Old Hall Hotel

Location is ideal. Hotel within walking distance of everything we came for .Breakfast was nice .

Room was dirty ,carpet was dirty. needs hoovering . Room needs updating . Bar area needs cleaning also , seats were ripped carpets dirty .

No food available in the hotel. However, excellent food in the Crescent Hotel next door. Perfect location and amazing historic building. Staid in Mary Queen of Scots room.

Staff should have known a bit about the building. It us very significant and should be a selling point.

I’m going to split this into 2 reviews; firstly the way staff treated us, then onto the room itself. This is a long one 😁. So after a wonderful stay in Buxton at another hotel down the road (see my review for Roseleigh hotel) we thought we’d return. Unfortunately couldn’t get that hotel again but found The Old Hall hotel on booking.com and booked it. On arrival we hovered in the reception area (more like a hallway with a low window) for our turn whilst the receptionist was dealing with an older lady. The lady was complaining saying she couldn’t climb such steep stairs, and when she’d booked via booking.com there was no mention of steep stairs, and wanted a room move. The receptionist told her the hotel was full. We were close by and heard the whole conversation. I instantly thought this was a mistake! The receptionist (Victoria) was very flustered, clearly trying to man reception on her own whilst dealing with people checking in, wanting their luggage, phone calls and people complaining, all by herself. (Come on guys get more staff on reception at busy times). Then when I gave her my name and booking details she said there was no booking. I had booked this 3 months ago, had the confirmation email and a reminder from booking.com the previous day about the upcoming trip. There is a booking! But Victoria couldn’t find the booking. We were told to wait in the bar! Just at the side. After lots of back and forth another lady (I think from the crescent hotel) came and said ‘there’s no booking, I think booking.com have scammed you’. I’d never heard anything so ridiculous! She told me I needed to ring booking.com. No help- or we’ll find you the phone number, nothing!! She said we’d have to pay for a room. I googled what to do if a hotel has lost my booking, and I read out the reply. She told me she didn’t have to find me any accommodation as it was a booking through booking.com and was their problem., not the hotels. I felt like she just wanted to get me out the way. She said she’d call in a manager.. in comes Lee (I think from the crescent too) he again looks at my confirmation emails and says there’s no booking, all we can do is buy a room. He says there’s a family suit available, says he usually sells it for X amount but he’ll knock off £50. By this point we felt like we had no option but to pay it, we’d already wasted 2 hours stood in reception arguing whether we had a booking or not. Whilst we paid and filled out a form. The room was being “freshened up” as this was the room with steep stairs that the other lady didn’t want. When we finally found the door to room 12, it looked more like a cupboard door as it had a glass panel you could see straight in. But the key worked and in we went! Well the lady wasn’t wrong about steep stairs! There was a dirty tissue left on them, how the guy “freshening up” the room didn’t see that I don’t know. Any way the so called suite was the most weirdest place I’ve ever stayed. Old and quirky I could’ve appreciated, this was shoddy and weird. There’s 2 bathrooms, no showers btw only baths with a hose that doesn’t stay on the wall, they were very dirty (see pictures) , 1 at each end of the suite. A kitchen which was absolutely disgusting (see pics) a hallway/ random area for a table and 3 chairs, a bedroom with a single bed which we didn’t use, a tv area with a 2 seater sofa, the a double bed and 2 singles, then onto the bathroom with another random room with a vintage vacuum and 4 coat hangers. It was bleak!!! Rough as!! I wish I had gone back to reception and complained, but by this point our evening plans were fast approaching and we really couldn’t be bothered to argue any longer. At 6:30pm (2.5 hours after arrival) Victoria from reception rang my mobile saying she’d found my booking. I asked what room was it for as I didn’t like this one, she said the hotel was full and there wasn’t any other rooms anyway. Absolute shambles!! This along with the state of the room absolutely ruined our weekend away. Also I barely got any sleep as I kept thinking someone would walk up the stairs and although the radiators constantly made a noise they did absolutely nothing, and I was freezing. The only saving grace was I absolutely pigged out on breakfast, I had to try and claw back the money we’d wasted on staying there!

Friendly staff and a great central location. Very quiet location at night too. Nice large bath towels and clean bathroom.

I know it is a very old building and I loved the character that comes with it but it is a very tired looking hotel inside.. Bathroom was decent enough but I think our room must have once been connected to the room next door as everytime they walked across the floor in their room our room literally bounced.. it was the weirdest thing as the beds moved 😳. The sounds also just went straight through the walls.

Fab location. Breakfast was ok....comparable to breakfasts in budget chain hotels. Self serve so eggs etc had been sat a while.

The hotel was quite dated.......decor etc. Budget chain hotels offer similar facilities and breakfast at a cheaper price. No parking. Had to park at train station.

Staff were friendly.

Room was not the one booked and no attempt made to remedy this.

Had a fabulous stay here. Room was clean and beds comfy, had good nights sleep. Staff are excellent and go above and beyond. Breakfast was excellent with good quality food and the chef made me scrambled eggs which was a bonus. A special shout out to Phil the linen porter who saw us reading all the history on the walls. He was a walking encyclopaedia when it came to the hotels history and he even showed us round the room Mary Queen of Scots stayed In. The hotel is right in the centre of everything. Would definitely recommend and Will definitely go back again. Historic hotel in a Great location, fantastic breakfast and excellent customer service from staff the hotel should be proud of. Thank you for an excellent break x