GreyFriars Hotel & Restaurant

Good hotel in a great location. Unfortunately the room we had was on the second floor up a winding small staircase but it also had a strange smell. This was mentioned to the night manager who in turn left a note for reception who apologised when we checked out and gave us a 50% discount on the room. Breakfast was wholesome and freshly cooked and all table service.

What a fantastic evening - we will definitely be returning. From the friendly staff to the relaxed atmosphere and delicious food, everything was perfect. The wine and complimentary bread were excellent as well. It was a pleasant surprise that the Table d’Hôte menu was available on a Saturday evening, offering great value for money, and a thoughtful touch of complimentary chocolates made my birthday celebration even more special! Highly recommended.

I went for an afternoon tea yesterday, this was my 5th visit as the food has always been exceptional. However I felt yesterday's was a bit of a let down. It took ages for any food to appear, the sandwiches were OK, a bit cold, no sausage roll or any other savoury item. Two of our party of 6 had the savoury, it comprised of a tiny scotch egg, and equally tiny pate on toast and a small what I assume was prawn cocktail with just a teaspoon of sauce. The scones were lovely but the big disappointment was that the cream was not clotted just a very runny double cream and the jam was like catering jam. The small cakes were delicious. I will not be returning as I felt value for money was very poor. I can name at least five other venues that do a better tea for a lot less money.

Smooth reception, super fast room service and a lovely relaxing room. I was very happy to stay there and would easily recommend it to everyone. I do think they need to put a ramp at the entrance to make it easier to bring your luggage in.

We stayed at the 4-star GreyFriars Hotel in Colchester, booking a Superior King Room on a room-only basis for around £180 per night, for a four night stay. The room itself was spacious, and the complimentary soft drinks in the minibar were a nice touch. However, before we'd even spent our first night, we discovered the water pressure was extremely poor. It took around 30 minutes just to run a half-filled bath. We reported it to reception, who said maintenance would investigate the following day. We were offered the option of moving to another room, but it didn't have a bath. Having already unpacked all our luggage, it seemed unreasonable to repack everything just to move to an inferior room. Unfortunately, nothing improved. For the remaining three nights, the water pressure was so poor that we couldn't run a bath in a reasonable time or even have a proper shower. When we checked out, we again raised the issue with reception and made them aware that Room 27 still had the same problem. Apart from an apology and another promise that maintenance would look into it, there was no acknowledgement of the inconvenience or any gesture of goodwill whatsoever—not even something as simple as offering the ginger beer or ice cream from the meal we were paying for. As people who have worked in the tourism industry and successfully ran our own holiday accommodation, we know how important it is to make guests feel listened to and valued when things go wrong. Problems can happen anywhere, but how they're handled is what people remember. Do better, GreyFriars. The photo shows the trickle of water we had. This is the taps open at full pelt.