71clares
Google
Think twice before booking The Boat House — especially if you care about your health or how you’re treated as a guest.||||Before you decide, take a moment to read how the hosts respond to 1, 2 and 3-star reviews on TripAdvisor. Their replies are shockingly rude, dismissive and at times personally demeaning. Sadly, this behaviour matches exactly what we experienced during our stay.||||Here’s what happened…||||The moment we arrived, we smelled damp and found the air quality in the Purple and Scarlet rooms to be genuinely concerning. Both rooms had a strong smell of damp and felt poorly ventilated to the point we questioned whether it was safe to sleep in them.||||We raised the damp issue by email and received no response. When we brought it up in person, the hosts were defensive and dismissive, saying we should “be grateful that the Scarlet and Purple rooms have any kind of ventilation at all” and that we should have “requested rooms with windows that open” — a baffling and gaslighting response when the core issue was damp and stagnant air, not window preferences.||||We seriously worried about the impact on our health and asked to be moved to a different room because of it.||||There were other issues too:|| • The road noise is frequent and intrusive in all rooms.|| • The breakfast was extremely poor value for the £120–£140 per night rate: basic, meagre, low-quality ingredients, and truly terrible coffee.|| • The shower door in the Scarlet room was broken.||||The hosts’ behaviour was odd and off-putting — one overbearing and trying too hard to be attentive, so it felt over the top and like an act — the other entirely avoidant, not even saying goodbye as we left. There’s a tense, passive-aggressive energy to the place that made us feel unwelcome and on edge.||||Reading through their responses to negative reviews on TripAdvisor says it all: they are consistently defensive, mean-spirited, and personally insulting. We expect a similar reply to this review, but they only damage their own reputation by responding that way.||||We would never return. If you’re looking for a similar price point but something far more professional, welcoming, and enjoyable, check out Brown’s — the meal we had there was exceptional, and the atmosphere couldn’t have been more different.||||Avoid The Boat House at all costs — especially the Purple and Scarlet rooms. Your health and peace of mind are worth far more.
