The Swan at Hay

Lovely stay, great staff, cozy bedroom and lounge areas. Good breakfast. Lovely garden. Dinner main course (lamb) was quite small and at £29 quite expensive. Strong and pervasive diesel smell on the street outside over the weekend (especially the Friday) made me cough. Most unpleasant. That's not the hotel's fault - apparently it's the urban canyon effect where diesel from deliveries on Fridays - especially in the wintertime - settles in the town and can't escape. Ugh, really strong. Luckily it didn't penetrate the hotel interior.

5 months ago · via Google

Nice stay. Polite staff. Don't expect luxury but expect decent food. Average but clean and comfortable rooms and premises overall. Tiny car park. 2 chargers for electric vehicles (not included in the price of the stay). Would come back. Also, has the sure plus of you being able to park the car if there is space and not touch it again during your whole stay.

2 months ago · via Google

Stayed last night after a wonderful wonder around the bookshops. Great service, and lovely rooms. Very comfy bed and completely silent night. We had an issue with dinner but it was dealt with swiftly and professionally so didn't ruin our stay. Food was yummy and had the best hot chocolate ever here! I would definitely return. Such good value for money and perfect location. Ignore the negative nancies on here, the swan is worth a stay!

5 months ago · via Google

I am absolutely furious, appalled and shocked at my experience staying at the hotel over the weekend. My mother booked the stay as a gift, as I was a guest at the Hay Festival, and it cost her £800. Eight Hundred Pounds. That is for two nights. This is more than rooms at Claridges or The Savoy cost, two of the world’s most expensive hotels. Naturally, we were expecting an out of this world, very special, ludicrously high-end and luxurious experience from a hotel lauded as one of the towns most precious jewels. Despite this extortionate festival inflated price (although the usual price of around £175 / night would have also have been too much, the stay was worth £80/night maximum) it is without a doubt the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. I would have rather been in a tent. To name a small handful of issues: - I was called at 9pm at night out of the blue about a week before the stay, wherein a very rude lady angrily demanded the final payment over the phone despite us expecting to pay the remaining balance in person upon check in - The hotel lobby smelt as if someone had died there, we were both nauseous from the smell, upon investigation we discovered the disgusting and overwhelming scent was coming from the ladies toilets which had an overflowing sanitary towel bin that clearly hadn’t been emptied or cleaned in months if not years. - There are huge and very visible rodent traps all over the property and garden - The facilities in the downstairs ladies were also out of order - No one was actually at reception for a good ten mins, even when we tried to ring the bell (which was broken) - No one helped us with our bags up the stairs, something basic you would expect for the price - The room was small and basic - The room was covered in lots of dirty makes incl make up marks on the walls and doors - The room was furnished with extremely cheap pieces, including pillows, a kettle, a bin and a mirror that can be purchased at Argos - The bathroom door had to be kicked to open, the lock is presumably stuck or broken - The bedside light was broken - The bathroom facilities are extremely cheap and old, including a shower head my parents used to have in the 1980s that is button operated, produces nothing more than a dribble and makes a very loud noise - The toiletries and tea/coffee provided are worth about 50p - The signage in the room and beyond is so old it is a dark shade of yellow and also taped to walls with crusty cellotape - The breakfast is clearly made using the cheapest possible ingredients incl. being given the ketchup in a sachet you get at McDonald’s, guacamole from a tub instead of fresh avocado and we were told there wasn’t even a possibility of a proper coffee ie. a latte or a cappuccino - All the staff are irritable and look incredibly downtrodden and depressed (I don’t blame them) and there wasn’t a hint of any sort of service provided. Honestly, they all look like they want to kill themselves. I actually felt bad asking for anything as I thought they might be in some sort of slave labour or hostage situation. - Upon checking out, we asked politely if a lady at reception would book us a taxi. She looked at us blankly and said words to the effect of don’t you have a phone. This was the first (and only) time I confronted someone for the service, saying I didn’t understand as this is a perfectly normal request of a hotel reception. She said she was ‘too busy’, which was odd as the lobby was literally empty at the time apart from us. Again, this is just a handful of what occurred. I would go as far as to say that this hotel is a detriment to the entire town.

2 months ago · via Google