door, with luggage....lucky for us it never rained, while doing this!

The staff were excellent and extremely helpful. The location couldn’t have been better.

The decor in the bedrooms is a bit tired. The double bedroom was a bit cramped while the en-suite was very big.

Convenient to town

Nothing

We stayed in the Inn outside of the main building. The rooms were very basic but very clean. If you have mobility issues, I would suggest advising that you need a ground floor room as there are no elevators and you should also check to see if there are mobility safe showers as ours was a step-in bath shower which wouldn't be suitable for everyone. We understood that we had not paid for breakfast but at reception, the gentleman we dealt with insisted we had. We then went for breakfast and were advised we had to pay as it was, in fact, not included. They gave us one free breakfast as a comp. The breakfast was fine and basic but, personally, we wouldn't have opted for it had we not been told it was included. The location is excellent; a short walk to the town. I really believe that this hotel could achieve a higher rating, if they wanted. The building is beautiful and on lovely grounds with a brilliant location. A bit of investment to bring the rooms up to date (comfier beds, fresh paint in more light and modern colours, fresh curtains and flooring, new bathrooms, a gardner for the grounds) and this place would be a real winner. There is so much potential however, it has not yet been unlocked.

Breakfast was great, choice from a full english and some self service items. Minimal choice of self service items however the emphasis was on the full english.

Bathroom is dated and the shower was very small and took about 10 minutes for the shower to heat up, but this was ok. Not super clean but clean enough.

Good location.

Quite dated and tired. Struggled with water temp in bath, toilet running for half an hour after flushing and temperature control in the room.

Staff were lovely and very helpful