Double Room, Ensuite

Reviews of The Punch Bowl

3 out of 5
The Punch Bowl
12 Oxford Street, Woodstock, England

Reviews

8.2

Very good

Rating 10 - Excellent. 109 out of 274 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 103 out of 274 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 40 out of 274 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 13 out of 274 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 9 out of 274 reviews" "

8.8/10

Cleanliness

8.6/10

Staff & service

7.8/10

Amenities

8.0/10

Property conditions & facilities

9.2/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

10/10 Excellent

Niki

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Three old school friends stayed in the big room at the front which was perfect for all of us to be together. The room was beautifully decorated with a spacious walk-in shower. The room had everything we needed. The beds were comfy and the location was convenient for everything. Staff were all friendly.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

10/10 Excellent

Alyson

Stayed 1 night in Dec 2023

8/10 Good

Alison

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2023

10/10 Excellent

Jackie

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

liam

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
The best hotel and area around oxford
Cant recommend enough
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

William

Travelled with pets
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Very friendly ambience and very good attitude to well behaved dogs.
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

Theresa

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
A very enjoyable stay at a lovely inn in the centre of Woodstock.
Stayed 2 nights in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

Annie

Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

8/10 Good

thomas

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2023

8/10 Good

Paul

Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

10/10 Excellent

Joyce

Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

Norman

Liked: Cleanliness, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Excellent location and service. Recommended
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

Nicola

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Perfectly picked for our Blenheim & Oxford visit.
We had a lovely two night stay at The Punch Bowl with my teenage son and my elderly mum, in the family suite, with two separate rooms & shower room between the two. Tea and coffee facilities were provided (with coasters!) and were replenished when asked. The shower was a walk in, lovely & hot & the bathroom was a good size. The second bedroom, usually single beds, was made up into a double on request (for a tall teen). Each bedroom had a tv. There was limited hanging and drawer space so we lived out of our bags, a small cupboard is in the main bedroom, with a very small hanging area, but there are no deep drawers, only short drawer bedside tables. My only gripe was that there was nowhere to dry the towels. In the winter, with the heating on, I'm sure it would be fine, but with three people, three bath towels, floor towel and hand towel, we struggled to dry these for the next use. The staff in the bar were all very polite and very helpful. You have to walk through the bar to check in (and it was a very busy dinner time when we arrived so we had to wait a few minutes while food was being served, but we didn't mind) and the access to the rooms is either at the end of the bar, or through the back of the pub, through the car park. Ben on the bar found my mum a phone charger (much to her delight, thank you Ben!) was chatty and thorough when walking us through our stay. Parking is limited but does become available so don't panic. Traffic a little noisy. We enjoyed our stay
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2023

8/10 Good

Paul

Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

Anthony

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
I’m only sorry I had eaten before I arrived the food looked amazing! Lovely room and friendly staff! Will stay again for sure!
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

2/10 Terrible

Christopher

Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

10/10 Excellent

Paul

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

10/10 Excellent

Garry

Travelled with family and small children
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Warm welcome, friendly efficient staff. Clean well appointed rooms. Good choice of dishes on the menu and excellent food. Breakfast choices are available and the cooked breakfast is excellent.
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

10/10 Excellent

David

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Friendly and helpful staff, very clean and in a good position.
Stayed 3 nights in May 2023

10/10 Excellent

Lauren, Norcross

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
The stay was exactly what we expected. The building was beautiful, and while the room was small and basic, it was comfortable and clean. We enjoyed both dinner and breakfast, and the staff was friendly and accommodating. The area was very pretty and we enjoyed walking around the shops, the farmers’ market and over to Blenheim Palace. I would strongly recommend staying here.
Stayed 1 night in May 2023

10/10 Excellent

Susan

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Absolutely Perfect stay!
Absolutely wonderful stay. Every aspect of our stay was fantastic. Easy to find, great location. Parking available on site for our entire stay. Room (6) was gorgeous! Newly refurbished, everything we required. Comfy bed, wonderful bathroom with great shower. Radiator in bedroom and towel rail in bathroom giving great heat when required. Lovely shower, towels. Everything was spotless. All staff were so friendly and helpful. Fantastic food both at breakfast in the restaurant. A stones throw from Blenheim Palace. Great little town in Woodstock with a Co-Op express right opposite for anything you might need. Bus stop to Oxford a few yards from door. Can’t recommend highly enough. Thank you for a wonderful stay.
Stayed 3 nights in May 2023

