The Spread Eagle Hotel

Had a fantastic birthday party at the Spread Eagle organised by Erica and her wonderful team. Nothing was too much trouble and it was organised exactly as I wanted. The venue room was lovely, food plentiful and delicious, Richard who managed the evening was really helpful. Erica worked hard and I am enormously grateful. The DJ Dave Cato was great, he catered beautifully for a varied audience and was professional and helpful and great fun. Thank you Dave. Thank you Erica and as this was a first time visit I hope it won’t be my last.

This hotel is located in the centre of Thame, but it is very tired and scruffy. Stayed here for two nights. On checking into the room, we found the shower did not work - turned it in, it worked for 10 secs and went off. Repeated it several times. Not ideal at the end of a long journey. The young lad on reception immediately agreed to our request for different room, albeit smaller, and at a lower rate. He also got us some Prosecco to make up for it. The room we moved too had a comfy super king bed, but the quilt was probably a king size so not big enough. The shower in this room was also poor - the water pressure is so low, it was difficult to get a proper soaking let alone wash your hair. The decor was not great with peeling wallpaper in places. The carpet was very grubby, and looked as though it hadn’t been cleaned for years. After our first night whilst the cleaners changed the towels etc, they didnt make the bed! Breakfast was served in the bar area - also very scruffy and rickety furniture. The coffee was stewed and undrinkable. The fruit on offer consisted of a few bits that looked like leftovers from a previous sitting. The young girl who was the only member of staff on duty’ whilst polite clearly hasn’t been trained in the basics of waiting on table. It’s a great shame, because if this hotel had some decent investment it could be very good. The website description of this place as a ‘boutique hotel’ is somewhat wide of the mark! Needless to say we won’t be back.

Parking was good. But as as guests I had to pay £5. That was the first insult. Room smell was of damp/ musky. Knobs missing of drawers, look clean, but a closer look. It was quite dirty. Room needed a deep clean. 1/2 price voucher for food in the hotel restaurant. Now I know why. Fish and chips were of poor quality, stodgy and difficult to eat. The tomato sauce was inedible. The halloumi burger was more a green/red pepper burger. This meal didn’t get eaten at all. No one queried why there was so much food left, think they were used to it. We didn’t even go to breakfast, the food was that poor. I know it’s an old building, but old buildings can be maintained and clean.

I want to thank all the Spread Eagle Events team, for enabling us to celebrate my mother's 95th birthday in a really special way, on Sunday 7th April. Prior to the day, the whole booking/payment process was a smooth and user-friendly experience, thanks to Events manager Erica. On the day itself, we had a truly wonderful time and my mother enjoyed the whole afternoon. The Afternoon Tea was superb with a great selection of sandwiches, cakes, scones etc, lovely room (AJR) and the service from Lynne was really outstanding. She supplied us with the food, accompanied by a constant stream of different teas, & coffee in a very friendly, helpful & efficient manner. Nothing was too much trouble. Lynne was an absolute star! In addition we and mum spent Sunday night in rooms 35 & 36, followed by breakfast in the morning. Again this was superb. My sincere thanks Erica, and your team - you are a star too!

We have stayed every year for the past 4 years when we head back to Thame, and England, from Canada. Staff have always been very friendly and helpful. The rooms we have had (Courtyard twin on a couple of occasions when I am just travelling with one of my kids, and the Hayloft another couple of times when when we have travelled as a full family) have always been clean and comfortable. The main thing I think the Spread Eagle could do to help itself is to overhaul the dining area and experience. For the first time, when we stayed last week, we were not served tea or coffee at the table at breakfast, but had to go to a side table near the bar to help ourselves from a coffee and tea urn. The coffee was warm, not hot, and obviously became almost cold as I added milk to it. There were no glasses left for juice, which had also run out, and no mugs for the tea or coffee, so we had to wait for them to be replenished (there were only 7 people at breakfast, including my daughter and myself). The breakfast was fine, but down in quality from when I stayed in March 2023. Bacon was hard, mushrooms dry, egg also a bit dried out and must have been cooked in advance and left under a heat lamp or on a hot plate before serving. Sausage fine, but not as high quality and tasty as they used to offer. Also, no hash browns / bubble and squeak anymore, which we definitely had last year (I have a photo of my son at breakfast from last March!) I'll likely stay again in the future as the location is great, and it's a much more enjoyable experience than the travelodge down the road, but I'll be lowering my expectations a bit of the breakfast part of the stay. I think with the Swan in Thame now closed down and no other hotel in town for people to choose from that the Spread Eagle has an opportunity to up its game and become a really quality place for people to stay, but they have to sort out the breakfast / dining part of the experience.

The dirtiest most poorly maintained room in 40 yrs of hotel stays. room 21 “A courtyard Room” is no where near the courtyard - “has a courtyard view” claimed the staff -view of the fire escape. Carpet was mouldy and threadbare. Paint peeling off in numerous places, filthy in so many areas. Bed not even flat. They claimed to have no spare rooms so I requested moving to another hotel which the obliged -manager could not defend offer this awful room to the public. At 10.30pm he booked be into another local hotel that had clean and serviced rooms. reading back through reviews seems promises of refurbishment has been an excuse for charging for diabolical accommodation for some time

We stayed overnight in the hotel whilst attending a function. We were in one of the garden rooms. It was along a dingy corridor at the end. The door lock didn’t work all that well. The room was really tired and needed a coat of paint and the standard of cleaning in the bathroom was poor. The tiles and around the bath had mould. The radiator in the room was cold and was for the stay. We asked at reception and was told it came on via a timer which was clearly untrue. The receptionist seemed disinterested anyway. There was a heated towel rail which fortunately was on for the whole time which at least meant the room wasn’t freezing. The bed was comfortable and the room was quiet which was a plus. The breakfast was ok but not great.

Family birthday lunch for 20 people. Excellent communication and organisation beforehand by the hotel's events team. Everything was as discussed with them on the Saturday of the lunch, with two very professional and considerate staff looking after our table. The food, which we pre-ordered, was fresh and well-cooked and all dishes served at the same time. This is the third event our family has had at The Spread Eagle over the years and it has always done it very well. Thank you to all involved at The Spread Eagle, especially Erica and Lynne.

We had a lovely overnight stay, looked around the area in the day, visiting Robin Gibbs grave, saw his house and went to Thame museum. Hotel bed was comfortable and a cosy room. We had the tapas menu and a cocktail, all was lovely. The only complaint was our fruit and cereal did not arrive and when we told the waiter he said to have it after our hot breakfast, which we declined.