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Our Rutland B&B is situated in a handsome converted Tithe Barn, which dates back to the 15th Century. Set in some of England's least discovered yet most staggeringly beautiful countryside in the county of Rutland, we offer very comfortable bed & breakfast accommodation in a charming and friendly atmosphere. The house is set in an attractive village location, away from any busy roads, and offers a welcome retreat for all our guests. It retains many of it's original features and unique charm, and we offer professional and friendly accommodation.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Family
Business
Location
The Tithe Barn Clatterpot Lane Cottesmore, Oakham LE15 7DW England
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Car parking is limited but plenty of free on street parking although for me not an issue as I was able to park without any issues
Curtains in room have gaps so in summer will allow a lot of early morning light.
The place can be missed quite easily during the dark as the sign is not lit.
Other than that can’t really moan and really struggled to find anything major as far as negative points went.
Now the review- I stayed here for business during the second Uk Covid lockdown. Missed the place and the sat NAV took me down a dirt road instead. Was met in the Car park by John the owner who “checked me in” - had to give my contact details for test and trace and sanitise my hands and that was it.
The “hotel” is actually a bed and breakfast with the rooms in a separate building to the owners’ residence all set in a very nice private garden
The room was very clean and recently decorated ( I could still smell a v faint smell of fresh paint- nothing bad though) the bathroom likewise was very clean and well appointed. The bed was very comfortable but for me the pillows were not comfortable as one pillow was not enough and 2 were too many ( but pillow height is a v personal taste so can’t moan)
Unfortunately due to Covid restrictions there was no breakfast and instead I was given a bag with cakes, oat bar, biscuits, fruit and bottle of water. Which is adequate as breakfast on the go.
In summary the room was very nice and would stand its own against 4 star hotel chains. When I stay on business I often judge a place by if I would stay there and pay the price for a private visit. Well for the Tithe barn the answer is a resounding yes. I just hope the owners are not too badly affected by the business downturn due to Covid as it’s a lovely place that I hope will flourish once we return to some resemblance of normality.
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Date of stay: November 2020Trip type: Travelled on business
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The Tithe Barn in Cottesmore, Oakham set in a quintessential English village, is an absolute delight to stay at. The main house is very old with thick walls and was originally built to hold ecclesiastical tithes paid in kind, and common in many parts of England around c1300. John and Monique, over many years have enhanced this beautiful building, providing the visitor with a high standard of spacious accommodation and a very warm welcome. Each room is very individual, 5 double rooms including 2 rooms which are set in the grounds. Single travellers too are well accommodated. A delicious varied pallet breakfast, to wet the appetite, awaits the visitor after a restful nights sleep. Delightful gardens envelope the buildings in this tranquil setting and for those who love their gardens, Barnsdale, the home of the late Geoff Hamilton, Gardners World fame, is but a 5 minute drive away.
This accommodation is also very near to the vibrant Rutland Water, a hub of activity including all types of water sports, a 23 mile perimetre track for cycling, walking, and picnicing, with a dedicated area for youngsters to let off steam on the water slides on the north side of the Water.
Would highly recommend this as a place to stay for an enjoyable break.
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Date of stay: June 2021
Value
Rooms
Service
Room Tip:All rooms are unique so difficult to choose
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I had to stay for work reasons during COVID restrictions so I couldn't experience all that Tithe Barn had to offer, but what I did see was excellent and the reception I received was warm and welcoming. They also arranged for a parcel of food was left for me outside my room in the evening so I had breakfast and lunch ready for when I had to leave early in the mornings. I will definitely stay here again when next in the area. A big thank you to all that looked after me
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Date of stay: May 2021
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled on business
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I booked to stay at here to attend a family event but due to unforeseen circumstances I had to cancel my stay on the day I was supposed to be arriving. I call early and left a message on the answering service advising of my cancellation and although I knew I would loose my deposit thought no more of it until........ I checked my bank statement only to find that the remaining £55.00 had been withdrawn from my account! I was sure that this would have been a misunderstanding so I called to advise. The previously pleasant man that I had spoken to must of been a big act when taking my deposit as the person that I spoke to this time was a vile chap who lied through his teeth as he claimed to have not received my message and seemed quite smug at the fact that he had withdrawn the cash for the room.
Anyone considering staying at this establishment beware when giving your card details over the phone as they have no problem using them without your consent. They have no morals at all!
