The Castle at Taunton

Looks seriously good from outside. We had paid for castle view room and after a horrid 6 hour drive needed to rest. However these upgraded bedrooms face south and have no air-conditioning so it was at least 36 degrees in the room and only two silly portable fans pushing hot air around! . Not even a mini fridge in these expensive rooms which is oir of touch with other similar priced and equal rating hotels we have used. Once the sun had gone down about 9pm we flung open the windows for some cooler air and endured teens yelling and screaming as they used the concrete play area just a bit along from the hotel entrance and numerous drunken girls hanging around the adjacent pubs presumably trying their luck with whoever they cottoned onto.. The drunken revellery continued into the early hours and being light sleepers at 3am it meant closing the windows on the still stifling room was the only option. Whilst the outside issues are no fault of the hotel, if the rooms had air-conditioning the windows could remain shut and outside noise wouldn't be an issue. On the whole it wasn't the nicest 2 nights away but on a plus the bed was comfortable.

This was pretty dire. Stayed for 2 nights. I needed a room with AC, due to a respiratory condition. To get the space needed for my machine, I was given a room with a sofa bed. Which cost a lot extra. The sofa bed was the chairs, so we had nowhere to sit, as it had to be made up permanently. I had to prop myself up on the floor with pillows. They knew they had an issue with water, There was no fresh cold water from the tap, it was warm, despite running it for a while. I struggled to cool myself down. Later on, I wanted to drink fresh water, and was directed to the bar. Up and down stairs. The bottled water in the room was lukewarm warm, and tasted awful. Overnight the AC was making a constant buzzing sound, which kept me awake. So the room was not conducive to a relaxing stay at all. I paid a total of £430 for 2 nights, in a room I couldn’t sit in, couldn’t sleep in and had no cold water, I gave the hotel an opportunity to address these issues, but none was forthcoming, it used to be a lovely place to stay, but not now, very overpriced and little to offer

Never again will I stay here. Over priced with no niceties in the room, not even a pack of biscuits! Had to put the tea tray on the floor to make a cup of tea!. The room was hotter than a sauna unbearable making the room unfit for purpose. The manager David could only offer up that " this was a grade 2 listed building so air conditioning was not available, nor was an alternate room. He offered that we could leave and go somewhere else. Graham the maintenance man tried to placate us with 2 plastic cheap fans and fixed our TV which wasn't working on arrival. The only saving grace was that we enjoyed breakfast.

Wonderful afternoon tea on Sunday. I didn't get the servers name unfortunately but she is a credit to you.

Raw uncooked scones with a unfriendly staff