In the very centre of Dereham town centre, this beautiful three star hotel captures the spirit of the original 17th-century building in which it is housed. The owners have been careful to retain many of the original features and have combined these with modern amenities to make 21st Century guests feel at home. The friendly staff is always happy to help you get the most from your stay.
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
You hopefully will have read what others thought of this dump and about their awful experiences. The word dump just about sums it up. The description of the Hotel per the Web Site of Late Rooms and others seeks to portray a picture of a fine elegant building providing high standards of accommodation. This is imginative but not correct and Late Rooms (et al )had better visit its Website and amend it so that it will have an answer when The Advertising Standards Authority asks them to explain why they have published and continue to publish advertisements in respect of the Hill House Hotel which contains information which, it is contended, is both inaccurate and misleading. Lord Armstrong a former Cabinet Secretary described this type of behavior at best as "being economical with the truth"." .
Any professionally operated Website of quaity and integrity which advertises "accommodation" is, I would suggest, required in the first instance to ascertain at first hand that the accommodation matches the given description and is fit for purpose. Here we have a major a failure by Late Rooms et al.
Let us not howevert forget the part played by the Operators (Owners?) of this ruin - MJB HOTELS. Clearly they are aware of what is going on - if for no other reason than the number of complaints which are to be found on this and other Websites relating not only to the Hill House Hotel but also to a number of other properties in which MJB Hotels appear to offer accommodation.. This failure equally applies to Late Rooms et al as it appears they never read any feedback from dissatisfied customers who have had the misfortune of using their services. Even if they did would they do anything anyway? Experience to date is "No" !
The matter now needs to move ahead by involving the Local Authority, Dereham Town Council, The Advertising Standards Authority, Norfolk County Council, East of England Tourism Board etc and by ensuring that our experiences receive maximum media coverage. In that respect contact has already been made with a number of these Agencies and with the Local Press and Local Radio. If you have had similar experiences to ours then don't let the matter rest - take action.
Be assured this matter is being be pursued !
PS. Wonder what the Hotel Inspector would have to say about this one? Perhaps the Hil House Hotel is a candidate for the popular television series "Country House Rescue".
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Date of stay: July 2012
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Trip type: Travelled on business
Room Tip:Â Find another Hotel
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.
My wife and I booked for 2 nights over New Year 2011/2 as we were celebrating nearby. We wish we hadn't. We stood out in the rain with our luggage while we tried to enter using the pin code we had been given by the booking agency. We then phoned the "helpline" number posted on the wall by the door and were greeted in an off-hand-way by a bored lady who told my wife she hadn't paid (we had via the agency). When she gave her credit card details over the phone the pin nnumber was given in return but it didnt work. By then others were on the steps trying to get in too. We called the helpline again to be greeted by the same bored person who suggested we were idiots for being at the wrong entrance. As it happens she was right, we were not at the back door(!), but one assumes when checking in at a hotel that you will be greeted at the main entrance. We got to our room which admitedly didn't smell of vomit and the bed had been changed since the last occupant (unlike a hotel in Lymmington I could mention), but the rest was dreadful. We were tired when we went to sleep but the noises from other rooms was loud and kept us awake, the bed was uncomfortable and the shower only dribbled. In fact when using it the next morning the power failed and the water stopped completely. There I was in darkness with soap all over me and my wife had to go to find a fuse board. But it wasn't to be found and instead she had to fill the bucket from the rubbish bin with water from the sink and throw it over me. Once I was dry I went out to find someone who could turn the power back on but there was no one around who worked at the hotel. I met other customers who were also without power. So I called the helpline again and was told in an off-hand way that there was a cleaner on the premises who would go and reset the power. 3 hours later the power was not on and I went to find the cleaner. As it was late morning by now there were cleaners around and one called the office when I complained about the time taken to restore the power on and the indication was that this was the first the cleaners had heard about the problem. Anyway the cleaner did manage to reset the trip and power returned. But this place has the cheek to call itself a hotel. This is a massive misdescription - it is no more than a set of holiday apartments. There is no one on site to speak to out of hours and access is controlled by locks where you need to enter a pin number. There are no facilities, bar, restaurant or breakfast room. For just under £40/night I consider myself well and truly ripped off and I will never stay there again.