10/10 Excellent

Theresa

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The room was great, comfortable and spacious. The staff was very helpful and friendly. It was centrally located so you could walk to significant sites and dining.
Stayed 2 nights in May 2023

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
The room and amenities were spotless and newly refurbished. I had a delicious soup the night I arrived and a sterling breakfast the next morning. Kt's a real find and I'd return in a. minute.
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2023

10/10 Excellent

Shirley

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great Visit
No probs at all, excellent room, great food and the staff were brilliant.
Hotel sign
Blenheim Palace Estate
View from room
Front of hotel
Stayed 2 nights in Apr 2023

10/10 Excellent

Anthony

Stayed 1 night in Apr 2023

10/10 Excellent

Nigel

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2023

10/10 Excellent

ASHLEY

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Superb place to stay. Room 10/10 Staff 10/10 Pub 10/10 Not one minor fault, love this place.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2023

10/10 Excellent

Karen

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Recently renovated. Calm clean interior. Good breakfast. Read all the property guidelines as there are very specific rules and times for things like check out and food service.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2023

10/10 Excellent

Catherine

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Lovely pub and the room was beautiful. The food was excellent.
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2023

10/10 Excellent

Jonny

Stayed 1 night in Jan 2023

10/10 Excellent

Alan

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Very good staff
Response from Tony on 16 Jan 2023
Thanks for your lovely review. Hope to see you again soon

6/10 Okay

Anne

Stayed 1 night in Dec 2022
Response from Tony on 23 Dec 2022
Hi AnneThank you for your feedback.I'd like to understand better why we dropped 4 / 10 points.Please could you email me with anything you feel we could have done better to earn a better score from you.Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and we look forward to seeing you again soonBest Wishes. Tony, Katie and the family

6/10 Okay

David, Birmingham

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness
The room we stayed in was excellent (room 5) considering the main road is close it was quiet. There was plenty of space and it had recently been refurbished with a well presented modern bathroom (Large shower) good heating large tv and a King sized bed as advertised. Parking can be an issue as there are limited spaces but there is a public car park very close. The food is good and the staff try really hard to please their customers but there are some issues that should be addressed. This is not a hotel it is a pub with rooms and it felt like the paying guests came second in a number of areas. Check in at 5pm is ludicrous even if you let them know you are going to be early and the check out time is 10am. That can be ok but they have to address how this is handled. I paid £225 for one night room only and got a value of around £100. Last orders in the bar on a Saturday night was 9:45pm as the bar closed and there are no facilities for residents. Breakfast needs to be ordered the night before by 8pm? The food supplied in the evening was good but we were hurried out of the restaurant area with the comment 'you can take your drink to your room'. Breakfast was the same good food pleasant service but as we approached 10am the staff were clearing our tables the coffee had run out and we were told they needed to start getting ready for lunch??? Would I stay there again the answer would be NO. They are charging premium hotel rates but they do not provide a hotel service.
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2022
Response from T V on 14 Dec 2022
Hi David.Many thanks for your broadly positive review.You note the great levels of Food, Service and indeed the exceptional quality of our rooms.The negative points seem to revolve around our check in and out times and our bar closure times.You arrived over 3 hours earlier than our standard check in time of 5pm to a bar and restaurant that was packed to the rafters with lunch time guests who were enjoying the excellent food and hospitatlity that we provide.A couple of minutes wait and you decided to barge in to my office (That has a 'PRIVATE' sign adorning it and rudely have a go at me - not the best start eh.We got you checked in nonetheless.Just for your information, all of our policies including check in and out times and bar service times are available on our website but also on the Guest Information sheets which we place on the towels on guest beds. You clearly chose to either ignore these or decide that they shouldn't apply to you.Just take a look at the 10 reviews prior to your 6/10. Theres 9 that rate us at 10/10 and 1 that scores us a respectable 8/10. In your email to me you claim that we have a fundamental issue with our guest relations that would prevent return customers.I disagree - we score incredibly highly across all feedback platforms and have one of the busiest establishments in town, despite an incredible amount of local competition.We enjoy this due to our exceptional customer care, our cracking food and our incredible rooms - qualities which you acknowledged.The fact is, our well publicised trading hours didn't suit you - perhaps next time you could check this detail instead of attempting to arrogantly run roughshod through our policies.For the record, we always try to get guests checked in at times to suit but this isn't always possible.I hope you find somewhere that better suits your needs if you return to Woodstock.Have a great Christmas

