Newton Hall | Hotel in Newton by the Sea, England

Negative: The paths between the main house and the "Garden Rooms" was made up of large stones which caused damage to my wife's shoes. The response from reception was that there was nothing they could do about it! No real sympathy. The "Breakfast to go" option was very poor while the alternative was a walk to a nearby pub. The breakfast there was very good.

Positive: Stayed in smallest room in Hall. Was so cosy, comfortable bed, excellent shower.

Negative: Nothing, perhaps a little dark and windows wouldn’t open but fan provided so comfortable temp.

Positive: The property was lovely, lovely location too

Negative: Didn’t quite meet my expectations. The executive room was advertised as including and bath and shower (was very much looking forward to a bath), slippers, dressing gown, fan and streaming services - none of which were available. Not sure if it’s an issue with the hotel description or booking.com description but either way they were advertised as being there and weren’t. The decor is lovely but starting to look tired (chipped paint on walls, burn marks on carpet and broken toilet roll holder stuck together with silicon as some examples). Just fallen short of what I expected for an “executive” room at the price we paid. Also tip for anyone travelling if you need heating adjusted go straight to reception as it’s centrally controlled something we found out after spending ages in a boiling hot room on a warm day trying to figure out.

Positive: Location to Northumberland attractions

Negative: I thought what an attractive place with lovely gardens. So, for a two-night stay in Northumberland with my husband, I immediately booked Newton Hall via Booking.com. We booked a ‘cosy garden’ room as that was at the top of our budget (this room not in the Hall itself), but thought well that’s fine, we can go into the hotel for breakfast and have a drink in the bar in the evening, enjoy the lovely old building and the gardens. But no, this isn’t how it works. We arrived about 4pm and there was a wedding party. The receptionist gave us our room key and then told us that breakfast was either at the Joiner’s Arms (five-minute walk or two-minute drive down the road), or they can deliver a breakfast bag to our room. I was a bit gobsmacked as there was nothing on Booking.com (that I could see), that said you had to walk down to the local pub to get your breakfast! Then I asked where the bar was so we can get a drink, to which the reply was we couldn’t use the bar that day as it was for the exclusive use of the wedding guests. To clarify here, I had a number of messages from Newton Hall via Booking.com, trying to sell us cocktails and drinks for the room and also recommending we book the Joiner’s Arms for food, but not once did the messages mention we had to eat breakfast at the pub and that there was in fact a wedding on the day we arrived so some facilities would not be available to us. The garden rooms are big grey blocks, it was long, narrow and dark; it felt like you were sleeping in a well-decorated shipping container. It was hot, there were handprints on the wall by the bed as there was literally less than a foot on my side to get out and walk around the bed. The pub food was OK, not anything special, but a shout out to the pub staff, they were all fantastic. Both Newton Hall and the Joiner’s Arms are advertised as 5-star accommodation; they are 3-star at best and I feel are falsely advertising by essentially omitting some quite important details. Very disappointed.