When we arrived the barrier was down. We had to do that awkward thing of move the car over as far as you can and then stretch to reach the button to contact staff. Unfortunately the staff member who answered the gate intercom was a little hard to understand and she cut us off rather abruptly with the gate still remaining down. We pressed again and the gate allowed access.
We checked in and I advised that I had already paid online via paypal. The staff advised that any payment was not an actual payment rather a hold - I would still need to pay again. If you use paypal you will know it takes several days to show on your account so I could neither prove nor disprove their claims.
We got to our room and were pleased to be in an annexe as there was a wedding going on. Nice room size etc kettle, coffee machine, mugs, tea and biscuits. I checked in the bathroom for glasses and there were none available - I would assume that a hotel charging over £100 per night would at least supply plastic cups or proper glasses to drink water from. There was plenty of storage available and a decent hairdryer.
The shower was nice - however the glass door was not long enough to prevent significant amounts of water hitting the floor - the bath mat was sodden. The shower tray and grout work as well as an area near the radiator had mould/blackening to it. There was also a random hole in the ceiling - possibly an old leak?
The food was great although it took a while to arrive. I did ask for mild peppercorn sauce and no mushrooms - my food arrived with mushrooms and no peppercorn sauce. We left the restaurant believing that the meal would be added to the room - a member of staff followed us out advised that many people may have sat at the table and they needed a room number (this was given when we arrived at the restaurant) and could we pay now?!; perhaps they need a better booking/checking system in place?
We then went through to the bar there were several tables which had been left with glasses on them. They were only removed when we sat at one of these tables, the table remained unwiped.
The two staff on didn't come over to see if we wanted more drinks and didn't interact with other people who were hovering also intending to purchase drinks. I eventually took my chair and sat in front of the bar waiting for the staff to return from a patrol; neither asked if they could help so I shouted over. I believe this is indicative more of a lack of training in customer service than rudeness.
Children from the wedding were becoming a nuisance by this point and were pretty much unchallenged by staff. They were running in and out, up and down stairs taking milk from the fridges and leaving plastic rings on the floor. They made enough noise to be heard on at least the first floor as the fire doors were help open by magnets.
In our room we hoped for peace and quiet only to be left disappointed by music echoing over from the wedding - this finished just before midnight. The bed was comfortable and we slept well.
The gym was lovely and quiet at 8am although the sauna hadn't quite heated up when we headed in there around 8.40ish.
Breakfast was mostly tasty - the black pudding lacked any flavour - the scrambled eggs and hash browns were great. The tea was the wrong colour and tasted like very cheap teabags. There were bits of chips on the floor from the food service the night before.
Very Good
46 Reviews