Restaurant

Reviews of Ox Hotel Bar & Grill

3.5 out of 5
Ox Hotel Bar & Grill
81 Commercial Road, Ashley Cross, Poole, England

Reviews

8.0

Very good

Rating 10 - Excellent. 117 out of 278 reviews
Rating 8 - Good. 89 out of 278 reviews
Rating 6 - Okay. 36 out of 278 reviews
Rating 4 - Poor. 22 out of 278 reviews
Rating 2 - Terrible. 14 out of 278 reviews

8.4/10

Cleanliness

8.6/10

Staff & service

7.6/10

Amenities

7.8/10

Property conditions & facilities

7.6/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

2/10 Terrible

Serena

Stayed 1 night in Nov 2024

10/10 Excellent

Angela

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 3 nights in Nov 2024

8/10 Good

Katrina

Stayed 1 night in Nov 2024

2/10 Terrible

Verified traveller

Business traveller
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Not a good experience

Very tired and old rooms. Service was awful with no restaurant and we could not get a drink after 9pm. Changed rooms twice.
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2024

8/10 Good

Victor, Toronto

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Good location and meals available
Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2024

2/10 Terrible

Tony

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2024

8/10 Good

George

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

It's a Pub!

Lots of stairs...
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2024

10/10 Excellent

Darren

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2024

10/10 Excellent

Ian

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Excellent staff room was good everything in the room was good and what you needed breakfast was great can’t ask for a better experience thanks
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2024

10/10 Excellent

Peter

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2024

8/10 Good

Elaine, Birmingham

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Comfy bed, great location to the port if catching the ferry. Good check in and out process. Helpful staff.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2024

8/10 Good

Cynthia

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities
Very clean and good amenities for an overnight stay. Excellent choice on breakfast menu and very good value for money.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2024

8/10 Good

Kate

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Ox Hotel Poole

Very comfortable for a short stay. A little noisy.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2024

10/10 Excellent

David

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

The night before the Ferry

When we arrived the reception person was very nice. We had a bit of trouble finding the car park. We had food in the pub which was very good, It was a bit noisy out side, we were on a main road at a set of lights and it was also Bike night at the shore front
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2024

10/10 Excellent

Cynthia

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Good value for money.

Our standard room was clean and well equipped. It did have a fan but no airconditioning. Tried to leave the window open but the noise from an extractor fan unit outside below our window was noisy.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2024

4/10 Poor

Verified traveller

Business traveller
Disliked: Cleanliness, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Definitely one to avoid. Car park is tiny, only space for 4 or 5 cars, maximum. Very awkward to get in and out. Dining ends at 9pm. Interior is very poor condition: everything is chipped, marked or peeling. Could hear traffic all night. At breakfast, there was very little food available, and when I ordered, staff member forgot to bring. Very disappointed.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2024

8/10 Good

Gregory

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort

Convenient abode.

Very friendly staff, and local knowledge great. Parking in the Ox car park is limited. So I'd recommend parking on arrival and using buses/taxis if you can. The bus stop to the centre is just across the A35 and the M1 bus drops you from town right ouside. There is a small car park on the A35 nearby. Parkstone railway is also very close. Apparently some more decorating is ongoing. Hopefully that'll include a new stair carpet. The bar is trendy cosy and rustic. Nut I feelbthe ale is overpriced. Maybe have a dsily happy hour to bring in the punters. The choicevis good. The rooms are large and plenty of storage. Overall a great and convenient place to stay.
Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2024

10/10 Excellent

Trina

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Close to poole port

Room was nice and clean apart from it was a boiling day and we couldnt cool the room down. The roads never stoo mind so be aware of noisy traffic which is to be expected. Lively staff. Very polite. Nice bar and restaurant serving drinks and good food. All in all though i enjoyed my one night stay which was close to the port 15mins away
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2024

10/10 Excellent

Rob

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Bigger mugs but lovely hotel.

Lovely location and a great hotel. We parked nearby on the road although there is a small car park around the back. Bigger mugs for the rooms would be nice though. We didn’t eat as the kitchen was closed on Sunday but would love to come back to try the food.
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2024

8/10 Good

Ray

Travelled with partner
Nice restaurant clean room lovely bathroom good quality fluffy towels
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2024

10/10 Excellent

Richard

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Nice old hotel

Nice old hotel been here for a very long time and still wearing well. Nice big comfortable room
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2024

10/10 Excellent

Julia

Stayed 1 night in Jul 2024

2/10 Terrible

Daniel

Stayed 2 nights in Jul 2024

10/10 Excellent

Kim

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Was lovely and clean, would definitely stay again
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2024

2/10 Terrible

Thomas

Travelled with partner
Booked a three night stay. It’s advertised as having boutique bedrooms. Watermarks and cracks on the ceiling , ring marks on bedside table, dirty marks on net curtains. Went and told staff we would not be staying they offered another room almost as if they weren’t surprised!! We declined the offer. Was told by staff member to get In touch with Expedia and she would arrange a refund! Put in a complaint and still no response
Stayed 3 nights in Jun 2024

