Tower House

We spent one night here in order to extend our stay in Oxford. If you like museums and historical sites, there's lots to do here, so I'd recommend two days. This hotel is built partly in what was once the city walls, so portions of it are over 400 years old. We were looking for something with that kind of ambiance. The downside is that many rooms have very low headroom, and you may have to climb a narrow staircase to access them. We fortunately sorted that out in advance by emailing the managment and requesting a room with decent height on the first floor. The management, I might add, was very good about replying to our emails promptly. Our room (wish I had remembered the name, but it's the one with the queen bed featured on the website's opening page) was roomy and airy. Our private bathroom (not all rooms have en suite bathrooms, so be sure you know what you're getting) was small but not cramped, and the shower was modern and clean. We did hear some creaky floorboards above us when someone checked into the room above, but it wasn't enough to wake anyone up and, hey, that's part of the adventure of an ancient hotel like this one. The price I was offered in early July 2024 was better than anything else near central Oxford. I noticed in the reviews that many guests were directed to a breakfast at an establishment around the corner, but that was never mentioned to mel breakfast wasn't included in the cost of my room. Overall, we enjoyed out experience here. It helped make Oxford memorable!

Sadly this ended up as not a great experience..... The Guest House itself is in a sensational location but it is indeed rundown and tired! However my initial communications were friendly and helpful so I was prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt. |I arrived but there actually is nobody who 'mans' the house as such so I was let in by the cleaner. My room was okay but very tatty but quaint. However when I saw there was no shower but a bath with a pyrex cup as there was no shower head on the hose I was somewhat disappointed .... sure the rates are £140 BUT you leave a pyrex cup as the shower? Seriously.|On their terms and conditions they deduct the room rate before you arrive - no problem and I saw their charge but thats when things began to become weird. Multiple transactions all by the same company, 6 in total. They deducted the rate and then credited it back several times. Then there was another charge for another £80.00 after I left ( the next day ). I immediately contacted the property ( only by whatsapp available ) and the lovely lady said she was "only helping as the staff were away" and she was sorry and would call the Manager overseas. I sent screen shots of the transactions from my bank and indeed they all came from the same reference and I asked what was going on.|The "Manager" was to call me back and never ever did. I then said this was not good enough and I had been overcharged by £80.00+. I then received another message back saying that someone had copied the charges but it was NOT them. I told them this was impossible as they had debited my card multiple times and all from the same account which they denied was them. They charged the £140 then returned it and charges again twice then an additional £80.00+ |My bank confirmed the details were the same vendor and indeed the Towerhouse.|I demanded the email address and phone number for this'Manager' and she refused to give me the details as it was against company policy. I was told this Manager would call me and email - they never did.|Be very careful - I reported the fraud to my bank. I sadly would not stay again - its damp, smelly and very very tired. It could be amazing but there is something dodgy about this place and I could not and would not recommend it which is sad as I am in Oxford a lot. Update - my bank verified all these charges did infact come from the vendor confirmed at The Tower House Oxford. I suspect this is a ploy to take a small authorisation against your card £1.00 when you book, then then return that and multiple times charge you the £140.00 and return it and then do it several times. They then add another charge £80+ which they then refunded when I called to complain.... they lied that this was fraud and not them as my card and bank confirmed it was ALL them. DO NOT TRUST THEM

I attempted to settle my disappointment privately however got no reply. I stayed for a couple of days and was disappointed to start with as the toilet seat was hanging off and the building is in need of repair but this wasn’t taking away from my stay and I knew it was cheaper than ones close by…HOWEVER the main reason I and giving this hotel 1 start and would not recommend is because there were mould stains on the bed sheets!!! See photo, luckily it was very hot so I just dealt with no duvet after I realised, I had already slept one night in the sheets which I hadn’t notice in the dark. I then emailed about this issue after my stay and have had no response. They just want your money and don’t care about customer service!

