Ferndown, Dorset The Bridge House Hotel

me and my partner stayed at the bridge house earlier this month , due to travelling all day , we decided to stop and have a nights rest , we searched all over for a hotel and was left with the bridge house , and reading the reviews i was nervous but needed the rest .........

having arrived at the hotel , we was greeted by the lovely reception staff , who was more than acommadating , we stayed in a room at the front of the building and we slept well, (very comfy beds)no road noise as double glazed windows,

food was excellent, waiter and waitresses was brillaint , service in all was v.good.

we will definetly stay again , and recommend to my friends!!!

We booked a stay at The Bridge House for two adults and a baby. Like the other reviews here, we were also disappointed to find the hotel right on a busy A road and not in the countryside as the photos suggested.

Our disappointment changed to horror as we were shown our room on the ground floor and it faced directly onto the mail road which must have been a mere 10 yards away. There were no net curtains for privacy either...unless you drew the curtains fully the drivers could peer straight into the room as they drove by! A supplier's white van with a ladder on top was parked directly outside for most of our stay which did little to improve the outlook.

There was no baby cot in the room when we booked despite but a helpful chap at reception soon managed to obtain one from somewhere else.

The room was shoddy with stains on the wall behind the bin and stale water in the kettle. The exposed pipes in the bathroom and two-ply toilet paper did little to impress my husband. Neither did the 5 minute wait for the water to warm up before having a morning shower. Guests are only given one towel for "eco" reasons but the plastic toothbrush beakers wrapped in extra plastic soon cancelled that out I'm sure.

The fittings were cheap and mismatched. When the curtains were drawn light still streamed in as they were too small for the window.

On checking out we were charged extra for our breakfast which had been included in the price quoted when we booked. We complained and the charge was waivered. Breakfast had been a very watery affair - tinned mushrooms, watery fried egg, watery tomatoes and watery beans.

We had a laugh at how dire it all was but we would never go back.

We booked a family lunch for 20 people for my mother's 90th birthday celebration and settled on a set menu well in advance. The arrangements were made very efficiently with a charming young assistant manager. Unfortunately on the day he wasn't there and we had shockingly bad service: the food took ages to come and when it did the quality was really poor. We asked a number of times for th food for the children to be brought quickly but to no avail. When I paid the bill I refused to pay a service charge due to the unsatisfactory service and poor food. The waitress asked if everything else had been OK! We wrote twice to complain and never received a reply and telephoned but never were called back. Needless to say we'll never go to The Bridge House Hotel again!

We booked to stay for 2 nights, Friday to Sunday when we arrived the woman at the desk seemed helpful. We got up to the river suite and noticed wallpaper peeling off the wall, the room needed a face lift. The furniture was grubby with stains on the sofa and chairs I also noticed this downstairs in the bar/restaurant. I was just happy the bed was clean and the bathroom. The patio doors had a gap at the top letting cold air in we had to shut the curtains to keep the draft out. We couldn't open the patio doors. Not that we would have got any sleep or peace if we had as the hotel is stuck on a flight path and you have low flying planes go past. The staff seemed to have no idea who were guests and who had popped in to have a meal. The staff seemed unorganised and to be doing different jobs. The bar staff were serving food as well as drinks. On the plus side the food was good however the rest of the hotel needs to be refurbished as its all shabby. I would not recommended this hotel to anyone and would not stay there again.

I recently booked a one night stay at 'The Bridge House Hotel', Ferndown, for my husband and I.

I read a couple of reviews on the hotel, and was pleased to see that it advised that the hotel had been recently refurbished. Photo's displayed also looked very encouraging and peaceful.

We arrived and, my immediate concern was that the hotel was in fact on rather a busy road - not the idyllic picture that appears to be shown promoting it (later found out this was actually the back of the premises). Although we were not greeted immediately, were pleased with the professionalism when we were.

We stayed in a room at the front of the hotel, very nicely decorated - but the 'refurbishment', was not exactly 100% correct, as what appeared to be the whole of the frontage still sported single glazed windows. As previously mentioned, the road was quite busy and with the hotel on a bend, all you could hear was the constant hum and breaking of lorries, cars etc.

It was quite a muggy evening, but it was impossible to have the window open due to the noise - saying that though it would have probably been about the same noise level due to the single glazing!!!

We were becoming increasingly aware that not only was there extreme noise from traffic, the room was hot - but ..it was also underneath a flight path!

It got to the point that neither of us had even managed to doze off after 2 hours! Oh, and our neighbour could have been in the Guinness Book of Records for snoring - either that or the walls were paper thin.

All in all, a disastrous nights sleep (of should I say lack of sleep). In total, I think we probably slept for around 2 hours - not good for a 'refurbished' hotel.

You may be wondering why we didn't contact the 'night porter' - simple reason, there wasn't one! The other reason was that when I booked I was told that this was the last room, so short of sleeping in the restaurant we knew there wouldn't be much of an alternative.

At breakfast, the service was excellent. We chatted to a couple of other guests - who incidentally were staying at the back of the property (where the nice pictures for the website were taken). They also suffered with poor sleep - again due to the fact that the windows were single glazed and the road traffic noise was 'unbearable'.

We paid that going rate, as we were both so worn out we couldn't be bothered with an argument.

It does seem like such a shame, as it does appear like a well run hotel. I feel that the 'refurbishment', which obviously hasn't been completed and the pictures showing the rear of the property shouldn't be advertised as such to potential customers as it is very misleading.