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Date of stay: November 2014
Service
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Johnrutland, Owner at The Tithe Barn
Responded 2 Dec 2014
Dear Lynda You made the booking with ourselves some 3 months ago. You called twice the week before you were due to arrive, once to confirm your booking, and again the day before arriving to request an early check in time. We have other business to attend to during the day but we were happy to arrange for a member of our staff to be here (at our cost) to allow you to check in outside of our normal arrival times. We do appreciate that events can happen outside of your control, and that plans have to be re-arranged or cancelled at short notice (we have been looking after guests for over 18 years now). You claimed that you contacted us by telephone to advise that you were cancelling your booking. However, we have checked back through our “telephone calls received” for the day and there were no calls that we had not “answered”, and there was not any messages left on our answerphone. Phone records are easily checked nowadays, and you quite certainly did not call us. It is normal practice for accommodation providers to charge in full for any guests that fail to arrive without any prior notification, and to this end we were within our terms and conditions to charge to your card the full amount of your stay. We are sorry that you felt it necessary to leave such an unpleasant and untrue review but on occasion, no matter what is said or done, a very few individuals in this world will continue to find fault and embellish the truth. We are grateful that, as proven by our many loyal, repeat customers, and the feedback that we receive from the vast majority, that this is very rare. We hope that any future customer looking at previous reviews can judge more clearly what type of B&B accommodation this is.
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I was initially running late as I had informed the tithe I would be there by 2000hrs, I phoned ahead at 1800hrs to advise I would be there about 2100hrs, this was all fine and was told I would be greeted outside as I was to stay in one of the annexes. Upon arrival at 2100hrs I was greeted by what I thought was an intoxicated gentlemen, who started by saying hello Mr.... I informed him I was not that person to which he used an expletive and continued to say he had given my room away. After an exhausting day I simply wanted to get a shower and get some sleep so I persevered and said I don't really mind as long as its still a double bed. I was shown my room and it was average at best, he told me some 'pongo' (service personnel) was in my original planned room. Out of curiousity I asked him what the difference was to which the reply was, 'it's more luxurious' not one to normally kick up a fuss I simply accepted the room and continued about my evening. I was shocked to see that the double bed was in fact two single beds pushed together, one with a subsiding mattress which caused me to fall through the gap during the night. I had a horrendous sleep and spent the remainder of the evening sleeping on the floor for comfort! At breakfast I informed the gentlemen that in fact the room is not acceptable and explained my issues. He sorted it out there and then and put me in an even smaller room with no en suite. I left for my working day, when I returned i began to start settling down, when to my surprise I can no longer access wifi (despite being advertised as wifi through out) this was a main necessity of mine as I was required to complete business work. Further to this, the television was not only so small you had to sit in front of it but also just turned off every 2 minutes! I went to find the gentlemen once more and advised him I would be checking out 3 days earlier than planned. Not a single question was asked nor was there any attempt at rectification. As he was going to get my bill I was both shocked and apalled that I was charged the full rate for the supposed luxurious room I was meant to have. I questioned this and was simply told, 'that's the price for en suite' I informed him the second room were below standards expected, he gave me a reply with reference to the wifi, 'you wont get it because of the thick walls' (why is it advertised on your site then?!) if i knew that information i would not of placed the booking in the first instance. There was no form of apology just plain ignorance and continued to process the transaction. I was extremely upset with my stay as I was actually looking forward to it! I had to travel a further 3.9 miles to another well known residence which I highly recommend! I my self am in the forces, so when your told about 'pongos' already in your room, it is some what offensive. All my costs will indeed be recovered by the Armed Forces and we are asked for reviews on the place we stayed, to which this will be forwarded. I would certainly not recommend this place to any further service personnel visiting Cottesmore camp.
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Date of stay: January 2013
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Johnrutland, Owner at The Tithe Barn
Responded 23 Jan 2013
We are really sorry that you were dissatisfied with your rooms, we take our customers comfort very seriously, and try hard to meet everyone’s requirements. The first bed you slept in is a super-king size zip and link bed, as used in all top hotels, and the description of it having a subsiding mattress is simply not true. We have checked this bed and mattress after your negative comment, and it is in perfectly good condition, and was inspected (and fully approved) before Christmas in our annual inspection by Quality in Tourism. We have also checked with guests subsequently using the same room, who have also confirmed there is no problem of any kind with this bed. We provide free wifi for our guests to use in our house. When you booked you were advised that it may not reach the furthest bedroom, but it is easily accessed in all the public areas. We are sorry you had a problem with this in the room you asked to be moved to. We are in the process of obtaining wifi signal boosters to handle all future demands. We had never heard the term ‘pongos’ before and certainly do not use this in reference to any guests. As we could at any time have service personnel stay with us it is definitely not the way we talk of guests. After working through two rooms you really appear beyond ‘rectification’. It is quite clear that you would not be happy with anything we provided. If anyone looks at the other reviews on this site, as well as others on the web, it is very easy to see that this review does not match what others have to say about The Tithe Barn, and the review is intended to smear our facilities. We suggest that other reviews give a far more balanced view of our accommodation and, most importantly, an accurate standard of our customer’s satisfaction.
