Macdonald Bear Hotel

Lovely stay, really enjoyed. Stayed here for my birthday and we had a fantastic time, nice room on the 3rd floor which was up some Alice in wonderland vibe stairs (quite a laugh after a few glasses of wine) big comfy room with nice bed and a seperate seating area. Nice and clean. plenty of places on the high street to eat and drink. Brilliant wine bar 2 doors or so down with help yourself service. Breakfast was fine just your typical cooked breakfast. Staff at check in lovely. Will definitely be back again on our next visit.

A very comfortable stay in a fantastic location This hotel is in a perfect location in the heart of this quaint town and an easy walk to Blenheim Palace if this is the reason for your visit. A warm welcome greeted us, and we were allocated room 3, which is a downstairs room in the stable block. The room was spacious, spotlessly clean and extremely comfortable with all amenities that are on our 'must have' list; a decent sized tv, a mini fridge, a coffee machine as well as a kettle, bottled water provided, and the offer of fresh milk if wanted. The only reason this is not 5 stars, was very patchy wifi, a rather noisy guest in the room upstairs, a very uninspiring bar area with no character (very strange considering that Woodstock is awash with beautiful old pubs?) and most annoyingly of all, 'tethered' coat hangers...do guests really steal coat hangers these days! All in all, however, an extremely comfortable stay, and we will return .

Disappointing in every respect We upgraded to a room that looked very nice, but it was not particularly clean. It had an antique cabinet with broken hinges, making it impossible to close, crating an obstruction when going to the bathroom. The room had no telephone, so communication with reception meant a personal visit, but reception was mostly unmanned. It was impossible to heat the room, as the unit for central heating/air conditioning was faulty. Our meal was inadequate. Very little choice. Rather indifferent “pub grub”, but “fine dining” prices. Breakfast was the worst I’ve ever had in a hotel. The buffet was stale and should never have been on display. The scrambled egg was awful and there was no gluten free bread! There were cobwebs in the dining room. All in all a terrible experience.

Flattering to deceive Hotel location good, quirky interior befitting a really old building, comfortable beds and spacious bathrooms. They were they good points. Twice in the bar I had to wait 5 minutes for someone to show up to serve me (and dear Lord it's expensive) Breakfast was an utter shambles. On arrival the restaurant manager showed us to a table and asked if we wanted tea and coffee - we wanted one of each. The coffee arrived but just poured and no milk brought and I had to ask of a waitress for it. I asked her as well to bring the tea as it hadn't arrived and no it didn't arrive this time. At the third time of asking it eventually arrived after 15 minutes in total, 3 times asking before the tea arrived is very poor. We ordered the vegetarian breakfast with fried egg and full English with soft poached egg. I had to ask another waitress for toast as this wasn't asked when we ordered Eventually it arrived with the eggs on the wrong plates and both cooked to oblivion. My bacon was cold and both of us found the potato scone to be inedible - like cold cardboard. The toast had barely been near the toaster and was completely limp. The restaurant was not busy but utterly shambolic. I raised this with the restaurant manager as I left the restaurant and he muttered some vague apology. I emailed the hotel raising this when we got home. No reply. I received a feedback request, raised it once again and no reply. To be honest I have had far better service and much superior breakfasts at 2 star hotels costing a fraction of what we were charged. Four stars raises a level of expectation and the Bear fell well short of what you would expect

Good from outside till you scratch the surface The hotel amazing and everything we expected. The room was beautiful but that’s where it ended. We came for evening meal on Tuesday evening it wasn’t busy. Ordered food and waited and waited over 45 mins for starters. The meal itself was ok. My husband popped to the toilets which are situated beside the kitchen the shouting coming from the kitchen was so loud my husband was shocked. It wasn’t English so couldn’t understand what was being said but the anger and aggression was heard by everyone eating. It upset our stay. The breakfast was disappointing a long wait no fresh fruit or any yogurt very limited after the amount we paid for us to have breakfast. The hot offerings were limited as staff said nothing had been ordered so they didn’t have anything to serve this is a disgrace considering what is stated online when booking this hotel is more two star than 4 we won’t be back