Stanford-le-Hope Homestays

Located in Stanford-le-Hope, this villa is within a 15-minute drive of Thames River and Lakeside Shopping Centre. This villa is 15.2 mi (24.5 km) from Bluewater Shopping Centre and 2.9 mi (4.7 km) from Essex Wildlife Trust Thameside Nature Discovery Park.Take in the views from a garden and make use of amenities such as complimentary wireless internet access and an arcade/game room.Free self parking is available onsite.Make yourself comfortable in your villa.

My husband and I stayed here Friday 17/5/24 and Saturday 18/5/24 in a comfy room. We had other family and friends staying in various rooms, as we had all travelled from the North West to attend a family wedding on the Saturday - around 18 of us in total, including the bridegroom. The village of Horndon-on-the-Hill is stunning, medieval and picturesque, and the Bell Inn is full of historical charm (even though a witch was burned right here in the 16th century!) Now for the rooms. Clean, modern and reasonably well equipped, although the very firm bed in our High Wire room has given me terminal backache! Lovely toiletries provided in the bathroom (we brought our own) - but that was the extent of the generosity! Milk for tea/coffee was in very short supply, 3 small capsules of skimmed milk when we arrived, and a packet of biscuits containing 2 biscuits ( one each)! Our son, daughter-in-law and their two teenaged children were in the family room with the spiral staircase - they had been gifted 4 little capsules of milk for the 4 of them and our daughter-in -law thought it likely that she may become the second victim to be burned at the stake for daring to request extra milk! It was a case of “well how many DO you want?” in quite a belligerent tone. Four of our friends arrived later in the evening, and two of them had just set down their cases in their room when the fire alarm sounded. The same member of staff who had dealt with our daughter-in-law’s milk request came to look for what had caused the alarm, and again, in a belligerent tone, she asked “have you been using the iron” to which my friend replied “we have only just arrived!” This lady (manageress or whatever she is), needs to improve her hospitality skills, and to realise that when guests have been travelling for possibly many hours through the Friday traffic, they don’t wish to be greeted with the type of attitude she has, abrasiveness has no place in the hospitality business. Our cleaning ladies were lovely and provided us with extra milk etc. on request. Breakfast - ours was okay, but one of our group received her poached eggs sporting a large hair. She sent it back, then received undercooked eggs, which she didn’t eat but paid for anyway - she is an elderly lady who didn’t “like” to send her eggs back a second time. The Bell Inn is a lovely, quirky atmospheric establishment set in stunning countryside, and it could be perfect with a few simple tweaks.