10/10 Excellent

Joy

Stayed 1 night in Nov 2022
Response from T V on 14 Dec 2022
Many thanks for your 10/10 review Joy.We're so pleased to get full marks and we look forward to seeing you again soonBest WishesTony, Katie & Family

10/10 Excellent

Vicky

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness
Beautiful room, newly renovated to a very high standard. Great bathroom and shower, super size room for a family room with comfortable beds, we really can't fault our stay at The Punch Bowl. Stayed in the Inn all evening, the food and service were superb. Very dog friendly. A wonderful stay. Thank you to you all. We will be back x
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2022
Response from T V on 14 Dec 2022
Hi Vicky.It's really pleasing to see your fault free review.We work incredibly hard to send guests away happy and love to read all our positive reviews.Hope to see you again next time you're in the area.Best Wishes.Tony, Katie & Family

10/10 Excellent

Shazia

Stayed 2 nights in Oct 2022

10/10 Excellent

Roy

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stay at tye Punch
Staff was very polite & helpful! Special Kudos to the lady who served us Breakfast. She was most helpful . Should we return to Woodstock , we will definitely stay at ur Inn. … Roy & Kahtin Devaraj San Jose, California, USA
Stayed 2 nights in Oct 2022
Response from T V on 14 Dec 2022
Wow - thank you for this 10/10 review.Glad to see that we delivered a great experience to you.I'll pass on your comments to Jenny and her team of housekeepers, they'll be delighted.Hope to see you again soon.Best Wishes. Tony, Katie and the team

8/10 Good

tabitha

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Great location within walking distance of Blenheim Palace and multiple pubs/restaurants. Lovely area to explore. Newly renovated spacious room. Very friendly staff, great food. Brekkie was 7-9am. Still renovating communal areas left to be done but can see it will be lovely when finished. Parking was full but just down road there’s a massive car park within 100m.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2022

10/10 Excellent

David

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2022

10/10 Excellent

laura

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Lovely hotel at a great location
The hotel was lovely, the rooms were very nicely decorated and clean and the location was brilliant - a five minute walk to Blenheim palace, ten minute drive to bourton-on-the-water and 25 minutes from Oxford. Woodstock is also very pretty, with convenience shops, cafes and coffee shops all close by. We would definitely recommend and have already told out family about it! Thank you for a lovely stay.
Stayed 2 nights in Jul 2022

10/10 Excellent

Kim

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
A lovely place to stay.
A perfect location for meeting up with family. Newly refurbished rooms were very pleasant to stay in. Food was delicious. A small carpark but we fitted in. A busy village with Blenheim palace so nearby but we visited in late March so all was good for us. Very friendly welcome and great to be able to use Tesco vouchers towards the cost of the rooms.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2022

8/10 Good

R

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Staff are extremely helpful and friendly, third time i stayed here first time in the refurbished rooms. Very nice stay
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2022

4/10 Poor

Andrew

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness
Disliked: Staff & service, room comfort
No drinks or food available
Bar & restaurant closed both days, was not informed of this when booking! Breakfast did not start until 8.00 AM, which is the time I start work!
Stayed 2 nights in Jan 2022
Response from Tony on 30 Jan 2023
Sorry to read this.All of our opening times, check in times and a host of other information is clearly displayed on our website which is maintained and up to date always.As you can imagine, it's impossible to communicate with guests who use the convenient method of booking on line through an On Line Travel Agent.As I say, we publish important information on our website and are always happy to clarify anything via email or a phone call before a guest books.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2021

8/10 Good

Joanne

Stayed 1 night in Dec 2021

10/10 Excellent

Davina - Sasha

Stayed 1 night in Dec 2021

10/10 Excellent

Brian

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Very friendly service from all members of staff. Cosy atmosphere on a cold winters day. Excellent breakfast and beautifully decorated for Christmas! Spotlessly clean and covid safe. But bedrooms are ready for refurbishment.
Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2021

6/10 Okay

Paula

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities
Disliked: Property conditions & facilities
The staff were friendly and efficient. The room was clean and tidy, but the bathroom needed some refurbishment. Also the busy road directly in front of the property made the room quite noisy.
Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2021

8/10 Good

Alison

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2021

8/10 Good

Penelope

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Great location for everything Woodstock ha to offer. Beautiful restaurant/bar area. People very friendly and helpful. Room was lovely and clean with ample towels, soaps, coffee and tea with a proper kettle! Mattress was not as comfy as hoped, felt like an old spring mattress, the only thing I found as a slight negative, but overall very very nice.
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2021