10/10 Excellent

Camelia

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

25th Anniversary Party Stay

Lovely hotel and staff, the room was nice too. We stayed as an an anniversary party in the venue attached. Breakfast was lovely. Only criticism would be that the rooms were quite warm.
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2024

10/10 Excellent

Esther

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2024

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2024

8/10 Good

Ryan

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort

Comfortable but attention needed

Room was comfortable, bathroom was well appointed, always nice to see an extra effort made there. Improvements could be made with regards to the bed, carpets, furniture etc as beginning to look a bit worn. Breakfast was very good.
Stayed 1 night in May 2024

6/10 Okay

Karen

Liked: Cleanliness
Very steep flight of stairs, room small, no chairs, noisy road traffic.
Stayed 1 night in May 2024

4/10 Poor

Gary

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Disliked: Room comfort

Presented and hosted great, bed horrendous!!!

Check in was great, host waiting to check me in. Room was clean and presented lovely. The only reason for the bad review is the bed, it was horrendous, it was so soft, it felt broken and I felt like I was being bent in half, ended up sleeping on the floor just to get a couple hours of sleep.
Stayed 1 night in May 2024

10/10 Excellent

Sean

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Great for what we paid

For the price we paid it was good accomodation. The room would be better if it was painted a lighter colour as it seems to dark. Loved the restsurant downstairs.
Stayed 1 night in May 2024

6/10 Okay

Samantha

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities

Nice stay

Super location for the lovely area of Ashley cross. Our room was small but super bathroom (note no door so that may put some people off). We had two singles put together one mattress was perfect and quite firm the other my husband described as a bean bag. It was a warm day when we stayed and there is no air con and unfortunately the fan provided didnt alleviate the temperature. Fabulous staff - clean room and we would stay again albeit wouldn't chose room number 2.
Stayed 1 night in May 2024

10/10 Excellent

Alex

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Recommend this place...

Very friendly staff, room was lovely. Only downside was a small carpark.
Stayed 1 night in May 2024

8/10 Good

Pam

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in May 2024

8/10 Good

Susan

Stayed 2 nights in May 2024

8/10 Good

Oliver

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2024

4/10 Poor

Ian

Business traveller
Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Room comfort

Pretty awful experience

not good at all, booked for 2 nights but left after 1. The main issues were noise and parking, there is virtually no parking and the local car parks are 4 hours maximum so I had to park a considerable distance away. The room was nice but there is no double glazing and it is on a very busy road with lots of bikers and this goes on throughout the night. Nobody available in the morning and no breakfast option that I could see so all in all a bit of a disaster, needless to say I won't be returning
Stayed 2 nights in Apr 2024

8/10 Good

Michael

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 2 nights in Apr 2024

10/10 Excellent

Tara

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Very nice pub hotel

Very nice and well appointed little hotel. Didn’t have breakfast as the timing didn’t work for me but it’s 7:30-9:30 weekdays and 8:00-10:00 at weekends. Comfy beds, good shower. Friendly reception.
Stayed 1 night in Apr 2024

10/10 Excellent

Pauline

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
nice shower room. lovely hospitality tray with hot chocolate and biscuits and water. Staff really nice and friendly. nice to be able to come and go at the side of the bar area. It was very convenient to where my friend lives and works. Hoping to be back later this year. many thanks.
Stayed 5 nights in Mar 2024

8/10 Good

Ian

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 3 nights in Jan 2024

8/10 Good

Alan

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

10/10 Excellent

Alison

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Lovely little find

The hotel has a lovely vibe about it. We booked a table and the foid was amazing, generous portion sizes and full of flavour. The room was clean and warm, slightly small but plenty big enough for us. The car park is very small so could be a problem at times. Staff very helpful and we would definitely stay again.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

4/10 Poor

Louise

Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

Wouldn’t stay again.

The room over all was very tired looking and in desperately needing some tlc, however the bathroom was in good condition. The window in our room was terrible and wouldn’t close properlamd
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2024

10/10 Excellent

Sylvia

Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024

8/10 Good

kevin

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

One night special

So we booked this at last minute due to a hiccup Elsewhere The hotel is an old pub/ hotel The owner is a great guy who is very pleasant and is turning it into his place The rooms are being worked on the bathrooms in all the rooms we had4no were great all the guys loved them I was the only one to eat here as it was only a one night stay Wow I had the meat box wings ribs and doing rooms -delicious and saves too We were only passing through but please give it a go if passing again I would boom this place especially for the food
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024

6/10 Okay

Stephen

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024

6/10 Okay

Nicola

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, room comfort

Clean but shabby

The Ox has great curb appeal but not very welcoming on entering, it felt abandoned and we had to look for someone to check us in. The room was spacious and clean but definitely needs some work, a lot of cracks in the plaster and missing grouting in bathroom. The room was cold when we entered but didn’t take long to warm up when the radiator was turned on, lots of condensation around the windows and curtains damp by morning. A comfy night and only minor tweaks to make it great 😊 The free parking on site was a definite bonus!
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities

Nice little find

Reasonable cost, friendly staff. Comfortable stay with extras including tea and coffee making facilities and toiletries in the bathroom.
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2024