Oyo The White Horse

“A very disappointing and upsetting welcome”

We stayed in the White Horse last year because its dog friendly and great location right in the town, and we had an excellent room that easily fit our large dog crate, with a good size bathroom, and our stay was really made by the lovely staff, who were very accommodating of our reactive rescue dog… more

We stayed in the White Horse last year because its dog friendly and great location right in the town, and we had an excellent room that easily fit our large dog crate, with a good size bathroom, and our stay was really made by the lovely staff, who were very accommodating of our reactive rescue dog, made us feel very welcome and I left a really good review. (The only disappointment was they didn't do breakfast). We booked 4 nights again this year (through OYO as told last year that was the only way of booking) and then rang and spoke to the same manager as last year and booked the same room with her, she confirmed it was "in the book". We later had to cancel the 4th night as we had to travel to a funeral some hours away. That was a palaver with OYO as you can't cancel 1 night, you have to cancel the whole stay and then re-book, losing an admin fee. Anyway, we arrived, I went in the bar to book in, nobody behind the bar so I was searching for a staff member who turned out to be sitting at a table looking like a customer and didn't make himself known until I said I had a room booked. Things didn't go well. He told me I had booked 3 different rooms (!?!?) and would be charged for them, but that I hadn't booked the actual room I had reserved and someone else was in it. When I advised I had spoken to the manager who confirmed it was booked, I was told the previous manager had been sacked for doing lots of things wrong. Seems pretty unethical to tell customers this. We were then offered 2 different rooms, half the size of the one I'd booked, where our dog crate either had to block the wardrobe and the chest of drawers, or we had to move the beds together to fit it in. The man checking us in made me feel like this was all my fault! He made me feel very unwelcome, didn't apologise, he blamed the previous manager repeating several times that she had been sacked, he told me they were losing money as I had booked 3 rooms when I had only paid for 1 (I had only booked 1), he was reluctant to go back inside to get the key to the room we chose, he dealt with the whole situation with bad grace and rudeness and it really spoilt the start of our stay after we had travelled in the car for 5 hours with a reactive dog and just wanted to chill out. The room was cramped, damp and smelly. It had an overpowering plug-in perfume diffuser, plus a reed diffuser and a dehumidifier. The venetian blinds didn't close and had a foot square cut out of them where people could look in. The shower head just trickled water but the base leaked and made a puddle on the floor. The wardrobe doors wouldn't stay closed so we were constantly having to squeeze between the doors and the bed for 4 days, the hanging space was too short for our funeral clothes so they had to bunch up at the bottom, and the drawers underneath wouldn't open/close. The location is excellent and right in the town, and again the rest of the staff were friendly, welcoming, kind, chatty and helpful, and remembered us from last year. They couldn't do enough for us! I only hope the new manager reads this and realises what poor customer service he gave and reflects on his negativity and bad grace. We would usually have spent some time in the bar each day of our stay, buying drinks and socialising, but we totally avoided the bar this year because of his bad attitude. Sadly The White Horse still don't do breakfast which is a shame, and I feel its expensive (£136 a night) for a small damp room and no food. (Comparison, the B&B we stayed in 2 nights for the funeral was £49 a night for a bigger room and did breakfast). We would return to the White Horse because of the handy location and dog friendliness if we were able to get the original room we had booked.

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