Rectory Farm Reviews 11

BEWARE! ATTEMPTED £350 OF ERRONEOUS CHARGES to payment card, identified by bank fraud department.
Included dogs on booking.com search criteria, so Rectory Farm were aware that dogs would be staying. Allocated Chalet accommodation, used for guests with pets - other pets also in this building. Phoned twice to confirm details, no answer, no voicemail facility. Stayed for first night then went out for the day - received rude text stating that I had to pay £25 PER DOG PER NIGHT that evening. Before I could reply, Rectory Farm had tried to charge multiple transactions to my card, totalling £350.

Very dated, bitten by bed bugs, 17 bites in total, owner responded to initial complaint and then ignoring requests for refund. Videos and photos taken to prove bed bugs, but no refund and reply to request for refund

Absolutely Shocking Experience – Avoid at All Costs

I am beyond shocked by my stay at Rectory Farm and feel compelled to warn others. From the moment I arrived, the experience was unacceptable. I got there around 14:30, and despite the cold, unwelcoming atmosphere, I was told later that I wasn’t even supposed to check in until 16:00—no flexibility, no hospitality, just attitude.

Later in the evening, I was charged £5 for parking, despite the fact that I didn’t drive and did not use the car park. Still no explanation or refund offered.

The most disturbing part of the stay, however, happened during the night. I kept waking up with a sensation of something crawling on my skin. At around 1:30am, I turned on the light and was horrified to find blood and multiple ticks in the bed. Yes—ticks. I have photo and video evidence. This is a serious health risk, and the hotel has chosen to ignore it rather than investigate or apologise.

I couldn’t sleep a minute more and couldn’t wait to leave in the morning. I didn’t even have the breakfast I paid for. I also tried to speak to a manager before leaving, only to be told there was no one available until 4pm—again, no help, no accountability.

To top it off, I had planned to work from my room the next morning, but the Wi-Fi kept disconnecting every two minutes, making that impossible.

The response from the hotel after I complained was rude, dismissive, and completely unhelpful. No apology, no ownership, and no refund despite the shocking conditions.

I would never stay here again and strongly recommend others stay far away. This place is not only mismanaged and unhygienic, it’s outright dangerous.

Such a shame. This could be a really nice venue if it were run by people who actually cared for the business. Unfortunately, it has all the hallmarks of an investment designed to maximise returns with minimal input from the owners. The hotel decor and furnishings are tired and the "add ons" make it expensive. They charge you for parking. The breakfast is expensive. The breakfast room is quite pleasant, overlooking a garden. It also had a log fire. But the kitchen smelled of stale grease and my "Full English" had rancid mushrooms, a cheap catering sausage and poor coffee from the machine. The continental breakfast was very limited. Hotel reception is closed most of the time. Single glazed windows and close proximity to both Motorway and A roads make it quite noisy. All in all, one is left with the feeling of having been charged a lot and been given poor value in return.

We visited Cambridge on 26th October for a family wedding and stayed at Rectory Farm for 1 night. We were very pleased with the accommodation, it was fantastic value. We were told we had been upgraded when we arrived. The surrounding countryside was beautiful.
Thank-you Rectory Farm

Stopped at Rectory Farm before and after a walk along the coast. Good food and great location. We ordered two pasties on the way out and an ice cream and Coke on the way back. On returning home we noticed that the credit card had been charged £19 instead of £9 and I suspect that another £1 or £2 was added to the second bill unless an ice cream and a coke was £7 odd. We called them and the lady sounded annoyed and irritated but not surprised. she did refund us the £10. Be wary and check the machine before swiping!

Cold and unwelcoming. No heating in rooms - freezingly cold. No shampoo, no nibbles in the rooms, very basic accommodation. Feedback to Roger is goes ignored. Park outside of the cramped parking area will result in a rude message on your windscreen from Roger. Stay here only if you have no other options. Difficult to see how how 5 x 1 star reviews on Trustpilot gets a rating of 2.6!!!!! Not much to trust there!!!! Average of 5 1 star reviews is 1 !

Where are the staff My son and I were helping guests find their rooms. Nobody in sight to help. Elderly people or international visitors who do jot speak English would not find the room.Vending machine out of order....only thing on offer. Or a £2.50 coffee from a machine.The fridge did not work in our room We had a kitchen in our room with not one utensil and when we asked we we told we could not have. Gardens outside had 1x bench to sit on. ZERO ambience Premier Inn has better. No air-conditioning and room was so stuffy. Money is taken from bank account before arrival plus 50 damage as their is no reception. Would never recommend.

