Central location and warmth of service

Character building, full of charm. Clean, comfortable room, choice of pillows, cosy comfortable bed. Good range of drink options. Friendly staff. Good choice of cooked breakfast (included) it was delicious! Very good value for money-for B&B.

My room was cool, radiator didn’t appear to be working, I tried different settings. However, I was not cold-the duvet was cosy and I don’t like a hot room, others would want the heat that’s why I am mentioning. Light in bathroom on a sensor-went off when I was in the shower and stayed on too long when just using the toilet at night. Solution-I found the switch and turned it off overnight. Light on tv when on standby very bright! I covered the tv with a scarf! No staff on site overnight. Meals expensive-prawn cocktail starter £10.95! Better value to eat meals off site. Fresh fruit and yogurt would be nice for breakfast options.

Discounted price meant it was fair value. When it arrived the breakfast was pretty tasty.

The room is very dated and tired, shower needs holding, bathroom floor dirty looking. The place is clearly understaffed and most things take a while. Breakfast was ordered at 7am (and the first ordered), arrived at 7:28am. Considering there was only me for first 10 minutes and 3 people by 7:30am, it wasn't due to being busy! Imagine if it was.

It’s very quaint and full of character

The room was a bit on the small side but as it was only one night we managed ok

Very polite, and helpful staff. Simon, Sophie and Chelsea. All very keen to please and kind. We were there for a funeral of close relative.

Better information about parking, It implies from Booking.com that there is parking on site not 5 minutes away in a public car park. Wash Basin was rather small.

We absolutely loved our time at The Cross Keys! It exceeded our expectations and was one of the coziest and most charming inns I’ve ever stayed in. The evening staff was lovely, and Wendy looked after us so well for breakfast and lunch. We enjoyed her music too and didn’t want to leave! We’ll be back for sure. Thank you for such a memorable stay.

Nothing

A charming hotel with tons of character. The location was superb, close to bus stops and market square. The room was warm despite the very cold weather. Breakfast times were flexible and options quite varied. Overall, it was an excellent stay, though a few things could be improved.

The room was very comfortable though a little cramped. I also found it to be quite dusty (bedside table, bedframe, etc). The fire exit door did not shut so anyone could just get in from outside. The staff was friendly but wasn't overly available. I felt that the hotel had so much potential but was slightly run down, unfortunately. Such a shame as it is such a stunning building.

Beautiful old property lots of history

Parking was difficult but ok for us as relatives live nearby

Everything was great for my stay. Not sure why the overall score isn’t much much higher. Maybe rooms vary?! My room was pretty much perfect other than it being too hot & me not knowing until the next morning that I could have turned it down or off during the night. My own fault. (After a pub crawl though so…) Very comfortable bed. I guess it’s slightly noisy-ish on the main street but it didn’t bother me at all. I wanted the old/historic room with the low ceiling and that’s exactly what I got. Shower was perfect for me too. Very clean bathroom and very nice amenities for shower use. I ate lunch on arrival before check in and it was delicious. I had dinner towards the end of my pub crawl & the fish and chips here were so good. I have had bad fish & chips in England a lot in the past and felt lucky that wasn’t the case here. I had my 3rd meal here for breakfast the next morning. It was very fitting to hear ABBA “Waterloo” somewhat blasting when I got to breakfast after 9 am and then Tom Jones right after that. The staff was always friendly and helpful too. The breakfast woman was a character & working with two fun people hanging up Santa hats for Xmas decorations. The woman who checked me in and answered many questions was also great. Sorry I don’t remember names. She and her husband who also works there were very kind. A new staff member who had lived in Australia for two years and was new to Saffron Walden showed me to my room and she too was great and very personable and seemed to be a good fit with the others. The young guy who closed the pub area and restaurant was also awesome. He recommended places in town for what I was looking for and all recs were fun. I’m not sure how people can dock them points for insufficient parking options within the beautiful walking district within Saffron Walden. Seems a bit strict and unnecessary to be honest.

Nothing to dislike. It was pretty perfect for me. I think there is some confusion about the breakfast choices. The menu shows prices and apparently they have to have menus with prices for customers who just show up for food but if you have breakfast included you can just select anything off of the menu and other solo travelers around me seemed confused by that for their first few minutes there. The full English breakfast was delicious! I didn’t fall for the “pudding” though. I remembered to ask them to leave it off. Thought it was chocolate “pudding” the first time years ago and haven’t really warmed up to it since.

It is a very atmospheric and historic hotel in the heart of town. The evening meal was delicious and well prepared. The staff were all very friendly.

The bedroom only had a bath and we much prefer a shower. The breakfast service was incredibly slow and and limited with meagre portions.

Breakfast room was fine and good full English and hot coffee

Well cooked breakfast. Lovely comfy bed

Motion sensor light in the bathroom. No milk or instant coffee in the hospitality tray

Dinner was good. The room was as comfortable as expected. Staff were friendly and welcoming and the location in the pleasant small town was excellent.

Dinner service was a bit haphazard. We were served one dish we hadn't ordered, but as we like it we changed the order and enjoyed what we had.

Staff were all very pleasant, quaint room with a nice size en-suite.

The shower could have had a screen as it was in a bathtub and water went everywhere.

Great location from which to visit SW. A very old characterful building. Good selection of food and drink.

Not a major minus but parking a car in one of the public car parks 5-10 minutes away could create problems for the less mobile and if the weather had been bad. Fortunately neither applied to our stay.

Great value, stunning property, lovely staff

When it’s hot and you need the windows open the road noise is noticeable in the rooms at the front of the property but not a major issue

The way it was laid out in old building was extremely well done for the age of the building. Excellent evening meal and we could sit outside for Covid safety.

They had a few one off problems at breakfast with staff off and a broken drinks machine. They made do and we got everything but in the circumstances it took ages.

Lovely building and great room but booked a double and got a twin Staf

Felt some of the morning staff werent that switched on with the exception of the girl that served us but others were not as professional

Very nice historic pub in the centre of Saffron Waldron. Room was a bit on the small side but that goes with the character of the pub.

Breakfast was excellent and the staff are outstanding.

Lovely little hotel , very clean and comfortable

Everything was lovely

Renovated rooms in a historic building. You fell like being in a medieval house. The restaurant was nice and the meal / breakfast was good.

The noise from the street is very audible since the windows are nostalgic. That's the only thing to say here.

Room was clean and bed was very comfortable. Generous amount of tea and coffee in the room. Staff were very friendly.

Check in only starts at 4:00. Had to wait 40 min for breakfast to be served on the 2nd morning - seems they lacked staff that day.

location, quality of room

noise from other rooms, noise from staff arriving 7am onwards

Room was superb, very comfortable and the shower was excellent.

Food and drink was pricey £8.55 for a glass of wine is ridiculous....