The Cow Dalbury

There is so much to like here. We arrived late Saturday afternoon and there was a vibrant feel to the bar and restaurant. Good service as well, and I personally was pleased to see one of my favourite pints (Timothy Taylor Landlord) on draft. The evening meal was excellent, my wife choosing the vegetarian curry declaring it "the best ever". The room (no. 6) was comfortable and clean. So what is there not to like? Small gripes to begin with, we had to park some distance away and breakfast is not included even at these top end prices. The BIG GRIPE is room 6 is adjacent to the ducting for the kitchen fan and it is quite impossible to sleep when it is running. We had to ask for it to be turned off in the evening. Much worse, we were rudely awoken at 7.00am (6.00am according to our body clocks, the clocks has moved to BST that night) when the fan started up for the days service. We had very much looked forward to a well deserved lie in, but it was not to be. We have no idea if other room suffer in the same way, but it is impossible to believe the owners and management are not aware of this major issue. £220 for a bad nights sleep, well, I can't get my head around that. Sorry.

I booked on Thursday for a weekend away with my husband, paid in full…. Which I rarely do understanding the policy. On the Saturday am my mother was taken severely ill and In A&E. I called the hotel and explained the situation… we had booked dinner and Sunday lunch. Which would have been an extra £150 plus, as a nurse and working shifts I said we could come during the week, therefore not so busy……. I was quoted policy…. Policy I was informed by the manager on call that if they were empty they would indeed rebook us so the policy would have been broken… this didn’t make sense? Confused and lost £200 for a room we didn’t use and frustrating policy that seems to change at a whim??? Be cautious. I understand that small hotels need to cover costs, however we cancelled our room so it was open to book again…. I’m not sure if the room was let? But there was no compassion. This was a special weekend away…. We will not have the opportunity again. I’m pretty sure there will be an unemotional response from an ai source!!

Lovely place. Great staff great food