The Priest House Hotel

We were gifted afternoon tea at the priest house. When we arrived we were 10 minutes early and were told to wait and stand in the empty restaurant to be seated by the member of staff- this became slightly awkward as no member of staff came. We went back to reception and were told we were early so to just wait. We then decided to go out and enjoy the grounds by the river on a lovely sunny day. When we went back in, we were redirected by a member of staff within the restaurant to a different area of the building which I believe was the bar area with less formal seating. The two members of staff in here were very attentive and seated us and arranged our afternoon tea. The afternoon tea itself was nice- it was on quite a large wooden picnic bench which with high tables and low chairs this was maybe a little too big. Cakes were a variety and sandwiches also. There was a small hair on one of the cakes but we advised staff of this at the end and they apologiesed- we understand these things can happen. We would unlikely return for afternoon tea- it was nice buy didn't wow us and considering how quiet it was, not all staff in all areas of the business were as attentive as they could have been. Toilets were clean and property accessible.

The Priest House has so much potential. Its location is lovely, situated by a river and the buildings are lovely. However, this is a very tired hotel, both inside and out. The exterior paint is peeling, the outdoor communal areas around The Cottage where we stayed were so dirty and unkempt and the exterior of this building was grubby too. The room was at least clean and plenty roomy, but the radiator was on full blast and it was a 23° sunny day. It couldn’t be turned down or off. The service in the restaurant was very slow and the food overpriced for the tiny portions. The constant drone all night of the aircraft flying into East Midlands airport was very noisy. It’s all a bit of a shame, as this place has bags of potential. Sadly, we wouldn’t come back again.