The Rose and Crown Hotel

Beautiful setting, lovely village. Shame no one in charge gives two hoots about the place, thats how it seems. Someone needs to win the lottery and make it their mission to turn this place around. It's awful at present.

I recently stayed at the Rose and Crown with my boyfriend for a quiet walking weekend in the dales. The hotel was reletively basic as expected, the room was average being reletively small with no bath (but a working shower at least), tea/coffee facilities and a TV. The rooms were cleaned daily to a good standard given the age of the building. The food was poor though plentiful in quantity. The menu is fairly limited beyond steak and pies and most dishes are served with Chips as standard. As pub food go's both meals we had (we were forced to eat there both nights as there is no other restaurants within walking distance) were average with nothing pof note to report. My main issue with the food was the lamb rogan josh I ordered. The lamb in this dish was served cold/partially frozen and when I pointed this out the plate was microwaved and a wedge of lime garnish added. Needless to say this did not make for pleasant eating. The staff in general were reletively friendly though unfortunately their english is somewhat lacking in some cases. This is not a problem per say although could cause an issue for diners with dietary requirements as the restaurant staff do not know the food on the menu. My boyfriend (who is allergic to fruit) was advised that a particular desert was fruit free despite it being specifically mentioned as containing fruit on the menu. My main issue with this hotel is the homophobic comment my boyfriend and I received whilst dining in the bar by the waiter. On finding out we were staying in a double room he replied 'two men, in a double bed, that's not right'. He then had to be calmed by a fellow member of staff before continuing to take our order reluctantly. This made the rest of our experience reletively uncomfortable. Overall if you specifically want to visit the area this hotel is average and would be acceptable if you are expecting no frills rooms, basic pub food and do not require any real degree of assistance form the hotel staff. Alternatively could I recommend staying in nearby Hawes which is a much more welcoming place.

Bainbridge is a nice village, however I feel sorry for you if you have to stay here because this pub is the only place you can stay, or eat, which after your first meal transforms this quaint and isolated setting into a horror movie set. I went here for a long weekend with my boyfriend. We didn't have any expectations so didn't mind the room. It was clean enough and the en suite bathroom was fine. After our first meal it was evident that ordering anything involving an element of skill in the kitchen was not the way forward. Anything which came with a sauce was avoided at all costs on the second night. The curry on the specials board came with frozen pieces of meat, chips only part cooked. Having said this the breakfast was good, not just because the cook seemed to know how to cook but the breakfast staff were actually friendly, in stark contrast to other people who work here. The man who seems to be in charge is very odd in the creepiest sense and also rude beyond anything I've ever experienced. After taking our food order he asked for our room number which was a double room and subsequently turned round saying to the bar 'Two men sharing a double bed, that's just not right'. What is not right is this place being in such a nice part of the world when it would be much more at home in 1930s germany in the great depression with nazism on the rise.

Multi national staff tried hard but when the waitress said'Chef only here 1 week, He Rumanian, He try!' That just about summed it up. Dishes coming from the kitchen bore no resembalance to those ordered, 20 minute wait for porridge which resembled watery molten lava. Orange squash rather than orange juice for breakfast and run out of Marmalade for 2 days! Good entertainment value BASIL, BASSSSSIIIIILLLLLLLL

Rude aggressive owner, appalling rooms, food & staff

There are a few people on here, who have "Moaned" about, the rose and crown, at bainbridge. However, though, i found that the staff, where very helpful, the rooms, are a little bit old, but then again, you have got to remember that the building, is a few hundred years old. Anyways, the food is lovely, and diffrent from the other places, aka resturants and pubs within the dales. I would stay here again, and i would urge people to think about the diffrences, between somewhere like the ritz and an old traditional inn that's in the middle of yorkshire. So please ignore the negative, reviews, and read the positive reviews!!

Went here in march for a couple of nights getaway. The hotel looks a little drab and was currently being renovated. The room we were given was quite large, it had a four poster bed, and room for 2 more single beds aswell. Decor needs a bit of work but as I said they were part way through renovations. The food in the bar was very nice with huge portions, breakfast was also of a good standard with plenty of it. The location is excellent for seeing the beautiful Yorkshire dales, located about halfway between Aysgarth Falls and Hawes. We paid £56 per night per room for B&B which we thought was very fair and would quite happily go back there.