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We are a group of 10 friends who enjoy a weekend away once a year. We stayed here last year and had a great time as the owner was not at home. This year was not so pleasant. The breakfast was excellent and the rooms were adequate.What we did not appreciate was being told off by the host like naughty schoolboys and girls when we made slightly too much noise as we were going out for the evening. He is pleased to take your money but other than that was most disagreeable
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Date of stay: October 2011
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We booked into the Tithe Barn to attend our Daughters wedding in Oakham, Rutland. We wanted a relaxing stay somewhere nice. We arrived to find no parking space and entered what we thought was the bed and breakfast to find they share a car park with a residential home! I felt so sorry for the neighbours as this seems to be a regular occurrence. I had booked a standard room but received the call prior to our stay to say we had not booked a good room and would we like to upgrade? Yes was my response and £20 was agreed for an upgrade to what from the photos on the website looked lovely. We arrived to find lots of pictures for sale from an obscure artist and a book to sign. Someone eventually showed us our room which was apparently an upgrade!. I would hate to think someone had booked a standard room because i could not move around this room freely it was so small! The en-suite was so small I could not shower. The Lightning was very poor and to be fair not up to standard. The TV in the room would only work for Fifteen minutes at a time and then overheat and shut down. The free internet advertised must not work with a huge supplier as EE because I could not get a signal for work. Breakfast at the tithe Barn... Loads of cereals.. Fill your boots. unfortunately if you require milk your in bother! 2 nights stay and no milk at breakfast. First night you make excuses as I am British and things do go wrong. Second you get a bit upset. First breakfast my wife had no bacon on the plate. second day that was me! Hey this is not a big deal but when your paying £90 per night after the call to upgrade please beware. I tried to pay upon our departure to the male but was told the fee was deducted over the internet from my account which showed up on our statement. After leaving rather disgruntled I received calls to say I now need to pay an extra £180. This is only our findings of the Tithe Barn and hope others have a better stay than us. Hope this helps when others try to visit the lovely places around Rutland.
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Date of stay: November 2015
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Johnrutland, Owner at The Tithe Barn
Responded 20 Jun 2016
Cherry on the cake! Some reviews just jump out as being written to damage the business because of an issue that has happened. Such reviews contain distortions, untruths and blatant lies and, sadly, here is one of them. The issue in this case is that the customer skipped off without paying, and has now, four months later, written a malevolent lying review when he finally had to face the music in court. However let us address your wretched and unscrupulous review: Our car park has a big sign saying “B&B Parking” showing a big arrow. It appears, however, that you drove straight past this sign and parked in our next door neighbours driveway (were you going too fast perhaps…). You did manage to find our front door, but failed to read the additional signage there, confirming where guests should park. And this is where I get a little confused about your claim that we share our car park with a “residential home”. It is our car park on our land, for which we had last year spent a lot of money expanding. Only our guests are allowed to park on it, and we certainly don’t share it with an old peoples home. I think we would have noticed had the garden been overrun with zimmer frames and wheelchairs! We are sorry you did not recognise the name of the artists’ work for sale in our hallway. The last Van Gogh is out on approval at the moment. We may have an option soon on a Picasso, or even a Matisse if you are back this way. Of course, you will understand that everyone has to start somewhere, and we do really prefer to support our local artists – it is far more rewarding. You stayed in Room 3, pictures are available on our website. It was quite a while ago, but I do not understand how you could not move about the 28 sp metre room or the 5 sq metre bathroom. Likewise, I cannot understand how you found the shower too small to shower in; I checked with house keeping, who nimbly step into the shower every day for vigorous polishing of the glass, and they maintain they have no problem standing up in it, or in fact getting down on their hands and knees inside it to clean all around the bottom. I am absolutely horrified that for the three days and two nights you were here you did not wash, and you didn’t say anything to us about it, so we could offer you an alternative. The TV does not overheat, we checked. If it was shutting down every 15 mins as you say, maybe you activated the 15 minute sleep timer, and without asking for assistance you were unaware of this highly technical and advanced feature. Our internet is just fine as well – with three boosters in the property it reaches all parts of the house perfectly. I would like to