The Joiners Arms

We stayed here for 2 nights. We stayed in the TILL as a couple although there is also a bunk bed. We found it spacious & clean. Plenty of amenities. We were even delivered further towels / toilet roll / tea coffee etc after our first night. It’s very quiet & quaint. The products & diffuser in the bathroom were so nice we bought some for home online. The bar next door was lovely with fabulous food but we did find the drinks a little pricey. The car park states 50 yards but after walking it many times we found it was more 200yards. No issue for us but maybe not for others. As we paid for breakfast to be included in our stay - this was fantastic. Lots of choice on the Buffett or table service.

£400 spent on a dinner, bed and breakfast stay in The Rede Shepherds Hut last Friday evening (27th December) as a Christmas gift for my husband and it was incredibly disappointing. We were checked in almost two hours late, despite arriving on time - even then we shouldn’t have been as house keeping were still cleaning around us at almost 5pm. The shepherds hut came without any wood for the wood burner inside it. The hut stank of petroleum which made us feel very sick - we learned the following morning from the duty manager that it was the smell of the wood treatment used and we weren’t the first to mention. Upon opening it, one of the wooden window hatches in the hut broke into three pieces, smashing into my husbands hand, causing him reasonable pain and leaving exposed nails and wood all over the floor for my dog to get in amongst! Check-in experience as a whole wasn’t professional - we were just handed the key and left to work everything out for ourselves - walking around laundry bags at the bottom of the hut steps and no idea how the hot tub worked or could/should be accessed. The hut is essentially in a car park and the noise throughout the night made for a very restless night. Food, as always, were great but the stay was beyond unacceptable for what I paid. Worse still is that, almost week after emailing (as requested by the duty manager) with details of our experience, and chasing twice, I’ve still had no response from anyone.

First, the Joiners Arms rates itself as 5 stars gastro pub & luxury inn…….it is not. 5 stars of anything in hospitality infers an exemplar in quality product, quality service and quality hospitality. It is not luxury and the bedrooms are not “boutique suites” as they claim. The Joiners Arms does not come close to 5 stars, luxury or boutique. Bedrooms lack TLC and would benefit from the owner/manager actually staying in some to see the issues guests experience; stained carpets, peeling paintwork, dusty, lack of surface space in the bedroom (only surface was fully taken up by a coffee maker, kettle and a wooden box of tea bags, coffee sachets, sugar etc), lack of surface/vanity space in the bathroom, no chair, tiny hanging space (which is too short to even hang a jacket in), only two hangers in a double room (!!), and hopeless bedside lighting. Service was friendly and enthusiastic from well meaning team members but why would you tell guests at breakfast that they cannot have a boiled egg because it’s not on the menu and if poached eggs are on the menu and smoked salmon is on the menu, why do you need to go and ask the chef if the poached egg and salmon combination can be served because that combination is not on the menu? Positives: good pub food at dinner and a good buffet breakfast offering, comfortable bed, good quality towels, friendly and helpful staff. In conclusion, the Joiners Arms has many faults that should be corrected by an attentive owner/manager, it is not a 5 star inn (it is more accurately 3.5 stars), has silly rules about what can be served at breakfast, bedrooms need a good clean and maintenance checks. All that is part mitigated by good food (the gastro pub food claim is accurate), and friendly, smiling and helpful staff. Unfortunately the Joiners Arms probably does not need to try too hard, as there is very, very limited choice of places to stay locally (AirBnB type places aside) so there is no competition. Finally, an establishment can do nothing if it has no car park and no parking is permitted within about 250m of the pub, but why would you not state this parking restriction on your website ??