Breakfasts are cooked to order and delicious

I had the rib-eye and it was cooked to perfection, also enjoyed a desert at the end, the delicious pavlova (would highly recommend).

Had a pleasurable time in the restaurant was really well looked after by Rosie who went out of her way to really give me the best dinning experience food was delicious and arrived in a timely matter would definitely go again

All staffs were amicable and helpful—dinner and Breakfast as exceptionally good with loads of varieties and options to choose from.

Everyone was so great, fantastic customer service, and restaurant service for dinner and breakfast was pleasant.

Super buffet breakfast; ate at the restaurant once and the choice of food very good plus service excellent.

Its a pity, given the prices in the restaurant you would have expected "fine Dining"
The breakfast on the first morning was excellent,

from booking to checking out was easy, we stayed one night dinner bed and breakfast for my birthday, found the hotel easy, lots for parking £10 overnight charge, which is amazing for a hotel in the middle of a town .

The bed was comfortable, and we had breakfast in the room, which was excellent.

We enjoyed breakfast in the bar for us, 
due to having dog

Great full English breakfast with the best black pudding I have tasted .for a long long time - again we’ll done chef .

Breakfast was very tasty (I had pancakes on pancake day).

We had a late breakfast, and was designated a table in the corner which was nice, i ordered the full english, the Scottish black pudding is the best i've ever tasted, orange juice etc is help yourself.

The breakfast on Saturday was absolutely delicious.

A a great place to stay if you are visiting this beautiful part of England … Blenheim Palace is in Walking distance and Woodstock itself is a charming place to wander around 
Parking is easy at the Hotel, and it’s very central. Reception, Bar and restaurant Staff very friendly….. also great bed linen (!)

Safe easy parking at the hotel for small fee.

We were given the Beckett Room which was on the ground floor and very well appointed having a couple of easy chairs plus a large sofa!

Bus into Oxford leaves from the Market Place and the park and ride is an easy option too.

Easy checkin and checkout and well sized rooms and beautiful decorations and furnishing used across the hotel.

But he’s not just great with the food, he has obviously won over the front of house staff, not always an easy gap to bridge, because they all looked relaxed and happy which translated to great service.

Good hotel to visit Blenheim as it is an easy walk into the palace

If you are not brave enough to try the narrow archway entrance at the front, there is easy access from the rear via Park Lane or Rectory Lane.

Very central and easy to walk to cafes and Blenheim palace

Easy walks to pubs, restaurants and shops in Woodstock.

There are plenty of pubs and restaurants within easy walking distance of the hotel.

Helpful to have radiator in room (easy to adjust temperature) rather than one of those horrid blowing things.

This is a 4 star hotel located in the Middle of Woodstock idealy sited for for easy access to Blenheim Palace (an entrance is a short walk away).

We had a warm welcome at the reception desk with advice on where all the good pubs & restaurants were and check out was easy too.

Drinks and wine are not cheap and it is apparent that their prices reflect its tourist location near Blenheim (which is within every easy walking distance).

Hotel is in a prime location as we was going to Blenheim palace, which is easy walking distance.

As a guest staying last night at the same time as the previous review, I was rather taken aback as I couldn't believe such a review  of The Bear was possible.

but not dirty. Breakfast was awful… we were told only two eggs left (in a busy hotel surely they would have more than enough eggs for guests!)

The head waiter told us that there was a 30 pound allowance per person for meal for guests on the dinner, bed and breakfast deal.

However, we were very disappointed to find that the menu had been changed with no notification to guests.

Only one slight gripe - car parking at the hotel is £10 per night and whilst not a huge amount, it should really be complmentary for guests as part of the welcome.

however three members of staff who did their utmost to make up for things - the check ion lady was a delight, and had to endure customer after customer venting their frustrations (clearly we were not the only dissatisfied guests), as well as the bar manager and a member of the serving management.

Room 45 is directly above the bar which is open to hotel guests for 24 hours.

The more wise guests could be seen staying well away from the restaurant and instead heading elsewhere for dinner.

Could be busier with more repeat clients if they rethought the value proposition.

Only slight issue, I hadn’t realised the room booked was on the 1st floor and had no lift access, which made it difficult for some of our mobility impaired guests.

Sitting at our 'usual' table, over 15 or more minutes, I watched as guests arrived and were seated and orders taken while for some inexplicable reason the member of staff looking after the bar completely ignored me, didn't offer me a menu or a drink, so after a further few minutes I left.

but said she was unable to help as only one computer was working, and criticised another guest for attempting to check in before 3pm, when it was in fact 3.20pm).

