I recently stayed at the White Horse with my Husband, our two young children (4 and 8 months) and my very fussy mother visiting from Australia. We had two interconnecting rooms in the new building towards the rear of the hotel. The rooms are fabulous and spacious with very comfortable large beds and lovely linen. I had the best shower ever (in the UK) and my Mum loved the bath (with candles). The interior design is modern and comfortable. Wide screen wall mounted TVs with an extensive DVD library adding to the luxury. The rooms were spotless.

Staff were friendly and helpful including taking, heating and returning baby food on our arrival. Plenty of space in rooms for cot and ready bed. They also have a lovely lounge area for guests separate from the main building which had been recently decorated with sofas, two wide screen TV's, pool table , papers and mags, on tap coffee (from an impressive machine) tea, a courtesy bar and a loo. A great place for me to hang out with the kids between sight seeing in the village.

Pickering itself is an interesting town with lots of character and interesting shops. The castle (walking distance from the White Swan) is worth a visit as is the sight of Steam Engine starting up and moving off at the train station.

On the food front all was delicious. We enjoyed an excellent dinner of pizza and gelato (home made) in the pizza place next door. Breakfast was excellent and extensive and well worth taking the complementary paper to read to prolong the experience. Lunch of fish, real chips and real mushy peas was lovely. We also enjoyed an afternoon coffee in the snug.

Children were welcome and out two seems to enjoy the stay (slept well and were well behaved).

My mother could find nothing to complain about (which is unusual) and we all thoroughly enjoyed our short stay and would definitely return for a few days next time.

Small rooms in need of refurbishment in the main building or better rooms outside next to the car park, but getting soaked on the precarious walk to the main building for breakfast; all rooms at a high price but towels, toiletries and contents of the hospitality tray never replaced; poor breakfasts in a crowded dining room with too few staff; top restaurant prices for average dinners served on cheap tables without tablecloths whilst sitting on hard kitchen type wooden chairs; indifferent staff; noisy street keeping you awake; a proprietor who is apparently never in the hotel to hear customer complaints; etc etc. If that is what you want, stay here. If not, don't go within a mile of the place.

As we drove across the empty moors having been sent that way by a sat nav with a sense of humour we began to relax into the rural life. It was to be a welcome break from our increasingly frantic life in Newcastle-upon-TYne -the party city.
The market town of Pickering looked perfect as we drove in. The ducks and ducklings swimming down the gentle river, the flowers in full bloom, the Yorkshire stonebuilt houses resplendent in the summer sun.
As we were shown to our room in the main building we could hear the gentle voices of the local traders packing up for the night and vacating the market place upon which the hotel stands.
Our room was a little tatty, in need of a good lick of paint and the tightening of the odd screw to make the doors on the cabinet look level. We did reflect on the price of our superior room, consider it too expensive and worry about those who must be in the standard accommodation.
The rest of the hotel main building like our room would have been grateful for a revamp.
Still the beer was good, the staff friendly and the village appeared peaceful. All was well.
We ate dinner in a side room as the restaurant had been confiscated for a wedding. It was cramped but we overlooked that. The food whilst above average for a pub was nothing special. Indeed my langoustine looked painfully thin and the meat from the shell was hardly worth the effort. We overlooked that. We even overlooked the complete failure to actually bring a glass of sweet wine that I had ordered.
And so we retired to bed. The irritations in the service and quality of the room were nothing compared with the utterly appalling experience of having a room which overlooked Pickering Village at night. This town would make the centre of our home city centre look tame. The antics of the customers of the local licenced premises was disgraceful. Having been a criminal lawyer for nearly 20 years there is little that shocks me but the language used, largely by Yorkshire young ladies was the worst I have ever heard. Most of the requests made of the Yorkshire boys were illegal and certainly immoral. Other terminology used was that usually only heard in an anatomy lesson or witness box. Every public order offence I am aware of seemed to have been committed. Pickering is loud and violent. Revolting. Pickering town centre that night. A disgrace - nothing less.
After a really rather good breakfast we were glad to leave the White Swan.
So an ok pub with shabby but ok rooms and reasonable food (but very good breakfasts). We could have overlooked all the inadequacies if we could have been able to sleep. As it was we were glad to get back to our North East home.
If you want a rural town in James Herriott mode steer clear of PIckering on a Friday Night. And Pickering - if you want normal human beings to frequent your town - do something before it is too late.
It is a shame but we won't go back to the White Swan.

We had a lovely 3 day stay at this hotel. We stayed in the new rooms which are nicely furnished with an excellent shower and large tub. Can't complain about the rooms.

We had 2 evening meals in the restuarant and 3 breakfasts. The main issue was that the standard of catering was a bit inconsistent. Having ordered the same starter and dessert on 2 nights the presentation was different on both nights. The breakfasts were ok but don't order any eggs, they were always overcooked. One order of boiled eggs and soldiers turned into soldiers with an almost hard cooked egg! One morning, there was no milk for the coffee as the milkman had not turned up...this is not acceptable at the prices charged...and not an acceptable thing to do to a customer that relies on their morning coffee!

Overall the staff however were very friendly but you could tell the difference depending on which shift appeared to be on. Some staff were very efficient and professional but others seemed flustered and inexperienced. The hotel has great potential but needs to work on consistency in both their food service and the service of the staff.