The Portland Guesthouse

The guesthouse is run by a charity, teaching vulnerable and disabled adults the business of hospitality. The house is beautiful with Regency Features and our bedroom was nicely decorated with an en-suite and door out to a small terrace with a garden table and chairs. The staff were helpful and very pleasant. There are so many things that could be tweaked very slightly to make this a great place to stay. Walking up to the front door of the house, there are lots of weeds and dead flowers in pots. The stunning red door has a handwritten note giving a mobile number for contact and this note is stuck to the door with sellotape or similar. It wouldn’t take a lot to make this first impression better. Inside the house, the commercial kitchen door is wedged open so you can see everything that a door is there to hide. Again, down in the basement where our room was, there were baskets of linen and linen strewn across the floor. As with the kitchen, guests do not need to see behind the scenes of the laundry. The terrace outside our room needs some love and care and a lick of paint to transform it into a very pretty little feature. When it came to breakfast, there was one poor lad doing everything. He seemed to be the only member of staff in. I am sure he was doing his best, however one lady waited for at least 45 minutes for her scrambled eggs. It turned out that this lad had to go out mid breakfast service and buy more eggs to do that. When it came to our order, he said he had run out of mushrooms and the couple that came down after us were told he had run out of bacon. Who is there teaching him to plan what he needs to buy in? I am not blaming this on the lad left here on his own to cope. There does not seem to be anyone here responsible for running the guesthouse and teaching these vulnerable adults the skills and standards they should be striving for in hospitality. This guesthouse could be so wonderful with just a little more thought.

Great guest house with so friendly staff

It was great and fantastic value. Only comment is that my room (7) was cold, but maybe I should have checked the radiator settings! I'll definitely stay again.

The room was ok but too small and had only one small silly chair. Breakfast was very good.

Super friendly and helpful staff members!

Cheltenham Break Wonderful location. Excellent Staff