I can see there are a few negative comments about this hotel, but the Oxford Spires is just right for tourists with ample parking. We had just come from staying at a delightful Wolsey Lodge B&B with a more personal service, but parking issues and with one mirror in the bathroom, not ideal for doing your hair or makeup. So I think this puts things in perspective. The Oxford Spires is a perfectly adequate hotel, 15 minutes walk into Oxford, with enough pubs to distract you (The Head of the River is ideal and also serves food). We didn't bother eating at the hotel, there are plenty of places in Oxford including a super Chinese called Shanghai '30s just up the road. The hotel bar service was good and friendly, as was checking in. We had a standard package and the breakfast was ?15 each, which we bypassed. There are enough establishments in Oxford that will serve the first meal of the day, try Brasserie Chez G?rard in George Street, they open at 10.00 am and have an extensive menu at a fraction of the price plus veggie options.

This hotel is slightly out of town, on the way to Abingdon, which suited us because we were working in Abingdon but may not be suitable for those wishing to actually stay in Oxford. That said, its only a 20 min walk into the town centre, and you can follow the river if you get off the main road which is a lot more pleasurable, weather depending! Re the hotel, neither myself or my two work colleagues were impressed. Rooms are dated, and breakfast average. The hotel is out towards the countryside and I didn't get a mobile phone reception in my room, whilst wireless internet access was available but at a ludicrous ?15 per day. How a hotel can justify this reckless profiteering is beyond me - although I was on expenses I couldn't bring myself to pay this, especially when 99% of the hotels I stay in allow internet access for free as they actually want to encourage guests to use their hotel. The hotel also fails to offer a laundry service, or so I was told by one person on reception, subsequent discussion with a colleague revealing that a different had taken his shirts for pressing. Service is inconistent, although this is more due to staff not being properly trained or being too stretched rather than them not being nice. In summary, look elsewhere first - there are better places, and if you do think you'll be using the internet, price an additional ?15 per day into your budget.

I stayed here for a weekend in June. The hotel was clean and bright. Staff were very welcoming and helpful. Our room was a connoisseur room and was good. Bathroom clean and efficient. Free mini bar. There was a notice at reception warning that breakfast was very busy on saturday and sunday mornings. Our weekend deal included breakfast, so we opted to pay an extra ?5 per day to have breakfast in our room. Glad we did, because the dining room looked small for the size of the hotel. Would definitely stay again, but only on a special deal as the full price looks a bit steep (but is probably the average cost of a stay in Oxford.)

I stayed at this Hotel in February for 1 Night for a Dinner & Dance at the Hotel & again in March for 3 Night for an event at the New Theatre. My stay in February was Great, loved it so much we didn't want to check out & go home. The only problem was I had orginally booked a Double Room, but called a few weeks before hand to change to a Twin Room. Upon arrival I found the room hadn't been twinned & was still made up as a Double. I phoned down to Reception & they said they would get that sorted out for me. This never happnened. We left our Room at about 7.15PM to go down to the Dinner & Dance & we returned to our Room at about 1AM to find it still hadn't been twinned. This didn't really bother us, as the bed was quite large & me & my friend have shared Double beds before!!! Apart from the bed situation everything else was lovely, the Leisure Centre, Breakfast & the Dinner & Dance. We left saying 'we wish we could have stayed for 2 nights & made a weekend of it!!!' My stay in March was good also, the room was small but big enough for me. I was there a lot of the time, spent most of my weekend at the New Thearte!!! There was a few problems with the Bathroom, the shower head was broken & didn't stay in the handle! There wasn't any hand soap so ended up going out to buy some. There was never enough toliet roll either! I ordered Room Service breakfast on all 3 mornings, this arrived about 10 mins early day, lucky I was awake every day!!! I made use of the pool on the Saturday morning, which was lovely, just what I needed after a long evening at the Theatre. The Hotel was really accommodating as I was always arriving back at the Hotel after 12Midnight. I also called before the normal Check In time to see if my room was ready & if I could check in, as I had to back out by about 4PM & wanted to get settled in my room & have something to eat before the long night ahead! My room was ready by about 11.30AM, so I headed over then. It was nice to get in & get settled! A nice touch was they delivered the bill to my room before I got up, to speed up the check out process. Also meant I could check it before going to check out. I would definately go and stay at this Hotel again, I work Hotels so its always nice to go & see the operations from another point of view! Then we can see what works & what doesn't! Its also nice to be stood on the other side of the Front Desk as I am a Front Office Supervisor, so am normally on the Sunday Check-Out!!!