A beautiful character building with adjoining buildings which have also been converted to accommodate guests.

but in any event the only view from the room was the of guests’ cars parked in the car park.

but after numerous emails to Guest Services I have not received any replies.

Nothing is explained upon arrival, no toast is offered as an accompaniment to the English breakfast, guests have to ask, its almost as if toast is a taboo subject !

The prking charge of £10 was a bitter pill for some guests to swallow.

Oh and when you’ve got guests checking out and the restaurant staff are getting bills updated on computer systems at the same time by asking the reception staff to enter details it does smack of money grabbing and lack of awareness of who might be waiting.

Some of the other guests behaving like a herd of elephants also show no sign of stopping, with very loud noise as they pass  my room door and slamming all the corridor doors as well as their own room doors.

Working too many positions and trying their best to accommodate (which they do)

I recommend to visit this location at least once in lifetime.

A beautiful hotel, in a great location with nice rooms

but those important consistent things that stand out is its incredible history, excellent location, high standards of cleanliness and friendly staff, not to forget the excellent food.

Our trip was both business and pleasure, and we picked the Macdonald Bear Hotel for its location.

The location is unbelievable and food/service/cleanliness could be much better!

Such a wonderful location we were very impressed.

The location is perfect if you are planning to visit the palace.

In summary, the purpose of our stay was to visit Blenheim palace and, as others have mentioned, the location of the hotel is great.

Perfect location if your visiting Blenheim palace.

Location is great for visiting Blenheim Palace

The hotel description is bang-on in terms of the location and building.

The location was perfect, just a short stroll to Blenheim, the building was beautifully decorated for Christmas, the staff were, without exception, helpful and friendly and our room was extremely comfortable and very quiet, despite being at the front of the hotel and above the bar.

Location is great and really nice to have a wonder around, parking is £10,

Great place to go and a excellent location for 4* hotel witch have a  friendly staff!!

It is extremely close to a side entrance of Blenheim and right on the Main Street of Woodstock which gives it a great location as a base for a weekend in the area.

The location is perfect and walking distance to the Palace.

Hotel is in a quite position, being off the 'main road' through Woodstock.

Car park available at the rear of hotel is a bonus

There is a shuttle service from the Palace car park to the hall

Spent our joint holiday weekend here and had a great time Location was good for us with only a short journey to Oxford's Pear Tree Park & Ride, Blenheim Palace was also within walking distance and Bladon, Churchill's grave was also within a five to ten minute drive Couple of downsides though. .

We stayed in a ground floor room to the rear, accessed from the courtyard and/or car park.

The was room overlooking the rear car park and close to the kitchen and reception with windows open as it was hot -we listened to staff talking as they arrived to work.

There is an entrance into Blenheim Park at the end of Park Street.

however if you would just like to walk around the great park of the palace google secret entrance to Bleinheim palace it is a legal footpath that takes you to the park of the palace.

The surroundings of Woodstock and Blenheim Park and Palace are really pretty and historic so worth a visit.

but the staff made sure all the entrances and car park were safe and well gritted.

I parked easily in the car park and am glad I took the hint from the Swiss guy who reviewed to find the car park - it’s down rectory lane.

Great location - lots of parking at the back on the road of the hotel as the hotel car park was full.

Whilst this is a nice place to stay, it was an unwelcome surprise to be told that overnight parking in the "Residents" car park was £10.

The Bear Offers ample parking with two large car parks,  peace of mind our car was nearby and safe was worth the £10.00 per night charge.

This hotel is excellently located for Blenheim Palace being literally just around the corner from one of the park entrances.

double hooray ..
My room also looked immaculate and for £108 incl breakfast was very good value-as for charging for parking -£10 overnight -well they have 2 large car parks in the middle of the town very desirable - just find out what it costs to park in london overnight !

Apparently once the car park charge is £15 the staff will then be happy to move cars.

The parking, you are able to park your car in the car park for free

Our room was in a wing accessible from the main carp park.

but room 12 had a whooshing noise (like water rushing through a pipe) in the wall behind your head and once you noticed it that’s all you could hear right through the night.

but the room was far too hot at night and the heating was noisy.

The walls were too thin , we could hear everything from the room next door.

Our room was really nice, downside was the pressure of the water in the bathroom which made loud noises and kept us awake in the night - also the shower was pretty rubbish - expected more from a 4 star hotel.

although too noisy to keep on through the night.

On checking in to the room and having told the hotel we had a dog  it was on the 1st floor in the main building which was very noisy on a main corridor.

The noise stopped at just before 1am by which time we were almost too angry to sleep!

but the pitfalls of this type of accommodation is the lack of noise insulation.

However, noise from room above was rather loud on occasion.

however, the toilet kept backing up, the aircon did not work, the safe had a constant error message, the room was not cleaned until 4pm each day .

