The Spread Eagle Hotel

Parking was good. But as as guests I had to pay £5. That was the first insult. Room smell was of damp/ musky. Knobs missing of drawers, look clean, but a closer look. It was quite dirty. Room needed a deep clean. 1/2 price voucher for food in the hotel restaurant. Now I know why. Fish and chips were of poor quality, stodgy and difficult to eat. The tomato sauce was inedible. The halloumi burger was more a green/red pepper burger. This meal didn’t get eaten at all. No one queried why there was so much food left, think they were used to it. We didn’t even go to breakfast, the food was that poor. I know it’s an old building, but old buildings can be maintained and clean.

I want to thank all the Spread Eagle Events team, for enabling us to celebrate my mother's 95th birthday in a really special way, on Sunday 7th April. Prior to the day, the whole booking/payment process was a smooth and user-friendly experience, thanks to Events manager Erica. On the day itself, we had a truly wonderful time and my mother enjoyed the whole afternoon. The Afternoon Tea was superb with a great selection of sandwiches, cakes, scones etc, lovely room (AJR) and the service from Lynne was really outstanding. She supplied us with the food, accompanied by a constant stream of different teas, & coffee in a very friendly, helpful & efficient manner. Nothing was too much trouble. Lynne was an absolute star! In addition we and mum spent Sunday night in rooms 35 & 36, followed by breakfast in the morning. Again this was superb. My sincere thanks Erica, and your team - you are a star too!

We have stayed every year for the past 4 years when we head back to Thame, and England, from Canada. Staff have always been very friendly and helpful. The rooms we have had (Courtyard twin on a couple of occasions when I am just travelling with one of my kids, and the Hayloft another couple of times when when we have travelled as a full family) have always been clean and comfortable. The main thing I think the Spread Eagle could do to help itself is to overhaul the dining area and experience. For the first time, when we stayed last week, we were not served tea or coffee at the table at breakfast, but had to go to a side table near the bar to help ourselves from a coffee and tea urn. The coffee was warm, not hot, and obviously became almost cold as I added milk to it. There were no glasses left for juice, which had also run out, and no mugs for the tea or coffee, so we had to wait for them to be replenished (there were only 7 people at breakfast, including my daughter and myself). The breakfast was fine, but down in quality from when I stayed in March 2023. Bacon was hard, mushrooms dry, egg also a bit dried out and must have been cooked in advance and left under a heat lamp or on a hot plate before serving. Sausage fine, but not as high quality and tasty as they used to offer. Also, no hash browns / bubble and squeak anymore, which we definitely had last year (I have a photo of my son at breakfast from last March!) I'll likely stay again in the future as the location is great, and it's a much more enjoyable experience than the travelodge down the road, but I'll be lowering my expectations a bit of the breakfast part of the stay. I think with the Swan in Thame now closed down and no other hotel in town for people to choose from that the Spread Eagle has an opportunity to up its game and become a really quality place for people to stay, but they have to sort out the breakfast / dining part of the experience.

The dirtiest most poorly maintained room in 40 yrs of hotel stays. room 21 “A courtyard Room” is no where near the courtyard - “has a courtyard view” claimed the staff -view of the fire escape. Carpet was mouldy and threadbare. Paint peeling off in numerous places, filthy in so many areas. Bed not even flat. They claimed to have no spare rooms so I requested moving to another hotel which the obliged -manager could not defend offer this awful room to the public. At 10.30pm he booked be into another local hotel that had clean and serviced rooms. reading back through reviews seems promises of refurbishment has been an excuse for charging for diabolical accommodation for some time

We stayed overnight in the hotel whilst attending a function. We were in one of the garden rooms. It was along a dingy corridor at the end. The door lock didn’t work all that well. The room was really tired and needed a coat of paint and the standard of cleaning in the bathroom was poor. The tiles and around the bath had mould. The radiator in the room was cold and was for the stay. We asked at reception and was told it came on via a timer which was clearly untrue. The receptionist seemed disinterested anyway. There was a heated towel rail which fortunately was on for the whole time which at least meant the room wasn’t freezing. The bed was comfortable and the room was quiet which was a plus. The breakfast was ok but not great.

Family birthday lunch for 20 people. Excellent communication and organisation beforehand by the hotel's events team. Everything was as discussed with them on the Saturday of the lunch, with two very professional and considerate staff looking after our table. The food, which we pre-ordered, was fresh and well-cooked and all dishes served at the same time. This is the third event our family has had at The Spread Eagle over the years and it has always done it very well. Thank you to all involved at The Spread Eagle, especially Erica and Lynne.

We had a lovely overnight stay, looked around the area in the day, visiting Robin Gibbs grave, saw his house and went to Thame museum. Hotel bed was comfortable and a cosy room. We had the tapas menu and a cocktail, all was lovely. The only complaint was our fruit and cereal did not arrive and when we told the waiter he said to have it after our hot breakfast, which we declined.

One star is too high a rating for The Spread Eagle restaurant. I’m local, so I’m aware of what a poor reputation it has, but I wasn’t prepared for what I and a friend, who invited me, as she’d been given a gift voucher, experienced. When we arrived there was no one there to welcome us or show us to our table. Eventually a young man came to the bar and told us to ‘pick a table’. It wasn’t difficult, there was only one other person in the whole restaurant. He gave us a menu, which contained some very unimaginative dishes. We asked for tap water. He gave us a sealed bottle, which we’d have to pay for. When eventually he came to take our order, we thought we’d go for something ’safe’ prawn cocktail to start then sirloin steak for main course. When I asked if we could have wine, we were offered a wine list, but he listed off what he could remember: Merlot, Pinot Noir. The Merlot we were given was very poor. It took an age for the starter to arrive. How long does it take to prepare a prawn cocktail? The prawns instead were the tiniest shrimps I’ve seen with some Marie Rose sauce on top, a little salad and bread and butter cut into quarters. Hardly Á La Cart. Another long wait. During which time the waiter called very loudly from the bar and across the restaurant to us if we wanted sauce for our steak?! When the sirloin steak arrived it tasted distinctly odd. My friend has worked as a cook in food establishments, so thought this very odd and thought it tasted as though it had been cooked on a dirty grill. The only other accompaniments were mushrooms which were very dry and tasteless and chunky chips. The chips and sauce were the only edible parts of the meal, so that was all we had. During the meal another man came to our table. It emerged later that he was the Duty Manager. He asked if we were happy with our meal. We said we weren’t and mentioned the odd taste of the steak. He said he’d check with the chef and get back to us. He didn’t. I do expect staff to make an effort to look presentable in a restaurant. He looked unkempt with half of his shirt hanging out. I asked if he could box up the steak to home for my dogs and he said no. I’d never been declined this before and when I asked why was told It was against some rule! When I pushed it he said he could put it in foil for me to take home. What on earth is the difference? Whilst we were eating another member of staff came in and she and the waiter were chatting quite loudly. “I’m sweating “!!! The waiter announced. Nice! Thee was a lot of chat between them during the course of our meal. Also, whilst we were eating our main course which would have been around 7.30-8pm the waiter was setting the breakfast tables around us! There was also music playing in the restaurant. Not the type of ambient music you’d expect, and certainly not with the ‘F’ word thrown in for good measure as we experienced. We were offered dessert and decided that apple crumble with custard and crème brûlée with shortbread biscuits

Stayed in a dog friendly garden room with access to the secure garden area on a Sunday special deal. Perfect for our dog and throughly enjoyed evening meal and breakfast. Have already rebooked another stay.