St Giles House Hotel

Older hotel with lots of character. Quaint and cozy.

Viited for a friend's birthday and we both had the 80 minute Peaceful Escape massage and facial. We both agreed that this was the best spa experience we had had. The therapists were friendly and welcoming and the treatment rooms were perfect - just the right temperature, quiet and calming and the beds were extremely comfortable. I would highly recommend the Spa at St Giles.

The hotel had sone lovely features, nice reception area, friendly staff, lovely bedroom, warm, and good facilities, comfortable bed and had a good nights sleep, bathroom spacious, lovely shower.

I booked it for colleagues and they were very underwhelmed. It wasn't clean, it was cold and it was not well maintained, apparently.

One of our staff stayed here first week of March, his room was fine, but very dirty, dust and cobwebs everywhere. He said the breakfast was great and his bed was comfortable, just a shame there are so many reviews on the cleanliness of the building.

Lovely hotel, friendly helpful staff, great location in the town centre

On arrival there is car parking to the rear of the hotel at a cost of £10 per day or part thereof, remember to put your car registration into the machine at the check-in desk. There is a lift from the carpark area to the check-in area. However, if you are then allocated any of the rooms 1 to 24 there are no lifts to these rooms from reception just a lot of stairs dependant upon your room number. On arrival we were allocated Room 20. It had a KSB, TV, a small wardrobe, tea and coffee making and a mini bar, but there were no separate chairs to sit on in the room. The view from the room is to the very unattractive rear of the hotel. The bathroom was large with both a bath and separate shower area, toiletries were provided as was a hair dryer. The décor of both the room and bathroom was dated and had many scuffs, stains and in the bathroom chipped tiles and the taps in the basin were loose. We had to ask to have the shower drain cleaned as the shower was flooding the bathroom floor. We had breakfast each morning which was excellent with all the cooked options being cooked fresh, so there was quite a wait after ordering on some occasions. There is a small bar area which when we were there had run out of gin and many other spirits as well as the mixers, probably because, as we found out later, the hotel is up for sale.

Housed in what was once apparently a telephone exchange this hotel used to be my regular choice of a place to stay when in Norwich on business, which was several times a year. It’s very conveniently situated in the city centre, has onsite parking, and more character than the nearby Holiday Inn which also does the job but is rather bland. Staying this time after a gap of five years it has sadly however, fallen into neglect. I went to press the button on the lift up from the car park. How did you realise it there was no button – it had fallen off, leaving the LED electronics exposed. Not a good start. Check-in by the very pleasant Chloe at reception was quick and very straightforward so I guess that’s a plus. Arriving in my room, my heart sank. The idea I think is to have a theme of Art Deco faded elegance however my room had faded to the point where any elegance had long disappeared. Dreary reproduction furniture, a carpet that must’ve been down for 20 years, decorations so eclectic that nothing whatsoever was coordinated all contributed to general feeling of tattiness.- relatively clean to be fair but still undeniably tatty, The crowning glory was the bathroom which had nowhere to hang anything up, peeling paintwork, a broken tap which emitted a weird and very annoying whistling sound, and a bath which may once have been white but is now cream in places as a consequence of it’s years of service. The bed was comfortable enough, but I was woken in the morning by the creaking floorboards of the room above it seems that the lack of upkeep and refurbishment is structural as well as cosmetic. This could still be an excellent hotel, but the owners need to properly refurbish the room I stayed in and deal with the other maintenance issues if they ever wish to attract my custom again. I didn’t eat in the hotel, so cannot comment on the food. I was only there for one night on business so it didn’t matter that much but for a couple staying for a long weekend in what is a very nice city this accommodation would’ve been pretty disappointing.

Very beautiful unusual building, ask to see the ballroom, our room was very lovely, warm and comfortable bed. All the staff were extremely helpful, friendly and efficient happy to give recommendations for restaurants etc.