Fontmell and Melbury Downs

This is the furthest thing from a boutique hotel - it's at best a shared-room, shared bathroom AirBNB with a live-in host!! This felt very disguised and buried in the posting details. The TV Lounge is the host's living room, the workspace is his computer desk next to dining room table. The parking is 'free' insofar as it's you finding a spot somewhere to park in the estate. We got lucky on arrival that Taz was in, otherwise there wouldn't have been much ability to get into the property. The room (which is the "executive suite") was pretty much just a bed with some cabinets that were falling apart, and everything was just a bit shabby. Anything alluding to having a pool, gym, sports facilities, a bar on property, 24h room service, coffee shop, restaurant, in-room kitchenette, valet parking or a BANQUET HALL is misleading at best (e.g. water park & gym within a 1km/1mi drive, with no association to the property!), if not a downright lie. As it is being lived in by the host, house rules included no showers after 11:00 PM or before 6:00 AM (which got in the way of the early start we had planned). There was also to be no loud talking in the rooms at any particular time, which made for a generaly uncomfortable, 'walking on eggshells' experience. On top of that, the house had a smell that seemed a mix of strong food odours & cigarette smoke! Do not get fooled into thinking this is a boutique hotel experience.

Really nice hotel with one major issue during our stay. With the weather being in the mid to highs 30s the air conditioning was down and not working at all. A complimentary drinks was offered by way of apology but that really didn’t help with the room being roasting with no window to open. Staff were understandably stressed at the amount of complaints they were facing from guests who wanted to cancel their reservations due to this matter. This did make check in a very long drawn out experience.

Amazingly welcoming and dedicated staff. The room was perfect and the food great.