stayed with work in May 08. You park at the rear of the hotel for free and walk through to reception. Checked in OK- got to room. Moirror in bathroom cracked. Show had scales around the end of the bath. Room very out-dated and tv over 20 year olds, with channel choice limited to the basic 5. When I went down for the evening meal around 8pm - they had nothing left on the bar menu other than steak and chips. Not to worry, i order it anyway. When it arrived ,the steak was of appualing quality - lots of fat and of a small size (4oz?), with some plain oven chips - only the small salad bowl was commendable. next morning, breakfast was appauling. the selection of cereals was ok, but the hot food which you serve yourself out of an open canteen buffet was terrible. everything looked (and tasted) like they had been re-heated from the previous morning. I have not stayed at the hotel since despite staying in the kettering area alot, and prefere the premier inn which is near to the a14. some of my fellow collegues have not stayed here after my comments to them about the poor quality of food provided by the hotel.

When we arrived at the hotel we were impressed by what seemed the charm of the old building. Our illusions were soon shattered we were given the key to room 11, the room was what we expected really small and functional (very dated green bathroom suite). We unpacked took a walk round the town and decided to head back to the hotel for a drink and something to eat. We had a couple of drinks in the bar and as a curry night was advertised, decided to give it a try starters and main course arrived together and the samosas had to be sent back as they were stone cold. They eventually arrived back after we had finished our meal. As we had a wedding to attend the next day we decided to have an early night!!!! We could not believe the noise when we got to our room we were directly above the disco (a fact the staff forgot to mention when we checked in). I promptly rang reception to ask what the noise was and how long we would have to put up with it, to be fair to the receptionist she straight away asked if we would like to be moved to room 25 at the other end of the hotel, i asked her to hold on a moment whilst i checked with my husband, we agreed that even though this was an inconvenience at least we would get some sleep, however when i went back on the phone she suddenly announced that they were fully booked and she could only offer a 10% discount (which we did not receive in the end). We went to reception and found the so called 'Duty manager' a very rude young lady, outside smoking with other members of staff. She actually had the nerve to say that perhaps it was next doors television. We asked her to come to the room and listen for herself on the way to the room she was extremely unhelpful and stated "what do you expect when you have only paid ?44 for the room" we had in fact paid ?54 and pointed out that how much we paid was irrelevant we also pointed out that we had spent at least ?50 in the bar. She agreed it was very noisy but there was nothing she could do, however she would arrange for someone to fix the 2 broken secondary glazed windows in our room the next morning - she did not.

The Hotel reflects in a fantasic way the late 19th century atmosphere. Its nice to see how the actual requirements for comfort have been matched with the originality and look of the building dating from around the 1860s. Its worth visiting the Hotel as well for the great looking restaurant. WELL DONE

The Hotel is very well positioned and from the moment we arrived we were made to feel welcome by friendly and efficient staff. No delays at reception or indeed at any other time during our 4 night stay. The reception, lobby and bar areas have a comfortable and intimate feel. There is free internet access in the Hotel We would struggle to find anything to criticise. The rooms are large, comfortable and well equipped. The beds were very comfortable . Bathroom was spacious and spotlessly clean.

the first room they gave us was nice and big but you could not breath because of the smell of the drains in the bathroom, the second room they gave us the toilet didnt work, the third room they gave us , evrything worked but it was very small and directly above the hotel disco so we didnt get much sleep. breakfast was ok but the bread for toasting was mouldy, when this was pointed out they only wanted to remove the mouldy slices and leave the rest of the loafe, all in all a one star hotel at four star prices, would,nt stay again if it was free.