The Dell House

01684 564448  stay@thedellhouse.co.uk

Groups

The size, layout and mixture of accommodation at the Dell House makes it particularly suitable for a wide variety of gatherings.

We are very happy to discuss how we can best meet your requirements. This could include half or full board catering; taking all or just part of the house, and optional exclusivity so that your group are the only guests at that time.

For example:

Facilities in General

Ground Floor plan

The Dell House has a total of 11 bedrooms; 4 en-suite in the B&B, 1 'overflow' en-suite single, and 6 across three self-catering units, one of which is on the ground floor. There are up to 14 beds and 21 bed spaces (i.e. 2 bed spaces for a double bed).

This can be expanded slightly by use of (1) the sofa bed in the ground floor self-catering apartment lounge, and (2) a folding bed in either of the king bedrooms.

The large dining room and lounge are always available for use by B&B guests. The large gaming / training / TV lounge is available by prior arrangement. Each of the 3 self-catering units provides a kitchen and a lounge.

The two acre garden provides plenty of space for relaxation and quiet or for the more exuberant to play hide & seek in the wooded bits. It's big enough, and has enough separate spaces, for both at the same time. It's not great for "ball games", though lawn games such as croquet can be played on one of the few level lawns. We have a set you can borrow.

There is off-street parking for around 12 cars if carefully parked.

First Floor plan

The Nursery and Butler's Apartments in the wing each have an interconnecting door with the main house, essentially meaning that the whole set (9 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, 4 lounges plus the dining room) can be booked for one group with all rooms accessible from inside.

The important point is that the arrangements are extremely flexible.

Larger Groups

If the group you are thinking of exceeds the size of either the B&B or the self-catering units, then it's time to start talking about a bespoke package that combines the B&B rooms with one or more apartments, probably with some group-wide catering options. We are extraordinarily flexible, but that isn't always helpful if you are looking for set prices for such groups.

If you want free access to the B&B reception rooms but are using a mixture of B&B and self-catering sections of the house then the four B&B rooms must be booked first, only then extending into the self-catering rooms. This is to avoid the complexities of having unrelated guests book the remaining B&B rooms. It is possible, for a fee, to ask for rooms to be kept empty.

It works best if the apartments that are in the main house (either the Nursery and/or the Butler's apartments) are used first as these have connecting doors to the B&B.

Matching the Group to the Bedrooms

We have a total of 11 bedrooms available for guests, plus one sofa bed and one folding bed. Our nominal maximum capacity is 20, however, this relies on efficient filling of double beds, twin rooms etc.

That said, once a booking gets above 16 people, it can start to get a bit cramped in places; especially if you are wanting to all eat together, play boardgames together, or have a plenary session of some kind. Also, exceeding 16 people usually means you'll need the additional Coach House cottage, which tends to step up the cost.

Groups with children

We have no age restrictions. However, we would be unlikely to accept a booking that included a disproportionately high number of, especially younger, children.

For group bookings, children aged 12 or under may not be the sole occupant(s) of a B&B room. (If this is looking necessary, then it's likely you have a disproportionately high number of children in the group).

Groups with dogs

Two of our self-catering units will accommodate dogs, however, the dogs (except assistance dogs) are not allowed into the B&B part of the house at any time, including into the reception rooms where your group may be eating together.

Pricing

It's not practical to give details here but this is generally how the group pricing works.

Our pricing is biased against very short stays. The price for the self-catering units starts at a minimum of a 2-night stay, with only a small charge for additional nights. The rates for the B&B rooms drop rapidly from a one-night to a 3-night stay. The self-catering prices are seasonal, the B&B prices are not.

For small groups you can pretty much work off the prices on this website. For larger groups there will be an additional cost for the work resulting from having 16-20 people use reception rooms that usually accommodate eight. Similarly,if you want to involve non-resident visitors there will be an additional charge.

The greatest impact on pricing is usually what you want to do about catering.

Catering Options

All catering arrangements are by prior arrangement only. Just making it clear we're not a cafe in any sense. Also, we do not accommodate wholly-self-catering bookings that use the B&B reception rooms.

If your group is bigger than 16 then sitting everyone down to eat becomes a bit cramped in the dining room. It is possible for us to add a table to the main lounge (there are large opening doors between the two, so they are almost one room) but this then eats into your lounge space (and table availability if your group activities require them e.g. boardgaming).

By default, the majority of the food we provide is vegetarian (bar the bacon and sausages for the omnivore breakfast). We can easily cater for vegan guests - more so than for someone wanting a steak!

We can cater for gluten-free, dairy-free and similar diets. Diets we cannot provide for are specialities such as Halal and Kosher.

Breakfasts

By default, the pricing assumes serving a cooked breakfast to B&B occupants and guests in the self-catering providing their own breakfast. Alternatively we can provide a non-cooked breakfast for everyone or, if the group is 10 or fewer, a limited-menu cooked breakfast, with pricing adjusted accordingly.

We have found it works best if younger children have a family breakfast in the self-catering units.

Lunches

We can provide a 'bread & cheese' style lunch, with salads, spreads, etc. Options include having a warm flan/quiche as well.

Evening meals in the B&B Dining Room

For groups spread across the B&B and self-catering bedrooms we can facilitate you all eating together in the main dining room, for which there are various options:

Local Pubs & Restaurants

There's one pub in walking distance (15/20 mins) that does standard 'pub grub' and a reasonable pint, and several others a few minutes drive away, plus a selection of restaurants in Malvern that we can recommend.

Tea & Coffee, Cake, Nibbles, More Cake..

There are various options for these if wanted. We can provide tea and coffee facilities in the dining room for ad hoc use. Alternatively we can serve tea/coffee with cake or similar at arranged break times if that suits the sort of activity that you've booked the house for.

What next?

If you're wondering whether your booking would work here, get in touch and we can suggest options. Our email address is at the bottom of the page.