I was naturally sorry that we did not meet your high expectations during your stay, but was also shocked that you found our customer service so bad. As you rightly noted the majority of reviews comment favourably on our friendly service and indeed the hotel recently won the Cirencester business award for customer service. I have discussed your review with all of my front of house staff who were also very disappointed by your comments. I am confident that they, like me, continually strive to ensure everyone enjoys their visit. It is clearly not always possible to satisfy everybody and therefore we recognise there is always room for improvement and consistency. I have also discussed the hand towel incident with the employee concerned, though please be assured this kind of attitude was most unusual for him.
I note that you stayed in Room 7 last week and for other potential guests reading my response please note that the room is located in the old attic, which was converted into three bedrooms over 10 years ago. It does indeed only have three roof-lights and this room is shown on our website, although it has been recently redecorated with a new stylish hessian and burgundy colour scheme. Whilst the majority of people love the room with its vaulted ceiling and character 400 year old beams, we are asked by the occasional guest for another room as they prefer a room with larger windows, rather than roof-lights. I must again emphasise that the hotel has a fire safety certificate from the local fire brigade, smoke detectors in all rooms and safety equipment throughout. I do so wish that you had requested a room change, particularly given that you were staying with us for three nights and your fire safety concerns. I have checked the shower and whilst the water flow was adequate, it was not functioning to its full capacity and my apologies for this. The electric pump has now been replaced. However, I found nothing wrong with the toilet and it flushed first time.
The ground floor hallway or rather corridor is indeed fairly narrow, but it was not grubby. In fact, as a wall notice stated, this corridor was actually being decorated at the time of your visit, which probably explains your observation as we did carry out some wall repairs prior to painting.
Breakfast tables are prepared according to the number of residents in-house the previous night i.e. a couple will have a table set up for two and a group of ten residents together will have a table ready for them. A hot buffet is provided only when we are very busy, but the breakfast menu on every table clearly advises guests to just ask if they prefer table service or want anything else from the kitchen. The restaurant had indeed been booked for a private company event on one morning and I believe that I personally discussed this with you both in the Restaurant after breakfast service, although you gave no indication at all of being bothered about leaving the room slightly earlier.
In closing and as I ask on the guest welcome letter, I really do wish that you had raised your issues with me during your stay. Yours sincerely, Tim Waller