Name: The Randolph Hotel by Graduate Hotels
Address: Beaumont Street, Oxford
Telephone: (888) 323-5826
Rating: 4.25

Hotel public areas were good. Morse bar was good. Parking was a bit dear, but OK. Breakfast was as expected, but my room let it all down.

Liked: Breakfast was good.
Disliked: Room view wasn't! Room was less quality than what I expected for the money. In fact, I am sure I was given an ordinary room.

Superb

Extremely poor service

Liked: None of this is complimentary, I have also emailed Hilton CEO and also duty managers senior- not surprisingly neither of them have responded as yet.The duty manager on front desk chose not to give his name so unfortunately will just need to hope someone takes ownership to deal with appropriate compensation. Also still awaiting details of a complimentary stay in one of the Hilton chain as would not wish to return to the Randolph.Basically wasted time, money and ruined a special day !!
Disliked: I booked 2 rooms in the Randolph for my family back in November last year, it was a Xmas present for my eldest who had their graduation ceremony this week.Amazingly just 90 mins before check in and 5 hours after we had dropped our luggage off I received an email stating our room was unavailable due to maintenance issues. The email stated “ However, to ensure your stay is not disrupted, we have arranged alternative accommodation for you at one of our partnered hotels voco Oxford Thames by IHG“ . How very kind of them they had relocated us to a hotel 3 miles out of the city, yes unbelievable. After lengthy discussions the duty manager said if we stayed there he would honour us with a complimentary stay in the Randolph at some point in the future- oh how wonderful of him allowing us to stay there at some point in the future when we had no need to return to Oxford ever again.After 2 hours of back and forth and me having to search hotels in the city myself I finally found one which we could move into. During this time we watched as numerous other people checked in to the same room type we had booked. When I questioned why we were the ones being moved he mentioned as we did not book direct, which I still don’t understand what difference that makes as Booking com should not be further down the priority list when reviewing who deserves a room. As I say we booked some 9 months ago as a special treat to celebrate what should have been one of the best days for the family.The Randolph duty manager struggled with the concept that not only had he ruined our day we had also suffered financially, had we booked the alternate hotel 9 months ago it would have been somewhat less expensive than the Randolph so we were actually paying more to stay there than what we should have done. He amazingly tried to say as the rates were higher he was doing us a favour by covering the extra charge, of course it was higher we were booking it 10 minutes before our arrival.

Fabulous stay

Liked: Rooms are generally quite small at this hotel but this time we were lucky and had a large room with a bath. We always stay here when in Oxford because the beds are so comfy. Lovely old building with lots of character and great location.

Good but could have been...

Liked: Classic hotell. Veryg good location. Beautiful rooms. Spatial social rooms. Beautiful building.
Disliked: Some of the staff at the check-in counter and in the restaurant spoke insufficient English. The bed was too soft in my view. Sadly the hotell after its latest refurbishment borders kitch too much. All the Morse pictures in the Morse bar were too much as well as the pink leather couches in the restaurant. The Alice (Lewis Carroll) pictures in the restaurant, however, are world classs! A final questions, why were the curtains drawn in the restaurant?

Stay was enjoyable

Liked: Location was excellent, staff were efficient but the room was small.
Disliked: Room was small for the quality of the hotel.

Nice short stay in Oxford...

Liked: Historic building with lots to look at and amazing location. Very well maintained and presented. Walk to everything. Staff very nice and helpful. Loved the Morse Bar. But the drinks are very pricey so be warned.
Disliked: The price: so expensive. Not really worth the cost as it was a huge amount per night and didn’t even include breakfast. Also had my card charged extra for a large amount (wrongly) which I had to sort out. Room was a good size but oddly shaped. Tiny window as it was tucked into the roofline. The lifts: I was on the 4th floor and only one lift (which was tiny: 2 people only and if you have bags one only!) went that high. Next time I will opt to stay on level 3 or lower as it was annoying having to wait for that specific lift each time.

Great location, disappointing breakfast, nice...

Liked: Room was big and bed was comfortable. Ate dinner at the Alice and got food poisoning - I think it was the tomato salad. Staff was nice enough, but not attentive overall. Breakfast was a disappointment. Stale and warm coffee, cold pancakes and eggs, very limited selection overall. Location is nice, but not worth the price.
Disliked: Same as above; breakfast was enormously disappointing; dirty pillow. I should have spoken to management, but I did not feel they would have corrected anything and I hate to complain.