Blackthorn Vacation Rentals

"The Belfry Hotel in Oxford was a major disappointment and nowhere near its supposed 4-star standard. The room was not properly cleaned, the bathtub and sink were visibly dirty, with waste water backing up when using the tap. The carpet was filthy, and I avoided the spa entirely due to hygiene concerns. Basic amenities were lacking too, only a combined shampoo/shower gel was provided, despite Crabtree & Evelyn products being advertised. The bed was uncomfortable, and to make matters worse, a false fire alarm at 1:30am had all guests standing outside in the cold, with staff appearing disorganised and not properly accounting for people. After that, there was constant noise from slamming doors in the corridor until checkout. Food was equally poor, breakfast was below average, with rubbery fried eggs, and dinner (fish and chips) was nothing special. Check-in was slow and inefficient, and no one asked about the stay at checkout — which says a lot. At around £200 a night, this hotel is significantly overpriced and falls well short of expectations."

"Modern and clean in a great location. The beds are the most comfortable"

"Room was tired with peeling wall paint. But the staff were lovely, good breakfast and relaxed environment."

"We didn't have breakfast in the Hotel, but everything else was very good. "

"Easy parking , spacious location."

"parking was abit expensive, good location room was abit small"

"Excellent staff in reception, the hotel is spotless and the local eateries are within walking distance. Also plenty of parking in and around the hotel. "

"When we checked in, we paid for three days of parking at £5 per day. The reception said their printer wasn’t working so they couldn’t give us a receipt. Then when we went to register the car plate, we were told that we didn’t need to enter the registration number. However, now I have received a parking fine notice."

"This is our 3rd stay at the Store in the past 7 months and won’t be our last. We love staying at this central, modern and well designed hotel. It has the right amount of luxury and the staff are wonderful, friendly and helpful. The rooms do vary but we have begun to become familiar with some of the rooms. They have a very good breakfast with some continental items but you may also order from the à la carte menu. We chose not to include breakfast this time only because we eat too much when we do! We also booked the complimentary 1 hour in the thermal suite which my husband throughly enjoys. They also have additional paid spa services you could book which I’m sure are lovely but we haven’t had an opportunity to do so yet. The hotel is centrally located right on Broad Street but the windows to the rooms are very well soundproofed so I was never bothered by any street noise but on occasion in the mid morning I would hear footsteps from the room above us (they sounded like heavy footed walkers!). Do note that you can’t drive up to the hotel doors but you can stop your car a 2 minute walk away and they will come help you with your luggage if you need it. Also note that they don’t have parking, but there is a car park a 5 minute walk away. It’s expensive (£35-40 per 24 hrs) so do factor that in when you travel to Oxford (as I believe most hotels don’t have parking). The hotel also has a lovely (small) rooftop Terrace bar which is great on nice days. You can sit outside or inside "