My colleague made the same assumption others have when booking two rooms with shared facilities. The description needs to be clearer that 'shared facilities' means one bathroom shared between 3 separate rooms. This was a surprise, but would have been fine had said bathroom not been freezing cold with a mouldy shower unit. Thank goodness neither of us have any affected health conditions. ||The photos do not accurately portray the state of the rooms. Peeling wallpaper, unrepaired holes in the walls, lights not working, cold. At least the rooms and beds were clean.||Don't let the location fool you, this is in the centre, where people will walk past at all hours carrying on their conversations at full volume. Then the bin lorry will be by around 5:30 as your unofficial wake up call.||The staff are unhelpful, unfriendly, and unapologetic.||I don't recommend this accommodation for those in town for business, or those with any form of physical disability.

The only good thing about the tower house is the location, very central for everything. But it goes downhill from there, managers are non existent, very difficult to get hold of by phone and extremely rude and uncaring. |The photos on their sites are of the two rooms they keep tidy for publicity and even they are not great. We arrived and had to phone, took several attempts for them to answer, they gave us code to keybox, let ourselves in, totally unmanned reception so had to phone again about which room we were in as no one was there. |We were told that two rooms shared a bathroom which would have been ok but in reality The only bathroom is on the top floor with four flight of stairs and shared between 6 other rooms! So as you can imagine it was terrible to try and use the shower/ toilet as it was always occupied but we didn't really want to use it as it was so dirty with mould, mildew etc. |We were in The little blue room, a small double but it wasn't a double bed but a queen size one so very small. There was a sink in a very dark alcove with no light as it was broken. The room itself was very dirty, stained carpet and bedding, dirty curtains, marks on walls, holes in the walls, large mark on one wall with holes where the bed head had been fixed to wall! Overall a very unkempt dirty room. |The whole house had a feeling of disrepair, neglect, dirty, as if the owners couldn't be bothered.|So sad to see a grade II listed building kept in such a condition. Feel that they just wanted peoples money and are uncaring of the condition of the house. We were not the only ones with similar complaints and concerns about broken and dirty rooms.|When we complained we were told that it you don't like it then leave! We are writing to Oxford council ref the state of a listed building and the owners attitude towards visitors and contacting the other sites where they are listed to make people aware.

This is NOT a hotel! We stayed here for 3 nights and did not see anybody working there. No one present during check in or check out. No reception. No change of towels or emptying bins in our room. No restocking of water or tea supplies. There are no lifts & you must carry your own luggage up narrows stairs. No breakfast. The fan in the bathroom did not work, leaving us with a very damp room after a quick shower. Quirky shower, loud workers outside, just centimetres outside our room, uneven walls and squeaky floor.||It all sounds rather horrible, and it will be if you come here with an expectation of it being just like any other hotel stay. ||But if you want something different, a place with lots of charm, great location and be able to stay in a house that is 400 years old, then you have come to the right place! We had a great time staying here, kids loved it and if we ever go back to Oxford, this will be the place we want to stay at. Highly recommended!|An added bonus is that they are a social business, supporting Student Hubs, an organisation aimed at supporting students. ||We had the Foundry and Bastion rooms, both en-suite (although Bastion only had bat tub, not shower). |Please be aware that this is not a hotel. And you must be able to walk handle steps and stairs that are not up to modern standards.|

I’m on the fence about this place. It was in a safe area in a great location for tourists. Walking everywhere was not a problem. The guy that checked us in was nice and friendly. |Online we chose 2 bedrooms with a shared bathroom. My and my daughter slept in one room, husband and son in another. We understood we were sharing a bathroom but there was another room sharing it with us. Probably just an American’s misunderstanding. It was a small but comfortable room. The bedding was clean. |On the bad side- I was unhappy with the shower. It didn’t drain. Someone else’s stuff was left in there. The bedroom wall plaster was cracking and had lots of holes. It wasn’t dirty but I changed socks before getting into bed. It was a million degrees inside the room and I had to sleep with the window open even after turning off the heater.

I was in the Red Room which had the most fabulous view over Jesus College. The set up worked really well. The bathroom was a bit mouldy in some areas and the arrival instructions were confusing. Worth all that to get the view and location.

Our stay at the Tower house was lovely. Just recently newly aquired, there were changes taking place when we arrived none of which stopped our hostess Elizabetta from taking excellent care of us. The room was clean and quiet as was the shared bath. We went to the No1 restaurant for dinner as per Elizabetta's suggestion and recieved complementary aperitifs from the Tower House before an amazing meal. Breakfast was also included the next morning and the eggs benedict had a perfect sauce, not too heavy. We would definitely return.