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Date of stay: January 2012
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Â Good luck!
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.
have stayed in this hotel on three occasions now and it has never been up to spec but for the money you pay what can you expect!!
Last night was the first time I have ever felt unsafe whilst trying to sleep. The doors in the hotel have key codes to access them and they never change the codes, which means if you know the code you can just let yourself in, last night my partner and I were sleeping in the basement room, which was like a dungeon, at about midnight I heard a a group of boys come crashing through the front door, drunk, when all of a sudden they came bursting into our room laughing and then ran off, I rang the MJB line and told them what was happening as I could hear them attempting other doors in the hotel, to which I was asked did I know their names and could I detain them until someone arrived, I didn't stop to ask their names as they were crashing around. No sooner had they told me they would send someone to the hotel did they attempt to get in our room again, I opened the door to about seven or eight 18 year olds who then legged it out the front door except for one, he ran around the hotel so I went to find him, as he ran past me out of the door I told them to get lost or I would call the police, the same boy then ran at me with his fists clenched, I shut the door which he then kicked so hard he broke the fixtures and hit me in the face with the door, I immediately called the police. I gave the police a description and they searched for the boys but to no avail.
About half an hour after all of this two 'handymen' arrived who worked for MJB and one guy who looked no older than the lads who broke in told us that he was the acting manager and only one in the office. He told us that before he could do anything he had to fix the door or he would get the sack, he wanted to drive all the way back to Norwhich to sort us out some more rooms, which we were not having as at this point we no longer felt safe. He then spoke to his boss whose name and number he would not give us and told us that they had no free space in any of their other properties but they could make it so that once we had gone into our rooms for the night, nobody could get in from the outside, so his solution to doors being kicked in, was to lock is in, so my partner and I told him that he need not bother as we would be making the 2 and a half hour trip back home.
As we were leaving we found out that there were seven other rooms being used and they did not inform them that their room codes were compromised, so if you are reading this and you have been staying there you don't know who has been in your rooms when you aren't there.
The guy who came from MJB did not even offer an apology or a solution or any compensation, I have never felt so unsafe, being attacked while I am trying to sleep is not what I'm looking for when I go away for a few days.
If you are reading this I am telling you DO NOT STAY in this hotel, it's filthy dirty, many things are broken and it is not safe, there is absolutely no security and after last night I found out that the people running the place do not care.
This hotel should be shut down.
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Date of stay: April 2013
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Â Do not stay in this hotel under any circumstance, you are likely to fall ill due to the filth,...
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 Stayed at the hill, was terrible,dirty room,i couldnt sleep The hotel is not maintained, please do something if you want to have your businesses. I won’t stay here anymore. Really the worst place i we have seen.
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Date of stay: January 2013
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Trip type: Travelled solo
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.
Get a refund via booking.com!!!!. NEVER EVER USE THIS COMPANY.Dreadful service to deal with. AWFUL Have taken 3 days of trying .just don't want anyone to go through what we've been though at such a time.Dreadful place. Have never been in a prison cell but must be comparable to that.
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Date of stay: September 2017Trip 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.
Me and my partner booked here for a cheap stay, as a stay over only, so purely somewhere to get our heads down for a night. We couldnt even do that. The room was a disgrace. Beds not been changed, glass and dirt all over the floor, stains and hairs in the toilet, dust everywhere, fag butts all over the place. absolutely horrific. On their site they claim to have a carpark, but it is a tiny courtyard which is used as a free for all. Bags of rubbish everywhere! They dont have a reception, so you cant talk to anyone about anything! How this place is open i have no idea. We will stay anywhere as long as it is clean but this was hurrendous and we ended up staying at a premier inn! DO NOT STAY HERE. Absolutely appauling.
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Date of stay: February 2015Trip 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.