Activities which would have given us the same amount of enjoyment as this stay include;  banging our heads against a wall or perhaps eating glass.

It had all the facilities we could have asked for and everything worked as it should and about the only fault was that the aircon was very noisy and we had to switch it off at night which wasn't a big problem as the weather was not too hot.

When it eventually did come back on, the hot tap in the sink just spat sporadic hot water and made an awful noise, this continued for the entire stay.

In room 48 the very noisy whistling tap
was due for the plumber's attention immediately.

Noise issues: the nature of the beast in an old place, to an extent.

You could hear all the bottles smashing as well as the transport.

Kept awake by continuous noise from boiler/ heating system.

We were woken each morning at 6.00 am by the man with a cough next door and banging around and the room upstairs also woke early and we could hear the TV and every footstep.

but it was their drunken lovemaking in the early hours that kept us awake.

The staff on during breakfast seemed a bit slow and half  asleep.

The service in the bar was a little slow,

It was extremely slow, almost none of the different orders came out at the same time, and many came out at room temperature.

Very slow to take your orders, the food is average at best.

Despite being shown a table fairly promptly, we experienced extremely slow service at a table in the hotel courtyard - both on taking our orders and in serving the food.

however service was very slow - and was just missing detail.

Service was glacially slow, food had to be sent back (this also happened at another table).

but hadn’t left before 11pm due to the slow service.

The service was slow and somewhat disorganised, the food was as ever absolutely superb, only to be spoiled by the over worked staff, in fact after two and half hours we still hadn't been given a sweet menu dispite asking for one, we left.

She did cope although the service was slow

Breakfast was slow, very slow which meant the meeting started late on day 2.

Breakfast was generous and tasty…albeit service was very slow.

Service was rather slow and the food was very poor.

The slow and broken computers at check in, the long wait for breakfast, the frozen fish saved still hard, the new £10 a day car parking charge, the £18 breakfast, the chippy staff at breakfast, the Hotel is clearly under new management and it is FAILING!

very slow service, tables left with dirty plates and half eaten food left on them.

Breakfast was as friendly, we weren't told there was a buffet and then they didn't bring us one of the dishes we ordered.

it was served on the plate and looked like a "pizza" 
When we checked out our bill was wrong with another persons room charges having been added.

but unable to put it on my own Breakfast plate.

You pay £18 for breakfast plus a 12.5% service charge, so a full English was ordered, which was ok, the black pudding had been sitting in a tray of fat so it was saturated.

Rather dated interior and mixed quality in the restaurant - some very good dishes and some not good enough .

We were shown to our table, which had not been relaid with cutlery, which we had to ask for.

My partner ordered some scrambled eggs which arrived on a side plate, tiny amount, no garnish, just slopped  on, no care.

My full English consisted of 1sausage, 1bacon which you could have snapped on the plate , half of the smallest mushroom you would ever expect of seeing , a tiny potato cake , half a piece of black pudding , and a poached egg.

butter for anything, no milk and no cutlery.

Dirty tea tray, no wifi connection and definitely NOT good value for money.

The next morning it was back to the restaurant for breakfast, oh dear, grey/brown ham on the continental selection, the weakest coffee I’ve ever seen, and black pudding that was wet and couldn’t be picked up with a fork!

Making another trip to the buffet, I found an empty bowl of marmalade and a one cheap looking jar of jam with a spoon stuck in to.

but the menu was limited and uninteresting - my wife had bresaola, which was just put on a plate with rocket and parmesan on top and then had Trout of the Day, which I had cooked the exact same dish last week, so it was not special.

Dinner Menu got a bit repetitive after 5 nights, so maybe a new dish of the day would help -but Graham has only been there two weeks and is already making a difference.

On both occasions, tables were not laid up properly with essential cutlery & crockery missing, this is very basic stuff.

butter in abundance to contaminate your bread knife, had there been any bread left!!

Waiter arrived- with two plates - stood in doorway “Chicken and Duck!” A fellow diner claimed them☹️☹️☹️.

breakfast was cold on both mornings..and staff never cleared away the plates..so they kept building up on our table..evening meals seemed very limited.

Macdonald Bear Hotel

quietness

slow

guest

utensil

location

park

easy

A great choice was set out at breakfast .

The staff from John on reception, Reece in the restaurant and the breakfast team was great, they really made us feel welcome and went that extra mile.

Breakfast was amazing, and all staff were so lovely and friendly.

Jacquie on breakfast, always inviting and talkative, happy to take specific orders (poached eggs) all whilst making sure breakfast counters are stocked up.

