Durham City Cottages

The Bay Horse impresses guests with clean, well-appointed rooms and a central location, ideal for exploring nearby areas. Guests appreciate the comfortable beds, quality amenities, and availability of tea and coffee facilities.

We stayed here for one night as we were at a sporting event nearby. Room 5 looked good on first impressions with everything we need for a one night stay. Plenty of towels, shower, TV, comfy bed, plenty of tea/coffee and even sachets of hot chocolate. (No WiFi but wasn't an issue for the amount of time we were there) However.....I found out the next morning that the shower was broken. When you turn it on most of the water streams out from underneath the unit on the wall (not where the pipe is connected but strangely next to it). It meant barely any water coming out of the shower head, and what did come out was cold! I was not able to have a shower which after spending all day at a sports event (and again the next day) was very unsatisfactory. Regardless of the room itself or the food sleeping and showering are the most important aspects of any hotel room and that is why I had to give the poor rating. (Not sure how the cleaning staff didn't notice the shower issue?) We had dinner in the restaurant last night which was ok. I had the burger which on the menu just said 'burger'. Bit confusing not even knowing what it came with. I had to ask if it had cheese, but the bacon was a surprise as I wasn't expecting it. The meat was ok, nothing special and the bun was nice. My wife had the fish and chips. The fish was terrible. So very overcooked and not pleasant to eat. Both meals came with chips that were actually really good. Very very very greasy but soft and lovely tasting. The other strange things was how long it took for our food to come. There were other tables near us that we know ordered ages after us but got their food a long before us. When we left our room to check out at 7:45 this morning there was no one around and the door to the inside bar area was locked. I had to walk round to the front door and give my key to a random man who was setting up outside (maybe a cleaner?) but worried that if the key went missing I would be blamed for not checking out. Maybe need some process for where keys can be left when checking out if no staff are around? I had to try a few times to get through this morning just to check that they had received the key for the room from the person I gave it to. I also mentioned the shower not working but didn't get much of an apology. Really sorry to say, but we wouldn't stay here again and wouldn't choose to eat here either, and I definitely can't recommend.

We have tried this pub before but this was the first time visiting on Sunday. The food was amazing. The staff are all very friendly as well. Will definitely visit again. Only downside is the car park is very small.