Look, there are these unwritten rules in the English hotel industry, and they go something like…read morethis: 1. no matter what grade of hotel you wish to keep, always make sure that you never do any more than is strictly necessary to reach that grade 2. never let your customers forget that you're basically doing them a favour by letting them come and mess the place up 3. if there's a way you can shave a few pennies off your costs, for gordon's sake do it 4. putting tea and coffee make facilities in the roommakes up for pretty much any inconvenience your guests might suffer as a result of the first three The Upper Reaches is, I can categorically state, a classic English hotel. Don't get me wrong - I've stayed in far worse places. Not all of them were even in England. But it wears you down when you keep coming up against the unwritten rules. Here are a few examples from my most recent visit: - Breakfast starts at 7am. This means that the kitchen staff turn up at 7am. Furthermore, they only have a household toaster. If you actually want to eat and go before 7.30, it's cereal only for you. - The shower is, by English standards, not awful. However, the soap they provide is a small round ball about 2cm in diameter. Quite fancy, but totally useless for washing oneself. - We asked the Night Porter (who starts at about 7pm) for an umbrella. He said they didn't have one, but that we ought to be able to dodge between the raindrops. - At breakfast you always have to ask for ketchup or brown sauce, it is never offered. You see what I mean - it's like death by a thousand cuts. Nothing fatal on its own, but over an extended stay it adds up. I recommend the Upper Reaches because it is a lovely setting on the Thames in a beautiful old town (if you discount the Bury St shopping precinct). I recommend it because it is no worse than hundreds of other hotels big and small across the nation and it is better than many. But I criticize because with just a little imagination from the management it could be so much more pleasant and really stand out from the crowd.

Oh dear - getting it right is a simple formula in a place like a Hilton Garden Inn. I thought I'd…read moregive this a go, since I travel often for work to this area. But I was sorely disappointed. As a Diamond member, and an evening where the hotel wasn't full, I was shocked to be put on a room on the ground floor, and the first room at the passageway to the lobby. As the door isn't soundproof, this meant I heard every person walking up and down the corridor to their rooms - talking, luggage, you name it. Then, the next morning, while I was getting ready at like 8am, there was a knock on the door. It was housekeeping, because they'd been informed that I had already checked out...! Breakfast has a decently wide spread of hot and cold items. However, it was the blandest breakfast I had ever tasted - every item was just so plain? It was like I'd walked into an old folks home where they are trying to do everything with reduced salt and sugar. The rooms themselves were OK, I managed to get a good night's sleep in their beds. So that was right. Overall, will I stay here compared to other choices in the area? Probably not. Which is a shame - just a small few tweaks here and there, and they have a winning formula.

The hotel was clean and had very helpful staff. The shampoo and soap in the room are some of the…read morebest I have had in my travels. They have very nice large bath towels to dry off after showering. While staying at this location it is walking distance to Tesco to buy groceries and water. The only negative of the stay was the thermostat had a limit on how warm you could make the room.

My first time staying here. I'm impressed compared to other places in the Oxford area I've stayed…read more Not too long ago purchased by IHG Hotels, and upgraded services to meet IHG global standards. Beautiful property fronting Thames River in rural Oxford. I stayed in Garden wing room on first floor and room had French doors to small patio and table and chairs overlooking lawn leading down to Thames. Very peaceful. Check-in was brilliant. Very bubbly and helpful staff had everything organized and I was on my way to my room in no time flat!! Room pretty modern by UK standards, although a bit small (there's just too much furniture in the room, not all needed). The grounds and the food are what shines here. Love walking around the hotel grounds and taking in the beautiful trees, beehives, ducks and birds. There is a formal French restaurant (Napiers) where the ample breakfast buffet is served every morning. I tried Napiers for dinner one night. A bit expensive, but a nice food, wine and service experience. £100+ with appetizer, main, sides, dessert, and wine ... pp. There is also a lobby bar that opens about 11 everyday where you can get a coffee, and a number of good menu items from pizza and burgers to steak and fish. They also pour a nice Guinness pint and a good wine list. This menu is also available as room service and the food comes quickly and hot. Best hotel restaurant food I've had in UK. Plenty of little tables and areas to sit around the hotel, including many little outdoor courtyards that are landscaped nicely. Just very relaxing place. There are two gym areas available to visitors. One has cardio equipment (treadmills, rower, bike, elliptical) and one area has weight equipment. Both areas are pretty small and will be crowded if more than 2-3 people in either of them. There is also a nice indoor pool and spa, although I didn't try either this trip. It's about a 15 minute taxi or bus ride into central Oxford, so a good place to stay if you want to venture out on tours of the area. The front desk can arrange any of this stuff for you, just ask.