Having just stayed at the hotel we found it ok, rooms clean only had breakfast and that was fine, but didn't choose to eat our evening meal in the restaurant due to being put off by the unfriendly manner of the staff. When my boyfriend tryed to get the male member of staff's attention behind the bar he did not answer, on saying 'excuse me' for the second time the man replied 'yes I heard you but I do things in my own time'!. That about sums it up, and such a shame as the postion of the hotel and the views were exellent , will not be going back though.

My wife and I booked two nights at this hotel for a quiet Valentines weekend break. We weren't after luxury, just a relaxed few days in a relatively isolated location. We were tempted by the web site promising bright and airey, clean and comfortable, well-maintained rooms with good pub food on site, and staff who cared enough to make sure we enjoyed our stay - sufficent to justify its AA 2 start rating, and the staff seemed relaxed on the phoen about our arrival/departure times. Upon arrival though, the hotel looked distinctly drab on the outside, compared to the pictures on the webiste, and inside it was notably dark and dismal. We were registered as guests with little enough fuss, and were directed - not shown - towards our room, though the receptionist (also apparently covering as sole bar staff for the afternoon) was a lillte unclear on her directions. We were a little surprised to find that the door to our room was already unlocked, so ayone might have been in since it was last cleaned, and somewhat dissapointed to find that the decor was past its best, the TV and alarm clock in particular seemed many years out of date. Resigned to having booked a stay there we turned to lock the door behind us and make ourselves comfortable. And that's when the real problems began! My wide struggled in vain to shut the door to and lock it ... then I tried the same and failed no matter how much I pushed or pulled. Upon examination, I could see that the quite substantial door did not hang squarely to the frame and caught on the top corner before the lock in the middle of the door had a chance to engage. There was a bare section of wood in the top corner of the door where a some paint and wood had been removed to sort a previous problem, so it was not the first occurrence of a problem with this door, and the current problem should surely have been spotted/reported by the cleaning staff when they last cleaned the room ... or perhaps it was reported and just ignored? Clearly we could not be expected to stay in such a room with no security and effectively no privacy. My wife waited in the room with our luggage while I return to the reception to get the problem resolved. The receptionist clearly understand my problem and promptly came to the room to try herself. She too was unable to lock the door ... despite pushing the door even harder than I dare ... and went away muttering something that we couldn't make out. Assuming that she would return soon with a solution to our problem we waited ... and waited ... and waited. While waiting, we then found that when the bathroom light was turned on, the extractor fan promptly engaged ... but quickly ground to a halt. That didn't seem to work either - it looked to be clogged up with dirt - so any moisture created in the bathroom from the shower could only escape through the bedroom if we left the window open. Even if the door could be fixed quickly, the fan not working wouldn't be acceptable. After ten minutes of waiting patiently, we decided that it was time to go back to the receptionist ourselves. Rather than being in the process of dealing with our problem, she was busy serving in the bar .. and then dealt with some other new arrivals, seemingly ignoring us. When our turn came again and we could be avoided no longer, she looked as if to say ... "yes, what do you want?" as if she had forgotten the issue we had already reported. So my wife had to expain that we wanted an update on our problem. The receptionist reported that she had had a word with the owner and he had said that "I'm sure it will close if they pull it hard enough" ... though there was no apology either for the problem with the door itself or for not keeping us informed of the apparent end to our complaint . We explained that it would not shut at all, and that there was a further problem with the fan in the bathroon, so she went off again ... this time to get the owner. He came and said it must only just have happened ... and rudely seemed to ignore me when I tried to explained that the plane marks indicated that it was not a fresh problem, and that it should have been spotted earlier when cleaning staff locked the room after cleaning it. He then said that the door could be fixed in the morning ... we weren't sure if he meant us to stay in it as it was, so I pointed out the problem of the fan not working. "I don't see that as a problem" he said uncaringly. We were gob-smacked. It might not be a problem to him, but it certainly was a problem to us, and would be to any reasonable guest, we thought. Ignoring that issue too, he returned to the problem of the door, and tried to explain that this was a 600 year old building and subject to buidling shift ... If the building it was really subject so much shift as to suddenly cause a solid wooden door to go out of square, I'd think that it should be condemned, not allowed to take in B&B guests! By this time, we were fed up with the place ... having done little more than opening an door and turing on a light and finding two problems already that the staff refused to at least apologise for even if they couldn't resolve it, we dreaded what new problems might arise and what further difficulties we might expect when trying to deal with the staff ... hardly the kind of weekend we planned. Eventually he said they had three newly painted rooms ... though he didn't actually go so far as saying that any of them were ready for occupancy and offering to take us to see one of them ... and if they were ready for use, we wondered why we weren't offiered one of them in the first place!? I said we had had enough and just wanted our deposit back (£40 against 2 night's stay for a not inconsiderable £140) ... given the problems we had and the appauling way in which they had handled it we just preferred prefer to go elsewhere. He might be able to offer an alternative room ... but he couldn't offer a better standard of customer service, incase of further problems. He refused to refund the deposit back, and I said we'd rather lose it than stay there any longer, and I'd complain to the credit card company to get my deposit back. "I look forward to that!" he said "Actually, in law, I have the right to charge you for both nights stay now that I've offered you another room". having some legal training ... I very much doubt that this is true - it was not just a case of us changing our mind about staying there last minute. It was as if he wasn't really keen to offer us another room at all, just trying to use it as a last minute get out clause for not caring about our problems and not having done anything to resolve them before the situation got out of hand and beyond a mutually agreeable resolution. My wife was particularly appalled with the owners attitude and lack of customer service as she herself works as a receptionist for a historic building near the centre of York, which offers B&B as well as other services, and she knows they always treat all complaints very seriously. As we made our way out of the building, he followed us ... almost as if he was chasing us away ... threatening to charge us the full amount and protestign against my wife's complaints at his poor customer service. After eventually resisting the urge to just return straight home ... the incident had already spoiled our weekend that much ... we eventually moved on elsewhere and found a very nice B&B in the middle of Hawes, just a few miles further on, for the same price, and which gave us a wonderful time with marvellous hospitality. (Details available on request.) But I wished I had read the previous review of the Rose and Crown (Bainbridge) and avoided it altogether. I'd urge anyone else to avoid it too ... don't be fooled by the nice pictures currently on the website ... it's nothing lilke that now! ... and it certainly doesn't deserve it's 2 star AA rating ... I'll be writing to the AA about that too!