As we had stayed here several years ago we booked a room again, unfortunately before reading any comments. Well, it is as everybody else writes: it used to be good, we used to feel welcome, and we used to think this was a good hotel. Now we think different. We had no problems getting inside the first night. We were lucky to have quite large rooms, although they didn't have a good cleaning for ages (the bathrooms were acceptable). But there seem to be some rooms that you can only reach via a very narrow staircase. The new managment seem have changed every room available (former lobby, former storage rooms) into guest rooms. Nevertheless, we stayed and we thought it could have been worse. Well, it became worse. The second evening, after getting inside at around 6 pm, we didn't get inside four hours later. They had changed the code of the main door. Calling the phone number that was next to the door, luckily somebody answered it. Friends in Dereham told us that this wasn't always the case. But this guy first refused to give us the new code, saying that for this night nobody was staying in the hotel. He said he couldn't find any booking. We still had all our luggage inside! Well, finally, after hinting at the police, he gave us the new door code and we could get in. This is no place to go anymore! And, if you consider some other place in the area: be careful! The new owners (MJB hotels) are buying hotels all around Norfolk and exploiting them like they do with the Hill House (according to our friends).
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Date of stay: December 2012
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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.
I have travelled extensively through Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, often staying in budget hotels and B&Bs. I can safely say that my one night (I booked two but my girlfriend was too terrified to stay the second night) at this "hotel" was the worst experience I have ever had to go through. We arrived at 4:00pm to check in, only to find our small, dirty room was located two feet from the communal door, which, being faulty, slammed shut every time it was used, causing our whole room to shake violently.
I immediately went to talk to the staff - cleaners with no interest and/or jurisdiction to help. It was in fact one of them, a stupendously thick individual, who was walking around with music blaring form his mobile slamming doors. I then called MJB Hotels' office to request that we be moved. They told us they were "fully booked", there was "nothing they could do and if I had a complaint I should email them". When we called back 5 minutes later to enquire about availability, they told us they had plenty of rooms. So they blatantly lied to us.
At 10:30am (we were working nights) the thicko with the music knocked and without waiting for an answer, let himself in with the combination lock to our room when we were lying in bed. My girlfriend felt very unsafe. I eventually checked into a local B&B where the owner told me horror stories about this group, including robbery, violence and regular visits by the police. She had taken in many people in tears from their experience here. Save yourself time and trauma and spend a bit more to avoid any of MJB's hotels or apartments. Don't be fooled by the attractive Georgian exterior. This is a house of horrors. Believe the bad reviews.
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Date of stay: July 2012
Value
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Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Â If you do book here, make sure you're in the main building and not the many annexed (flimsy,...
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.
This place is a nightmare! The organisation is beyond belief! A snooty "manager" who couldn't deal with my complaint but also wouldn't let me speak to the owner, Tony. Apparently "Tony does not speak to the customers". Another girl with a nice little attitude on her (well done to your parents!). I thought this place was a Hotel. Boy, was I wrong! It felt like you were walking into a Ghost House; No staff, no one AT ALL. All you get is a pin code to get you in, nobody to welcome you and that's if you find the right place- it seems they "forgot" to tell another guest who arrived as we did and couldn't get in. They called MJB and were told they were in an apartment elsewhere! No food. No bar. Sorry, did you say you were a Hotel? I'd say that's false advertisement right there! In a nut shell; If you don't mind dirty rooms, cobwebs, pubic hairs in your bed sheets, lots of noise from other rooms/banging of doors, no heating, a crappy shower then this is the place for you. You honestly can't make this kinda comedy up, Faulty towers, eat your heart out!
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Date of stay: November 2011
Value
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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.
It was the worst experience of my life. I complained to everyone possible and was given all the excuses known to man and even suggested that I was over reacting. This place is a hovel. Most of the rooms do not look like the one on the picture. Some of the windows are boarded up, light fittings with no bulbs, a TV with no remote control. Walls painted dark blue, some windows painted black, and unclean.
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Date of stay: August 2017
Rooms
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Â Book another Hotel. Do Not Stay Here
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 Dereham area.
ALSO KNOWN AS
hill hotel dereham
LOCATION
United KingdomEnglandEast AngliaNorfolkDereham
NUMBER OF ROOMS
18
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