Wow not a very good impression when the roads to the hotel are being blacktopped and all the…read moreentrances had cones. We had to drag our luggage across wet tar and then a gravel driveway, what a misery ;( We should have been notified in advance about this so we could switch hotels! We only had the one day (thank goodness) we decided to walk down to the mental hospital to catch a cab instead of crossing the huge field to the left of the hotel... The rooms were like a maze and we were assigned room 98 which was very far and had many stairs to lug our bags up, no elevator to be seen. I understand that these places could have been a country estate years ago, but... Thankfully a cab picked us up and we were able to get to the downtown city center where all the fun tours were. Christ Church and the St. Giles Fair. I'll get to them later. We got back around dinner time and shared a bottle of wine we got in town. The room itself was exactly what I expected with a comfortable bed, pillows and the did bring me a robe when I called down and asked. The included breakfast was very good and had all the different offerings one would expect at a expensive place like this one. The fruit was very fresh and the poached eggs were really good. When the color has a bit of a orange tint that means super fresh! This place had the coffee machine with all sort of coffee options and the most yummy hot chocolate! We had made a reservation the evening before because we didn't want to miss our train to Liverpool. Thank goodness our cab driver Mo was early and we were happy to leave. We didn't receive ANY apologies from anyone for our complete inconvenience and ruined wheels on our bags. We had 3 different front desk clerks that "helped" us and all were rude and not caring about our predicament. They SHOULD have directed us to a different place to stay and we even saw a different Voco residence with horses in the front. I am going to be sending a email to the corporation that owns this place to share our horrible experience.

Stopped here for lunch on the way back from Manchester. Just off the A34 at the Didcot exit…read moreservice's. Quite a nice lunch with plenty of seating inside. Quite a few tables outside on a grass area in the sun.

Never actually stayed in the hotel overnight, but have spent countless nights here drinking and…read moreplaying pool. The couple who own it are charming and its a very friendly local for Boar's hill's more relaxed residents. The pool table is small but none the less entertaining and they have a TV playing sports events or another program of your liking. It is changing owners at Christmas i believe and so its possible it could all change after that. We'll just have to wait and see i suppose.

Convenient hotel to stay in this area, breakfast is very good, dinner restaurant in the same…read morebuilding, food is ok. Situated on the main street, not very quiet.

I had drive down for a business meeting with the Science and Technology Facilities Council in…read moreHarwell and this was the closest affordable (£49/night) hotel available. They're not messing around when they say a good night's sleep guaranteed. The room was spacious, clean and comfortable. Even had free wifi! The service was excellent and at £49 for the one night I stayed there, I felt it was well worth every penny. As and when I need to travel down this part of the world, I'm more likely to stay here than anywhere else.

Pros. Very nice staff…read moreClean and tidy Breckfest is nice Beds were comfy. Shower is nice strong and soft up to u. Cons No mini fridge. Very nice staff Clean would come again

My greeting was less than friendly, my flight got in later than expected, so instead of coming in…read moreon Saturday evening I got in Sunday early morning. I was first told I was noted as a no show, then told I couldn't check in until 3pm (after the long flight and no sleep in 24 hours this was unacceptable). Then was told I could check in if I pay for Saturday night as well, being too exhausted I didn't care especially since I had originally booked for Saturday anyways. All 3 of them watched as I struggled with my bag (which had a broken wheel). There is a door you have to pass through for the elevator and it didn't open automatically, (they should either remove it or provide a means with people toting luggage it's nearly impossible to hold a door open and drag things thought) The room was horribly small, barley could fit in my luggage. I got 3 hours sleep, it was loud and since there was no "do not disturbed" sign to place on the door I was continually woken with numerous requests to make up my room (which I just checked into). I. Then received an emergency call from home and had to leave. I called to cancel the rest if my stay and had to pay for not abiding by the 48hr, I asked for some leniency, she said I needed 48hrs, clearly not understanding this was an unexpected emergency. I'm saddened this is part of a Hilton and clearly they prove being any sort of "priority member" means noting. (I called Hilton and they said I had to deal directly with the hotel). Advise I should have listened too; stay closer to Oxford Center so you can also walk around and have plenty of food options. Because I was loyal to Hilton I ended up in this dreadful place.