Name: Tavistock Arms Hotel
Address: Fore street, Calstock, Calstock, Calstock, pl18 9bn, United Kingdom
Rating: 5

Smoking areas

Heating

Garden

General

Hairdryer

Shower/Bathtub

Shower

Wardrobe/Closet

Toiletries

Rooms

Iron and board

Safe-deposit box

Luggage storage

Iron

Services and amenities

Restaurant

Packed Lunches

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Free parking

Parking

Darts

Sports

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Plymouth Airport

Newquay Cornwall Airport

Tavistock Arms Hotel

Calstock

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

The bar/reception was strangely dark when we entered, the owner did not appear for several minutes. The decor of the rooms is reminiscent of your granny's house, the odour the same. 
Everything proceeded as expected until three o'clock the following morning. The sound of rushing water woke my friend and I. After some confusion we discovered a torrent emanating from behind the toilet and an expanding pool of water on the floor. In a matter of minutes a significant amount of water had flooded the room and we decided to panic. Whilst I used the waste paper bin to bale water in the shower, my friend phoned the number on the room key, no answer. We shouted through the office door, nothing. My friend called the police but they didn't help either. Finally, the startled proprietor appeared, to halt the chaos. The water was turned off and all returned to normal. The water remained off throughout following the morning. Meaning washing was out of the question and another friend in an adjacent room was unable to flush his toilet after his morning movements. The owner was unapologetic in the morning but gave us a token 30 pound refund when we asked. 
All in all it was an unpleasant but idiosyncratic stay. Something that cannot be said of more competent, yet less maverick establishments.

On the upside, the owner was browsing eBay for a swimming pool upon our arrival so maybe the future is bright. Not quite sure where he's planning to put it but it shows ambition.

Also the kettle was half-full so we could brush our teeth. However it wasn't enough to shift the material in the toilet. You can't have everything.

Toilet trouble

If you want an old fashioned, traditional pub, this'll do you just fine. The room was spacious and warm, with a nice view, and the staff lovely to talk with over a pint.

However, it hasn't been renovated in a fair while. The shower was weak, the fitting poorly installed, and they didn't provide shampoo. Breakfast was of a decent size, but uninspiring. Basically, if I'd paid £30 a night, I'd happily give this 3 stars. At £60, it's too much for what you get.

Good at some things, bad at others

Having seen the DWP residents of this closed pub gathering outside and not distancing is disgraceful. Landlord Bob Hughes should be prosecuted for the behaviour of his residents. And be ordered by Cornwall Council to carry out repairs to the whole property.

Landlord is irresponsible

I was awoken in the night at 3am to shouting and knocking on my door. "Help!", said my friend. "What is it?", I said. "Help! The toilet has exploded. It is spraying water like a shower. It is all over the bathroom, into the bedroom and is leaking through the ceiling downstairs. I can't get a hold of the manager and I don't know what to do". I rushed into his room and all of what he said was true. I phoned the owner and like the veritable Hercules he is, he turned the water off. This was quick thinking on his part - wise, like an owl - but it did mean that in the morning we could neither shower nor flush the toilet; fortunately, there was some water left over in the kettle, which we could use to brush our teeth as the taps were also broken, like David Cameron's Britain. There were no spare rooms, so my friends had to sleep in the newly fertile room, and received a whopping 50% discount from the owner for their trouble, after we asked him for one. Also, the electrical sockets in my room didn't fit plugs into them and the wifi didn't work. There is no sign on the hotel, which makes it quite difficult to find, but it is distinguishable by its ugly shade of pastel orange, and the car park looks like that scene from the film No Country for Old Men. Although my friend's toilet exploded, mine did not, which I suppose is a positive.
Overall, I actually find the image of an entire hotel's worth of unflushed toilets to be a rather apt one for my time at the Tavistock Arms. Bog standard? If only...

My friend's toilet exploded

Stayed for one night. The room smelt, the plugs had metal in the sockets so you couldnt use them and WiFi didn't work in the rooms. A mains pipe burst in the bathroom in the middle of night flooding our room so we had to bail water out of bathroom at 3am and meant there was no running water for the morning. The owner gave us a 50% refund on that room but only after asking and he didn't seem to be that bothered about us having to deal with it. Not his fault that the hotel was full so we had to sleep in the flooded room but don't think he apologised for any of it once. Overall not a great stay and wouldn't stay there again. 

The toilet exploded 

Stayed one night for business, the building is being renovated so I feel I can’t give a full review of what the hotel would be like when fully refurbished but I’d definitely avoid this one for now.  The room was somewhat clean and tidy if not dated, the bed at least was clean but there were no toiletries to speak of in the bathroom. 

The main hotel / bar area is to be avoided during the renovation work!

On to the main issue, the breakfast food - I use food in the loosest possible sense of the word. A deep fried fry up arrived at our table with one of my colleagues receiving a fried egg with a rather large fly fried into it. Unbelievable that this was not spotted in the “kitchen”. Thankfully my breakfast avoided any additional protein, however, I’ve made several mistakes in my life but eating this fry up could be one of the worst. I was quite ill for the entire day after consuming this food. Leading me to really question their food hygiene standards. 

Upon checkout I was relieved if not surprised to not even be asked how my stay was. Perhaps the manager did not care or simply expected a bad comment. 

I doubt I’ll be back. 



Tavistock Arms Hotel

Main amenities of the hotel

Location

Available rooms

Location

Description of the hotel

What other amenities are there?

General

Rooms

Services and amenities

Meals

Internet

Parking

Sports

Pets

Policies

Check-in terms and conditions

Additional information

Payment