Tower House Guest House

I was in the Red Room which had the most fabulous view over Jesus College. The set up worked really well. The bathroom was a bit mouldy in some areas and the arrival instructions were confusing. Worth all that to get the view and location.

My colleague made the same assumption others have when booking two rooms with shared facilities. The description needs to be clearer that 'shared facilities' means one bathroom shared between 3 separate rooms. This was a surprise, but would have been fine had said bathroom not been freezing cold with a mouldy shower unit. Thank goodness neither of us have any affected health conditions. The photos do not accurately portray the state of the rooms. Peeling wallpaper, unrepaired holes in the walls, lights not working, cold. At least the rooms and beds were clean. Don't let the location fool you, this is in the centre, where people will walk past at all hours carrying on their conversations at full volume. Then the bin lorry will be by around 5:30 as your unofficial wake up call. The staff are unhelpful, unfriendly, and unapologetic. I don't recommend this accommodation for those in town for business, or those with any form of physical disability.

We spent one night here in order to extend our stay in Oxford. If you like museums and historical sites, there's lots to do here, so I'd recommend two days. This hotel is built partly in what was once the city walls, so portions of it are over 400 years old. We were looking for something with that kind of ambiance. The downside is that many rooms have very low headroom, and you may have to climb a narrow staircase to access them. We fortunately sorted that out in advance by emailing the managment and requesting a room with decent height on the first floor. The management, I might add, was very good about replying to our emails promptly. Our room (wish I had remembered the name, but it's the one with the queen bed featured on the website's opening page) was roomy and airy. Our private bathroom (not all rooms have en suite bathrooms, so be sure you know what you're getting) was small but not cramped, and the shower was modern and clean. We did hear some creaky floorboards above us when someone checked into the room above, but it wasn't enough to wake anyone up and, hey, that's part of the adventure of an ancient hotel like this one. The price I was offered in early July 2024 was better than anything else near central Oxford. I noticed in the reviews that many guests were directed to a breakfast at an establishment around the corner, but that was never mentioned to mel breakfast wasn't included in the cost of my room. Overall, we enjoyed out experience here. It helped make Oxford memorable!

"The Foundry", the room on the ground floor, is cold, and on the damp side. It is basically an outhouse, very suitable for use as a foundry in times gone by, but not so great for sleeping in. Moreover, the carpet needs changing... This guest house is very overpriced for what it is.

The only good thing about the tower house is the location, very central for everything. But it goes downhill from there, managers are non existent, very difficult to get hold of by phone and extremely rude and uncaring. The photos on their sites are of the two rooms they keep tidy for publicity and even they are not great. We arrived and had to phone, took several attempts for them to answer, they gave us code to keybox, let ourselves in, totally unmanned reception so had to phone again about which room we were in as no one was there. We were told that two rooms shared a bathroom which would have been ok but in reality The only bathroom is on the top floor with four flight of stairs and shared between 6 other rooms! So as you can imagine it was terrible to try and use the shower/ toilet as it was always occupied but we didn't really want to use it as it was so dirty with mould, mildew etc. We were in The little blue room, a small double but it wasn't a double bed but a queen size one so very small. There was a sink in a very dark alcove with no light as it was broken. The room itself was very dirty, stained carpet and bedding, dirty curtains, marks on walls, holes in the walls, large mark on one wall with holes where the bed head had been fixed to wall! Overall a very unkempt dirty room. The whole house had a feeling of disrepair, neglect, dirty, as if the owners couldn't be bothered. So sad to see a grade II listed building kept in such a condition. Feel that they just wanted peoples money and are uncaring of the condition of the house. We were not the only ones with similar complaints and concerns about broken and dirty rooms. When we complained we were told that it you don't like it then leave! We are writing to Oxford council ref the state of a listed building and the owners attitude towards visitors and contacting the other sites where they are listed to make people aware.

I’m on the fence about this place. It was in a safe area in a great location for tourists. Walking everywhere was not a problem. The guy that checked us in was nice and friendly. Online we chose 2 bedrooms with a shared bathroom. My and my daughter slept in one room, husband and son in another. We understood we were sharing a bathroom but there was another room sharing it with us. Probably just an American’s misunderstanding. It was a small but comfortable room. The bedding was clean. On the bad side- I was unhappy with the shower. It didn’t drain. Someone else’s stuff was left in there. The bedroom wall plaster was cracking and had lots of holes. It wasn’t dirty but I changed socks before getting into bed. It was a million degrees inside the room and I had to sleep with the window open even after turning off the heater.

Superb location and seemed clean. But creepy vibe. It’s technically up to scratch in hotel basics, but it’s weird, dilapidated, abandoned feeling. I booked for the 17th-century appeal, but found the whole experience offputting, if not downright uncomfortable.

I am appalled by the response my partner has just had from this hotel. My husband has had this hotel booked since last year and we were looking forward to staying here in December (although after our recent call, we abruptly cancelled the booking) My husband is registered blind and has just been matched with a guide dog. Out of courtesy, as officially, it is against the law to refuse a guide dog as it is a service provider, he rang the hotel to let them know the situation and check it would be ok. He was then told by the member of staff ‘no we don’t want a disgusting dog here!’ Completely disgusted by your lack of customer service and your discriminatory approach to someone with a disability. We have reported you to the necessary authorities and hope that nobody else receives your absolutely shocking level of customer service.