Hotel Review: Best Western Moore Place Hotel, Aspley Guise

The boys had a very busy half term! At the end of a week in Scotland with their Granny and Grandad, they drove down to Aspley Guise (Bedfordshire) for a very special event: Their Grandma was getting married! Both boys were handsome page boys, and the wedding breakfast and party took place at the Best Western Moore Place Hotel in Aspley Guise, so I thought I would use this as an opportunity to share some photos and a quick review!

Moore Place is a Georgian manor house hotel, built in 1786. It is a relatively small hotel, with only 61 rooms, and only two of those rooms are family rooms. Each room has its own TV, a writing desk, and tea and coffee making facilities, lending them a home-away-from-home feel.

Checking IN

Check-in was easy and straightforward; after we’d parked our car in the free car park which is adjoined to the hotel, we headed to the check-in desk where the staff friendly and efficient. We were asked to choose what we wanted for breakfast (and what time we would be coming to the restaurant for breakfast) as we checked in, which was unusual but was due to Covid changes in the kitchen. Having said that, we made changes to our order in the morning and the staff couldn’t have been more helpful, bending over backwards to make sure that the kids had what they wanted to eat, even if they did change their mind on a whim! The breakfast was amazing! I had a fruit platter followed by a full English; everything was fresh, piping hot, and cooked to perfection.

Breakfast

The fruit platter consisted of three different types of melon, pineapple, apple slices and berries. The Full English breakfast included sausage, thick-cut back bacon, a fried egg, tomatoes, hash brown, baked beans, friend bread and mushrooms. The mushrooms, bizarrely, were the highlight for me! They were crisp and flavoursome; I ate my own and then stole my husbands too!

The dining room was beautifully laid out (and our table was already allocated to us) but because the weather was so lovely, we asked to eat out on the terrace. It was wonderful to eat out in the sunshine, and gave the boys more room to play whilst we relaxed too. The terrace was small with only 8 tables, so I think if you plan on eating outside then it would be worth requesting when you book your breakfast to be sure you get a spot.

Dinner

Because we were visiting for a wedding, we didn’t have dinner in the dining room, but we did sample the delicious wedding menu; pork pate with salad to start, chicken stuffed with a red pepper mousse and parmantier potatoes for our main course, and then a very light white chocolate and raspberry terrine with a coulis to finish. If the menu available for hotel guests is anywhere near as lovely as the menu that we were offered, then you’re in for treat!

The Room

The hotel isn’t specifically designed for families, or with families in mind, and only has two family rooms. We had booked one of these and were impressed with its size. However I was less impressed by the fact that the boys had to share a double sofa bed, whilst we were on a very comfortable king sized bed. So many kids don’t like to share (or mess about so much that it drives their parents to distraction) and the sofa bed wasn’t particularly comfortable, so this wouldn’t be my first family room choice. It just didn’t feel like the comfort of every family member had been very well thought through. Having said that, the room had plenty of space, featuring a good-sized wardrobe for all of our stuff, double doors leading to a terrace with a great view of the compact grounds and on-site waterfall, and a lovely bathroom too.

Ah the bathroom! I think Boy5 best summed it up when he said of the massive corner bath “wow Mum! Our room has a swimming pool!” and it certainly looked like one when he jumped in and started swimming around in it. I was very impressed with the size of the room, and it was immaculately clean and beautifully decorated too.

In these covid times, it was a very nice touch that there was a laminated sheet on the desk outlining that the full room clean had been completed, and the name of the employee that had completed this too.

The Rest of the Hotel

The decor throughout the hotel was beautiful; a balance of understated but decadent at the same time. We had a sneak peek in the Bridal suite and it was just as classic and minimalistically romantic as you might expect; I was really impressed with the way the hotel was decorated and the easy flow of it. Everything was just so easy and that’s what you want from a hotel, especially when you’re just making a flying visit for a weekend away (or in our case, for a wedding). This wasn’t our first stay in this hotel (my sister got married here too) and I’m sure it won’t be our last: we will definitely be returning again.

And just because they’re too gorgeous to resist, here is a quick shot of my gorgeous boys in their page boy outfits. Of course I’m biased, but I still think they looked so handsome!