apologise for the “lightning” in your room, this is completely unacceptable, and we are looking into how this natural phenomenon occurred in your bedroom. It must have been terrifying for you, and we are surprised there was no mention of some thunder as well. To even suggest you stayed for two nights and no milk was provided, and you were not served bacon with you breakfast is laughable, and is a further demonstration of your cheap intention of smearing the place. Would you have really stayed for two nights and not mentioned any of this to us at the time? We were certainly fortunate we managed to avoid this unforgivable ‘mistake’ when we were inspected and given our Breakfast Award. Phew! Now I’m a fair person, and if you were paying £90 B&B you would expect bacon and lashings of milk with your breakfast every morning without fail or excuse. But you didn’t pay £90 B&B for your two night stay did you, and we have yet to receive that from you. Perhaps we will do you a deal - if you pay the bill you owe us for accommodation, we will and without prejudice, cook you another whole plate of bacon with a pint of milk to wash it down. We both know the real reason you wrote this review is because, unfortunately, court action had to be pursued for the non-payment of your bill. We are very sorry it had to be resolved this way, but if you answered any of our repeated texts, phone calls, e mails and letters to sort this, all could have been easily resolved. It is not nice of you to tell such crass, whopping lies; I’m surprised your mother did not teach you that. It is also a great shame that Tripadviser allows such corrupt, amoral reviews to publish outright lies on their site, against all of their ‘avowed’ principles in their published guidelines. All this does is devalue the whole operation.
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A beautiful rural retreat not far from Rutland Water which is perfect for those seeking peace n quiet but not good for parties who want to have fun. An ideal place for nuns to stay
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Date of stay: October 2011
Value
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
A sweet little family-run B&B in an old (but sensitively modernised!) tithe barn in a small village setting. The place is clean and comfortable, the beds are good, the breakfasts are good, and the staff are incredibly friendly and helpful, refusing to let us carry our own bags, helping us out with recommendations and advice, and generally making us very welcome. They had no difficulty in catering for vegetarians and were nice about it too. Nothing's too much trouble. The garden is pretty and the whole place is just round the corner from a great pub, the Sun Inn, on the high street.
I thought that the room was a little bit cramped, but then we three were staying in a family room with a double and two single beds and an en suite, so maybe the other rooms have a bit more elbow-room. Not that there isn't enough room to maneuver, but you wouldn't want to spend the whole evening there, unless you like curling up in bed. Happily the pub round the corner is great. I wish it was my local. There's other good pubs and restaurants in Oakham too, which is only four miles away. The Tithe Barn is in a pretty village called Cottesmore and it's quite idyllic. There's loads of thatched cottages and a historic church. (Check out the inscription on Laxton's gravestone, just to your right as you come out of the church porch.)
It's a good B&B. I suppose if I were to quibble I'd say that the place would benefit from a few sofas downstairs; there's plenty of room for them, and without, one member of my party said it does seem a little bit like a boarding house, rather than a home from home. :) But having said that, there are nice touches like plenty of bookcases to browse while you're staying, free sloe gin, free wifi... certainly I would recommend this place and stay here again.
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Date of stay: September 2014
Value
Rooms
Service
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We stayed here for 3 nights in December 2012. We had the quad room (double plus 2 singles). Everything about the stay was excellent - the friendly welcome, smart and clean room, pristine bedding and towels, quiet and restful ambience and of course the great breakfast.
From the moment we arrived until the second we left, nothing was too much trouble. After the first night, my wife found the bed a little hard for her taste (we found out the room had been refurbished within the last year and the mattress was new), The B&B were happy to provide an extra quilt and pillows to help out. No complaint with the bed - just a matter of preference. Nonetheless, the matter was dealt with quickly and to our satisfaction.
The fittings and equipment in the room were first class with Freeview TV. Tray had tea, coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits. Plenty of storage space, surfaces and light. Bathroom was compact but well appointed. Shower had plenty of hot water each day.
Nothing but praise for The Tithe Barn and will be staying here agin next time we visit family in the area.
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Date of stay: December 2012
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
There are more places to choose from in the Oakham area.
LOCATION
United KingdomEnglandRutlandOakham
NUMBER OF ROOMS
7
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