Hotel a {{star}} a Buckinghamshire, ({{countryName}})

We have just stayed at the Crazy Bear for the last 2 nights. Firstly, the food was absolutely amazing. The English restaurant was lovely, however the Thai food was incredible. The only thing that let down the English restaurant was the service due to the poor waitress who was working on her own to wait on nearly a full restaurant. To pay £200 for 2 people with poor service isn’t acceptable. However the Thai has plenty of staff and the service was great. Well worth the money! The same then followed on our first morning while having breakfast. We were sat down for over 30 minutes before even being asked if we wanted a drink, let alone our order. Our tea finally came but without mugs, when we asked for those we then realised we didn’t have spoons. But again, I don’t blame the waitress because she was on her own serving a nearly full restaurant. We then had our Thai massage. We signed our consent forms and gave them back to the ladies in reception and they just walked off. We didn’t know whether we were waiting or whether we were meant to follow them as we didn’t know where we were going. Once the ladies got to the other end of the bar, one looked back and very rudely threw her arms in the air at us. There was no ‘hello’, ‘how are you?’ Etc. and when paying nearly £90 for a barely average massage, surely a hello can't go a miss. To stay at the Crazy Bear isn’t cheap, but when you’re getting great service you don’t mind paying the price. However I wouldn't say the service matched the price at all.

I should start by saying I stayed here once before about 15 years ago and back then it was a lovely quintessential English country house hotel. However, this time it's clear the hotel has fallen on hard times. Firstly the lift has been out of action for 3+ months apparently - not ideal when you're on the 3rd floor! A porter helped with our luggage when we arrived, but we felt so bad we carried it back down the threadbare staircase ourselves when we left. Our room was stuffy, old fashioned, and the furniture/curtains and carpet all very much at the end of their life and in desperate need of a refurb/update. The room was also full of flies which was really off-putting as well as lights not working and a bathroom that was almost impossible to use as the you had to climb into the bath length ways to use the shower and then the shower curtain would stick to you as there was no room to move. This was also meant to be a 'deluxe room'. We found 1 instant coffee sachet and miniature long life milk and, 1 miniature shower gel for 2 people for a weekend stay and this was after paying nearly £600 for a 2 night stay. It's not too much to expect a Nespresso machine or similar these days when paying this much? The staff did their best to sort out some of the problems, but even they seem slightly resigned to the fact the hotel is really struggling. Breakfast was average. The whole experience left us feeling totally flat which is a shame as the bones of the hotel and building are really lovely! The owners need to shut it down, or set about a carefully planned/phased full refurbishment of all areas of the hotel and hopefully allow it to re-gain it's status of a grand old English country house hotel. In the meantime, you can find a lot better hotels close by for a lot less money.

Upscale hotel with great service in the middle of a stunning little island.

We have just stayed at the Crazy Bear for the last 2 nights. Firstly, the food was absolutely amazing. The English restaurant was lovely, however the Thai food was incredible. The only thing that let down the English restaurant was the service due to the poor waitress who was working on her own to wait on nearly a full restaurant. To pay £200 for 2 people with poor service isn’t acceptable. However the Thai has plenty of staff and the service was great. Well worth the money! The same then followed on our first morning while having breakfast. We were sat down for over 30 minutes before even being asked if we wanted a drink, let alone our order. Our tea finally came but without mugs, when we asked for those we then realised we didn’t have spoons. But again, I don’t blame the waitress because she was on her own serving a nearly full restaurant. We then had our Thai massage. We signed our consent forms and gave them back to the ladies in reception and they just walked off. We didn’t know whether we were waiting or whether we were meant to follow them as we didn’t know where we were going. Once the ladies got to the other end of the bar, one looked back and very rudely threw her arms in the air at us. There was no ‘hello’, ‘how are you?’ Etc. and when paying nearly £90 for a barely average massage, surely a hello can't go a miss. To stay at the Crazy Bear isn’t cheap, but when you’re getting great service you don’t mind paying the price. However I wouldn't say the service matched the price at all.

I should start by saying I stayed here once before about 15 years ago and back then it was a lovely quintessential English country house hotel. However, this time it's clear the hotel has fallen on hard times. Firstly the lift has been out of action for 3+ months apparently - not ideal when you're on the 3rd floor! A porter helped with our luggage when we arrived, but we felt so bad we carried it back down the threadbare staircase ourselves when we left. Our room was stuffy, old fashioned, and the furniture/curtains and carpet all very much at the end of their life and in desperate need of a refurb/update. The room was also full of flies which was really off-putting as well as lights not working and a bathroom that was almost impossible to use as the you had to climb into the bath length ways to use the shower and then the shower curtain would stick to you as there was no room to move. This was also meant to be a 'deluxe room'. We found 1 instant coffee sachet and miniature long life milk and, 1 miniature shower gel for 2 people for a weekend stay and this was after paying nearly £600 for a 2 night stay. It's not too much to expect a Nespresso machine or similar these days when paying this much? The staff did their best to sort out some of the problems, but even they seem slightly resigned to the fact the hotel is really struggling. Breakfast was average. The whole experience left us feeling totally flat which is a shame as the bones of the hotel and building are really lovely! The owners need to shut it down, or set about a carefully planned/phased full refurbishment of all areas of the hotel and hopefully allow it to re-gain it's status of a grand old English country house hotel. In the meantime, you can find a lot better hotels close by for a lot less money.