Large choice of tea and coffee and cooked breakfast is to be recommended.

:-)]

I found myself in the Peartree Holiday Inn this morning, on the hunt for some breakfast (as the Travelodge opposite had no food amenities).

Both breakfast and evening food was delicious, bar was comfortable and very relaxing.

Went down for breakfast to nice staff a special shout out to jacqui  who looked after us well.

Just checked out after a fabulous complimentary breakfast.

but breakfast staff topped them all, well done guys

The breakfast was fantastic and really set us up for the day.

Great hotel with fantastic staff, especially Jackie at breakfast, good location ample parking.

Breakfast offered a good range of food options and was included in our room rate.

The hotel restaurant was very clean, tastefully presented the food was excellent and plentiful and again the staff very attentive, a special mention has to be made for Latifa  for her very pleasant, efficient and friendly service along with the reataurant mangager both of whom went above and beyond to make our anniversary meal that bit special.

We forgot to book with breakfast and he offered discount right away.

The new dining area is fab, & our breakfast was hot & delicious, even got gluten free toast 😋 Jaqui & Mikey were great, a real joy.

Our room was clean and comfortable and the beds were excellent.

The hotel was clean and tidy and Asif was such an added bonus. George

What a well run hotel, very clean and with great staff.

Location, staff, service, food and cleanliness are excellent.

Staying in the hotel a number of times in the last few months, never had any issues with the facilities, always clean.

I have stayed here overnight too and the room was clean and comfy.

Room was clean and comfortable, bathroom was nice.

Stayed with my mother all was nice and clean and air conditioning in room.

The food is also great and the facilities are immaculate and stylish which makes a huge difference too.

Very clean and fresh throughout including the room.

Typical Holiday inn, basic, clean, comfortable, nothing extra.

Clean spacious rooms and clean hotel lobby and bar.

The bedroom was of a good standard, spacious and clean.

Great for what we wanted for a two night stay, room was clean / functional and the hotel is in an excellent location for park and ride into the centre.

The accomodation - Room was spotlessly clean with good facilities, housekeeping staff kept room clean, tidy and well stocked throughout our visit.

Our room was wonderful, nice & clean & nothing was too much trouble.

Our rooms were clean and modern and had everything we needed including a comfy ready set up for us sofa bed for the kids.

The young guy in the bar needs a little more training - when I asked for a brandy he had no idea what one was and we went through the bottles till he found one - this was done is a very pleasant way and we both had some laughs doing it - he had a great manner, was not flustered and wanted to help - he will be a great barman when he has a little more experience -

I am already from Ukraine and I have problems with payment, and also these people said that their system requests card details, and in the end they withdrew 219 pounds.

After seeing my family off and I asked the night manager if I could have a word with him.

I then asked for the bill to be added onto my room, which I was told to go and sort that at reception!

We complained at checkout and requested to see the most senior person on site, we were told to wait, after 30 mins we were informed he was too busy to see us

While I understand that rooms are not serviced due to covid, surely the request for clean towels should not be ignored.

We mentioned this to the staff and asked for the utensils to be changed - they were understanding and did so swiftly, offering us fresh egg options too.

I also asked him if they would be showing the Ruiz Jnr vs Joshua fight in the bar later.

When i asked about the pool this is being converted into extra bedroom which is a loss.

I paid online requesting also sofa bed which was fully readied with linen, blanket and extra towel -thoughtful!

On our last day they asked us for another £50 because it was £50 per night

Yet 5 Stella each we’ve been told that when we  leave we have to take the van as parking has now ran out.. due to my last drink being drank, on challenging management (the girl in charge behind reception, and the lad claiming to be bar manager) that surely this is wrong, us and other people in the bar  agreeing with me were asked to leave.. Because we were making a problem, when no voices were raised, and manners were still used, he couldn’t tell me his self and sent one of his friendly members of bar staff .

The meal was poor and when we requested another glass of wine our first choice was unavailable as was our second choice.

The staff was so rude when asked about this.

although machines still not working correctly so you had to put in a request for a cappuccino. Having spent a very rainy day in Oxford (not the Holiday Inns fault I know!)

I was asked if I wanted to open a tab, though.

She had asked me on check in what we were doing for the week end and I told her moving onto another hotel for my birthday celebrations.

waited 10 mins or so then asked the waitress how long it would be.

Only one issue, on the first evening we were not individually asked our room numbers, the whole bill was charged to the one person who had given his number.

The dining room staff, especially Hannah,  were friendly and welcoming and always served us well - and we always enjoyed the meals.

The hotel was comfortable and spacious and the food very tasty.

We explained we just wanted a nice dinner.

Comfortable rooms very nice bar restaurant.

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