The Swan Hotel

WOW! The Swan is incredible & our wedding reception was PERFECT! All of our guests commented on how fantastic the venue is & we had lots of guests who stayed overnight & all of them loved the accommodation. From the moment we chose The Swan for our wedding we were looked after by Bethany the Events Manager who was absolutely incredible. I was stressed & nervous & Bethany made everything better. Communication was brilliant & she did everything she can to make things as seamless as possible - & they were. I had a very specific idea on how I wanted the room, decor & tables to look & it was all beautiful - I could not have wished for a better person to take care of us. We were back n forth to the venue arranging things & all the staff are always incredibly polite & helpful, nothing is too much trouble. Freddie & Annabel also deserve a mention but everyone is great. The food for our reception was amazing - to be able to produce meals of that quality on that scale cannot be easy but everyone loved the wedding breakfast & the evening buffet was equally delicious. Lots of vegan & vegetarian options too. So many good things to say so I'll finish with that I could not recommend The Swan enough, venue, service, food & rooms - PERFECTION! & once again - THANK YOU BETHANY - you are AMAZING! Our day was perfect because of you! xxx

While the Swan is a handsome property and the staff are well-meaning, we did not enjoy staying or eating at the hotel. We stayed in a garden room with our dog on the first floor (# 24) for two nights and found the room hot and stuffy with only one small window, the decoration was a bit sterile with no art on the walls, pillows and linens were not good quality, and the shower over the bath was hard to navigate. After a day of walking around beautiful Lavenham, we were looking forward to a nice afternoon nap -- but there was live music in the bar from 3:00 to 5:30 which reverberated throughout the hotel. The restaurants were disappointing. The servers are young and friendly but not very professional and competent. We had drinks in the garden and had to chase someone to place our drinks order -- and then they brought the wrong order. We had one dinner in the Brasserie and had to chase someone to seat us and place our dinner order. We had two breakfasts in the main dining room and there were delays and confusion about our coffee/tea order on both days. The food was fine, but the poor service made dining at the hotel not very enjoyable. Overall, the dining side seems to lack good management -- someone to oversee that the servers are working smartly, dirty tables are cleared, etc. We like the historical architecture and appreciate that the staff were friendly -- but the overall experience, value for money, and comfort of the visit were all below the standard we have enjoyed at other Pride of Britain hotels.

Booked a three day break with two dogs. Exceptional hot weather. Luckily room had air conditioning. We actually booked out one day early as weather was too hot to be able to get out and about with dogs. The hotel is a lovely building in a beautiful area of Suffolk. Staff not keen to allow customers to eat in the garden esp with breakfast. They were distracted by a wedding taking place on the Friday. There was an issue with hot water and fire alarm which affected kitchen. Friday we were told that food would be limited but staff were too busy dealing with wedding guests and despite us booking a meal at 1800 the staff forgot and we ended up getting sandwiches from supermarket opposite the hotel. If we had known earlier about kitchen problems we would have made alternative arrangements for evening meal. One member of staff was very rude at breakfast on the Friday morning and refused to serve us because of the dogs. The charge for dogs is expected but excessive , three nights the charge was £120. Have no issue paying a charge but very angry that we were charged the £40 for the third night when we checked out early and didn’t stay for the third night, personally that should have been waived as gesture go good will. Our experience was disappointing and in light of that we have cancelled our stay in December. Disappointing experience.