Other UK Bapchild
Hempstead House Hotel & Restaurant
Independent pet-friendly review by Four Legged Guests · updated August 2026 · paw rating built from 4 verified guest reviews mentioning pets
Bring your dog if
- You're happy with a standard hotel-room stay where the property explicitly welcomes dogs
- You're basing yourself in Bapchild / the Other UK and want a pet-friendly anchor for day trips
- The wider guest experience is strong - guests rate this 9.0/10 overall on booking platforms
Worth knowing
- Paw rating is based on 4 reviews - limited sample, treat as directional
- Pet limits: Dogs of any size are accepted - research-verified; the fee isn't published, so confirm the charge when you book
- Shared corridors and common areas mean nervous or vocal dogs may find it harder to settle
How this review was built Evidence, sources, refresh cadence
- Evidence: 4 pet-mention guest reviews sourced from major booking platforms - guests who explicitly mentioned travelling with a dog. Each review is screened for pet-relevance, then judged for sentiment to compute the paw rating.
- Not a personal visit. We don't stay at every hotel we cover - we summarise patterns from real guest reviews, paraphrased and never quoted verbatim. Full standard on our editorial policy page.
- Wider context: The property has 879 guest reviews overall across booking platforms, averaging 9.0/10 - the paw rating reflects only the pet-mentioning subset.
- Last refreshed: August 2026. Policies and pricing drift; we re-check on a rolling basis. Confirm specifics with the property at the moment you book.
- How the paw rating works: Full detail on the methodology page, including the three verification gates and known limitations.
Pet policy at a glance
- Dogs of any size are accepted.
Pet-friendly summary
Hempstead House is a country house hotel on the London Road at Bapchild, just outside Sittingbourne, set in its own gardens with an outdoor pool and a spa. It is a fair bit grander than the average dog-friendly stopover in this part of Kent, and the thing dog owners tend to notice is that being allowed to bring a dog does not mean being quietly shuffled to the edges.
Dogs stay in the bedrooms and there is no size limit, so larger breeds are as welcome as small ones. The detail that comes up most is dining: guests travelling with a dog have been given the snug, a small separate room off the main restaurant, so the dog could sit with them through dinner rather than being left upstairs. For a hotel with a formal restaurant and a spa, that is a more thoughtful arrangement than most manage.
The house is old and laid out over several floors, so there are stairs to negotiate and no way around them, which is worth thinking about with an elderly dog or a heavy one. Reception comes in for praise on flexibility, including early check-ins arranged on the day. Breakfast is the weak spot in guest feedback rather than anything pet-related, with more than one visitor unimpressed by the cooked options, and the evening menu is on the short side.
The gardens are the strongest card for anyone with a dog. Guests consistently describe the grounds as peaceful and easy to wander, and several rooms look straight out over them, so the last walk of the night never involves leaving the property. Hempstead House earns a 4.4/5 paw rating, and it suits dog owners who want a spa-and-gardens weekend in Kent without leaving the dog behind, as long as a few flights of stairs are not a problem.
Highlights from pet-mentioning reviews
What reviewers travelling with dogs consistently noted about staying here.
- Dogs of any size accepted
- Snug set aside for dining with dogs
- Peaceful gardens to walk before dinner
- Stairs throughout the old house
- Spa and pool in the grounds
About this hotel
Hempstead House is a four-star country house hotel on the London Road at Bapchild, a village just outside Sittingbourne in Kent. The house sits in its own gardens and has an outdoor pool, a spa and a restaurant, with rooms spread across several floors of the original building.
Hotel facts
Photos
Location
London Rd, Bapchild, Bapchild, ME9 9PP