Careys Manor Hotel, Bracken

For the price you pay, if your staying here as a simple bed and breakfast, it does the job. However the room we were given on the ground floor was very run down indeed. Would be cheaper and nicer to stay at an Airbnb. However if you're here for the facilities, the spa is lovely and the venue itself is amazing for a wedding! Lots of local walks available just watch out for the horses and donkeys roaming around.

We were looking forward to our Bank holiday stay at Carey's Manor. All of the staff we encountered were fantastic and a credit to you, however regrettably the hotel was extremely overpriced for the experience we had. We paid £541 for a two night stay at Carey's Manor which would have been absolutely fine if we'd received value for money. From the moment we arrived, it became apparent that absolutely nothing was included for that price. We were looking forward to trying the French restaurant but we were told upon arrival that there were no spaces at the restaurant at all. We went to have a cocktail at the hotel bar and swiftly walked away. The cocktails were obscenely priced ranging from £15-18!! I'm not quite sure whether the person writing the cocktail menu had drunk several themselves whilst pricing the drinks! I have lived in London for several years and I have rarely encountered a place even there that charged that amount for a cocktail. We walked a few minutes down the road to the Huntsman pub and had a few delicious, reasonably priced cocktails in a lovely beer garden- I highly recommend going for a drink there instead! The majority of the rooms are not located in the beautiful red brick main building. Instead they are located towards the back in a 1960's type building that resembles a nursing home or a halls of residence. This would have been fine had it been reflected in the price. The bed was lovely and comfortable but the room was incredibly hot with no air conditioning and only a fan. We had an issue with the radiator in the bathroom leaking that we reported to reception at approximately midday, this wasn't rectified and there was a growing puddle on the floor when we returned from our evening out. We paid extra (£39 each) to use the hydropool which we enjoyed greatly. We were aware prior to arrival that there would be an extra charge to use these facilities so we decided to assess how good the leisure facilities were on arrival. The basic pool/sauna that is included was extremely basic so we felt that the only way we could fully enjoy the spa that we had travelled a long way for would be to pay extra. I have stayed in many spa hotels, both abroad and in the UK and I have never experienced a hotel charging extra for guests to use the facilities. It seems that this is another way to make money out of guests who have already paid extortionate rates. Finally, we did not even have the continental breakfast included with our room. When we went for breakfast in the morning, we were initially told that we couldn't have the continental breakfast. Luckily a helpful member of staff at reception assisted us and we were given the continental breakfast for one day of our stay. The continental breakfast is priced at £20 per person and the selection was incredibly measly! A full English or cooked option should absolutely be available for the prices of the rooms. The hotel is situated in a beautiful location and I would happily stay again should the prices reflect what is actually on offer. From beginning to end, it felt like everything was an opportunity for the hotel to make extra money.