Southernhay House Hotel, Exeter

Exceptional

The location was good/ no...

Liked: Location /friendliness of staff
Disliked: Woke up by the noise of the water pipe assuming because the guest in the room below had a shower No hot water left after that. The carpet would need to be refreshed and the floor in the bathroom was not very clean.

Wonderful hotel in a fantastic...

Liked: Friendly attentive staff and nothing was too much trouble. Our lovely room Tulip had great bed linen, towels and products. Gorgeous freestanding bath and powerful shower. Excellent quality coffee teas and biscuits.
Disliked: Breakfast was fantastic but felt it should have been included in the room rate.

Superb

Delightful

Disliked: No on-site parking.

Dreadful noise, terrible management and...

Liked: Great location, a couple of the staff are lovely and nice cocktail.
Disliked: Third and last stay at this hotel. Spent £1,190 on 2 rooms for 2 nights to bring my mother for a treat. On our second night, I was kept awake until nearly 1am by the noise of people in the bar and the staff clearing up. I went down twice in my pjs to ask them to reduce the noise as I wanted to sleep. The next morning the manager eventually and reluctantly agreed it would have been possible to at least shut the 2 doors to the bar and restaurant area so that the noise wouldn't have travelled so easily. The owner was vile about it all and refused or didn't even understand that noise travels and has now banned me from returning (knowing I wouldn't)! So don't stay in the Ivory room if you want some peace at 12.45am. There was never anyone at reception to collect/leave keys with, and we would ring the doorbell repeatedly to try and get someone, look in the bar area etc but couldn't find anyone. My observations on this and the consequent lack of security and possible impact on their insurance arrangements was again met with anger. Cleanliness is also an issue - black mould in the shower, dirty carpet, clump of hair on the bathroom floor (which I had put from the shower into the bin but it was obviously dropped on the floor when the room was cleaned) etc. No sheet on the under mattress. Have seen from negative reviews elsewhere that this will be met with a horrible reply from the owners - they don't want to raise their standards or apologise for anything.