This is about the 4th time I have stayed at this hotel over the past 15 years and use it as a base for walking/touring Wensleydale. In terms of location it is excellent due to its central position for exploring this part of the Dales National Park. The hotel is a pub/hotel with a mix of customers from the local village and those visiting the area. It is not expensive and has previously offered good value for money. I returned to the hotel as a result of the good experiences I have had previously. However I was a little disappointed this time and so much that I probably will not be coming back for quite a while. Firstly the room - we were shown to the room and were immediately told that the shower was not working so we would have to rely on the bath. The shower clearly had not been working for some time. The position was really 'like it or lump it' so we 'lumped it'. To be fair we are fairly relaxed and went with the flow so it didn't put us out too much. Otherwise the room was clean and sizeable (in fact it was the triple room so there was plenty of room). The food was the next issue. The hotel has a varied menu in terms of the selection, the same menu being offered to both residents and ad hoc visitors to the bar. The clear selling point is the variety of homemade pies, which were served up in generous proportions and were very tasty. However, the menu does become quite limited when you are staying for more than a couple of days. Chips are the standard accompaniment and the other vegetables offered did not change in selection during 3 days, i.e. new potatos, green beans, baby sweetcorn, carrots. The quality of food outside of the pies (and also the rump of lamb) was dubious. The garlic mushrooms with melted brie was inedible and comprised of a few button mushrooms, a sauce which resembled cream of mushroom soup (with garlic) and brie, all microwaved together. The breakfast again was problematic. In this day and age to advertise fruit juice on a menu, means in my eyes exactly that, juice. We were served orange squash. Fresh fruit also does not mean tinned mandarins day in day out. The toast was barely toasted and the boiled eggs were sent back as they were raw. The omelette I ordered one morning was a combination of scrambled egg/omelette. The breakfast was one of the worst meals we had over the 3 day stay. We did not order anything cooked on the last day but ate just the toast. The other issue, that was discussed with many of the residents is the limited lounge area in the hotel. The loung will seat 6 maximum. This is no problem, if guests can sit in the other areas easily and just chat, i.e. the snug bar. However this is laid out for diners (as well as the restaurant) so it is very hard to sit and mingle in any bar. The solution would be to cater for diners in the bar but lay out tables as and when they are needed. The demand for food did not seem to warrant the huge areas set aside for diners. The staff are very pleasant and quite flexible in assisting guests especially around food requirements. They all seem to pitch in and cook/serve/manage in one way shape or form ! In a nutshell, clean, excellent location, good price with nice staff. However menu limited with little variation and poor quality breakfast with too many cost cutting corners taken. Its the latter issue which will mean we go elsewhere in the future which is a shame as I have very good memories when this hotel was thriving and the food was the real draw.