My wife and I stayed at the Church B&B on Cathedral Rd for 5 nights this week. We have stayed in many B&B's in the UK including London, Ireland and Scotland but this is our first one in Wales. It is important to note that the things we didn't like about our experience here may be prevalent throughout Wales (or Cardiff) so Church may be on par in these areas. Nonetheless we felt that based on our experiences throughout the UK, this B&B did not meet our expectations in certain areas. There were some positives, so let's discuss them first.
Pros:
- nice and safe neighborhood
- close to Bute Park which was very nice to stroll through
- close to pubs & restaurants (we particularly liked the area up the street - to the North and away from city center (Pontcanna St)
- Reasonable price for lodging
- Andrew (host) is very nice and a pleasure to talk to
Cons:
- pretty far from downtown (about 15-20 min walk but a scenic one)
- Room (#9 - 2 twin beds) and bathroom were both small (shower very tight for me because I'm tall and lanky) and hard to regulate water temp. The sink water had separate cold and hot faucets (may be standard for Cardiff but we still hate it!) We would have paid more for the King room if we had known how small ours was
- Extra £ for hot breakfast (not toast and porridge though), which we've never seen before. If that's their model then the continental needs to be much more extensive (basically cereals, fruits and yogurt)
- Thin walls and bedroom door rattled when other room doors open/close. In general it was very loud
- like I said Andrew was very, very nice and tried to help us (called a taxi), but he really don't know much about Cardiff. For example, he didn't know the information center had moved to a new part of town and not close to the City Center or that the restaurant he recommended was closed on Monday's. Or the name of landmarks that we wanted to learn about. We are accustomed to our host being an expert in every detail when it comes to their city and providing more assistance in acclimating ourselves
In summation we felt that we received a reasonable value for our stay and we did like the neighborhood. By giving it 3 stars we aren't necessarily recommending it or not recommending it, but you should know what you are getting into before booking here. If the issues mentioned above aren't a concern you will probably love it here. They were quite full with business travelers so maybe they aren't used to tourists or because they are doing so well they don't need to step up their game. I doubt we'll come back to Cardiff because we want to see Northern Wales, but if we did return we would consider staying here again after looking at other options, but we wouldn't get the twin room again. Again, maybe this is all totally standard for Wales so it may not be Church B&B's fault. Feel free to let me know if you have any specific questions. read more