I booked a room through booking.com and also purchased cancellation insurance. I had to cancel and called to do so only to find myself on the phone with Roger the manager. I was told that no such insurance existed (untrue) that I had purchased a non refundable room and was entitled to nothing and the matter was closed. Then he proceeded to hang up on me. I was stunned. This is not the first bad experience I have had with this man at this place but it is the last. Avoid at all costs.

Roger and Alison are two of the most unpleasant, unscrupulous and bullying people we have ever come across. Book here at your peril. My daughter and her friend had to book a 2 night stay online having had to vacate their house due to an emergency situation. The online booking did not give the option for booking a twin room - only a double room - but did stipulate that rooms could be made up as a twin on email request. She made the booking and emailed her request immediately. The message came back that it was too late to accommodate her request for that night, but this could be made-up for the second night. Fair enough. On arrival, it’s all a little odd as they appear to be using Covid as a reason for still not allowing guests into reception, use the pool, dining room etc, and instead charge a ridiculous £12 pppn to have croissants and tea delivered to your room. They clearly know a money maker when they see it. Anyway, needs must, so pay she did. The next morning, after breakfast was delivered at 7.10am, she left the hotel for work. At 11.29am she received an email demanding she return to the hotel to remove her things as they had to get the room ready for another guest. She was confused as she had paid for another night. She phoned the hotel and was left in tears by the aggressive manner of whoever it was she spoke to. She quickly returned to the hotel (not easy with no transport) and discovered that they wanted to charge £20 to move her to a twin room. My husband called Roger to say that there must be some mistake, to be told his wife, Alison had sorted it and all had been rectified. Then Alison phones and rudely shouts down the phone that she had told our daughter before 8am that she had to vacate the room and had emails to prove it and that staff had had to stay back to facilitate the move. My husband responded that at no point had our daughter been informed she would have to move rooms and asked to see the mysterious 8am email but none transpired as there wasn’t one! Only an email at 11.29am when she had been out of the room for 3.5 hours! Fast forward to today, and my daughter, on vacating the room (she moved to a reputable hotel instead) had a surcharge taken from her card without authorisation. So, I phoned reception and spoke to Wendy asserting that there must be some mixup and the payment must have been taken in error. She said Alison had told her to take the extra payment. Wendy was pleasant and gave me the impression she was used to people complaining about Alison’s behaviour. So I spoke to Roger. What a bizarre experience. First he puts the phone down on me pretending afterwards that he was in a meeting. Then he asks me to explain what my complaint was, and when I started to, he kept interrupting me to tell me that I was interrupting him! He was rude, condescending, aggressive and bullying. I asked him if he was always this aggressive with women. It would be interesting to hear other people’s experience. Having discussed our complaint with both owners and reception, I was told to put it in writing and he would review it, but he was very busy so didn’t know if he would respond! I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it was human error and a misunderstanding, but now I see they are acting fraudulently to claim extra expenses from customers. Look at all the negative Tripadvisor reviews as they say the same. We’ve reported the unauthorised payment to the bank and will be taking it further. Btw, it’s only a £20 surcharge - I can’t quite believe a business could be so vindictive to a customer for such a small amount! I’m not sure why they’re in the hospitality business as they clearly don’t like people!

Our wedding at Rectory Farm
Review of Rectory Farm
Pending review
The staff at Rectory Farm are quite simply unable to see a problem without making it considerably worse. Alison and Roger are genuinely two of the strangest, most incompetent and downright rude people I have ever come across. From Alison literally running away and hiding from me when she failed to book my uncle in for a room for a second night. To their receptionist Lynn who lied through her teeth when asked why said mistake happened and also told my photographer in no uncertain terms to "f*** off" when he made a very simple request to move a pallet from outside the front of the house (My ushers moved it and she tried telling me she organised it). To Roger who is seemingly unwilling or incapable of understanding anything to do with the hospitality industry, what a hotel is, or how a competent booking process should work. This place truly is Fawlty Towers in 2021.

In light of the staff at the venue, we had a fantastic day at our wedding here. My advice to anyone would be to maximise the usage of Cambridge Dining Company who were simply fantastic at everything they did. A real touch of class. And minimise any involvement of any member of staff from the actual Rectory Farm as they (as previously stated) will swear, lie or simply run away.

In summary, It's a lovely venue, but the stress that the Rectory Farm staff will cause you would mean I have to recommend a different Cambridge Dining Company contracted venue.