Best Hotels near The Peacock at Rowsley Restaurant, Matlock

The following is the copy of an email sent a week ago to Britannia hotels main email address. To date, I have received no response but neither did I expect one. - I'd like to tell you of our experience of staying at the Palace Hotel, Buxton. 13th and 14th September, 2022. On arrival at the hotel one cannot fail to be impressed by this fine old building with fitting décor in the entrance lobby and communal area. Unfortunately, this is where the impressiveness ends. Check in – 3 or 4 stations at the reception desk, only 1 manned. Thankfully we were 2nd in line and on glancing behind us when it was our turn saw about 30 people behind us queuing out of the glass doors and back to the revolving door. No welcome from the receptionist and I was quite surprised that when I asked about using my card for charges to our room for wine etc. was told that you pay as you go. Not quite what you would expect from a 4 star hotel. Booked a table for dinner – we were booking in at 4 pm but the earliest option for a table was 8.30 pm. Our Room – we had booked an executive twin room and whilst the room was spacious it lacked character and was in fact quite sp**** . We understood that there was no room service but assumed this would be for change of towels, little did we know that there would be no emptying of bin or replenishment of tea/coffee/milk and sugar. No guest information folder in the room, which we would expect to find. Dining – dinner. 4 staff ( I won't give them the title of waiter/waitress/hostess as it would be doing a disservice to those who do this role properly) at the desk at the front of the restaurant and given a menu and taken to a table. We were given to understand that meals were buffet style but the comment from the staff member who had taken us to our table who told us it was self service we found her description was more realistic. In actual fact for the help that was given throughout our stay you might as well have trays situated at the front because the service is more akin to a poorly run motorway service station. That again is giving a disservice as there is a far better selection of food on offer there. We asked for wine menu and were told it was in the menu folder, it wasn't. The staff member said she'd get one, took the menu away and neither were seen again. We opted for soup which we had to help ourselves to from an electric soup tureen, after we asked what it was. After one mouthful, found it was lukewarm so took it back to another staff member who took the soup bowls from me saying she'd tell chef. Well, that helped a lot didn't it as neither of these were seen again either! We had to have the pate or salad as these were the only other things on offer as a starter. Back up to the hot cupboards for our main course – on offer, 1 choice of roast - turkey, fish in sauce which looked as though that had been there for the whole of the service time and a sweet potato curry. The only vegetables on offer were roast po

It's so difficult to rate YHA hostels as they are just hostels, not hotels. Saying that, there are certain aspects that should still be excellent regardless of the age of the building or the price of the room. This was our second stay at this youth hostel. The first time, we were given a room on the first floor which was terribly noisy due to people in the bedroom above and the sitting room below. This time, we had a room on the second floor which was much quieter, although the walls between the rooms were very thin. There are several sitting rooms/communal areas plus a cafe/dining room for people who don't want to cook. We had breakfast there on one morning, and the food was very good. The self-catering kitchen/diner isn't really big enough considering how many people can stay here. There are only two sinks, and it was lacking some basic equipment such as a cheese grater when we stayed. Facilities on the second floor were less than adequate. The door on one toilet was broken, leaving only one other toilet, which had a door that was difficult to close. There was also only one shower left after someone got stuck in the second shower due to a faulty lock, and had to be rescued on our last day. Overall, this is a beautiful youth hostel in a lovely area, but not very well maintained as seems to be the case with a lot of YHA hostels, sadly.

I came to stay at your hotel because my mother is sick in a nearby hospital. All I needed was a quiet place to sleep. When I arrived the reception staff couldn’t find my booking. The key card barely worked, having to be swiped at least 10 times to get into the room. The room clearly hadn’t been decorated since the 90s, which meant it lacked modern convinces like a plug socket near the bed to charge my phone, or more importantly air con. I had stupidly assumed being in the 21st century and charging not a small amount of money for the night, these would at least be standard. During the middle of this heatwave it was positively uncomfortable. I think I would have struggled to sleep just with that, but the noise made it pretty impossible. The hotel backs into a major road, as many do. But I have never stayed in one before where it sounded like I was sitting in the middle of the road. It was so load that despite the terrible heat I ended up closing the window. Not that easy as the window handle was missing! This unfortunately didn’t really make it any quieter. When the sleepless night was over I went for a shower to try and revive myself, but the water pressure was so low it was not exactly refreshing. All in all the place needs pulling down and starting again.

I had an excellent stay at this hotel. The location is right in the centre of Cromford. The food is really good and served in generous portions. As soon as you enter the hotel you cannot help being charmed. The rooms are, what I consider, classic British style. The beds are incredibly soft and well made up. This is really good after a whole day of hiking. The hotel was a guest house in the 1800’s so has a historic feel to it. Which I love. In one word: perfect.