This place is worth a long review, because its record of shabby amenities and surly customer service deserves to be documented at length. We wanted to like this place. On the surface, the decor is charming and it feels like a country pub. However, staff are incompetent, rude, unhelpful, inhospitable, and intrusive.
My husband and I had lunch at the Windmill's pub (which is part of the building) when we were staying with a friend in Clapham. The prices are a bit expensive by the standards of Clapham, so one might infer that the pub is a nice place with good food. We ordered two orders of ham, egg and chips and a pulled pork sandwich for our friend. One order of ham arrived ten minutes before the other, after which the third order arrived, which, instead of pulled pork, was another ham, egg and chips. We sent it back and requested that the correct order be brought out. 45 minutes later, nothing had come. I went up to the bar to check on it and was told, in essence, that the bar staff had miswritten the order as three orders of ham, and were confused as to why the third ham had been sent back...so they had done nothing and sent no one to check. After they finally brought the sandwich (we had waited to eat out of politeness, so our food had gotten cold), we asked if they could compensate us for the delay and the ruined lunch. The stone-faced barman said there was nothing they could do. He was, however, overheard by his manager, who finally came out to talk to us and blamed technological errors for his staff's incompetence and inattention to us. In the end he agreed to take the lunch off our bill.
We decided to give the place another chance when we came back through London at the end of July and booked a room at the hotel. We will never do so again.
The room was clean with pretty decor but had continuous a noise problem, as the room was near the front desk and the staff began talking loudly from 7 am onward. (There were almost certainly other rooms available, as well - the hotel was far from full.) The room was also actually quite run down. To a certain extent this is to be expected in a pub with rooms, but not in an inn that bills itself as an award-winning boutique hotel. The bathroom tiles were in need of replacement and the sealant in the shower had mold. The paint was chipped and scuffed in many places. The toilet did not flush properly. Again, this is to be expected in a pub where this is part of the allure, but in the bedrooms it just looks dingy.
The mattresses are rock-hard - they are so firm that if one sleeps on one's side one's shoulders ache in the morning.We were jetlagged and the noise factor and rock-hard mattresses didn't help - so we did not sleep well.
Housekeeping only runs from about 9 to 1. This would be alright (although not entirely helpful if one is napping due to the aforementioned jetlag or trying to get some work done), but the staff's response to a "Do Not Disturb" sign hung on the door is to call from the front desk into the room (which defeats the purpose - and the telephones ring with an ear-piercing screech). They did this twice.
But the biggest issue is a combination of annoyance and rudeness. The hotel has a serious access problem. The main door is on the back of the building, adjoining the Common but on the far side from the main road. The door is locked at night, so if one is out late, the only way to get in is to walk all the way around the building and then ring a bell that calls the night manager, who answers after about the 5th ring. This is far from convenient.
As noted, though, the pub (which adjoins the ground floor and is accessible from it) is the easiest way in from the main road. On several occasions, we had a last round in the garden or were returning from a last round elsewhere, and the staff were finishing up inside, with the doors open and people moving in and out. It would have taken no effort for them to let us in (they knew who we were, and we had our keycards - and it's not as though the night manager at the far end was checking ID's at all). Instead they rudely shut the doors in our faces, citing "the rules" and forced us to walk around the building. Remember, these were the same staff who had initially expected us to pay for a ruined lunch. And they were quite nasty about it, giving us that dead-eyed stare that says "you are subhuman and I'm not helping you."
We pointed out to the night manager that this was rude and an inconvenience for us, and that it would have taken no effort on their part to make our lives easier or more pleasant, or to show kindness and hospitality instead of rudeness. He merely cited "the rules." I don't know about others, but I expect a bit more in the hospitality department. Their rules are more important than their guests' happiness.
All in all, the pretty decor and nice location do not make up for the fact that this place treats their guests like crap. read more