Slieve Donard

We were not aware that 70% of hotel was closed for renovations. We were disturbed by builders drills at 8.00am Breakfast was in temporary restaurant and was cold on both mornings No atmosphere felt like camping in a building site

Only problem room too warm. Percy French food was lovely. Spa was good too. Staff pleasant and very helpful

A magical stay in a beautiful setting in a welcoming town. All staff extremely helpful and friendly.

Ask for a room that has not been painted dark green walls and navy colour ceiling. Ring ahead to ensure your booking can be accommodated.

We have stayed in this hotel a number of times before the multi million pound makeover by Lawn and Marine . The bedroom was very disappointing with dark green walls and a black ceiling. Not very welcoming. The lighting was very poor indeed and difficult to navigate one’s way around . Despite paying for a double room we only had one chair but we also had a partially blocked sink ! The fuse box although located near the ceiling was left open. On a more positive note we used both the main dining room and Percy French on the second night. We agreed that the standard of food and presentation was first class. Level of service in both restaurants and the main bar area was excellent. We used the pool on both days and no complaints.

Lovely hotel but left disappointed. Loud music from bar outside restaurant, made us move to drawing room only to find piped music there & another live band playing down the corridor. Retired to our room to get some peace & quiet. Such a pity as lots of areas to sit & relax but not with the loud music. Room was not cleaned until 16:30pm despite leaving the room on 4 occasions between 1 & 3.5 hrs duration. Only done when spoke with staff member. Found dirty sock from previous guest beside bed, left a note for cleaner to remove it but the removed the note & not the sock. Comfortable room in beautiful location but left disappointed.

Newcastle and Mourne Mountains is probably the most underrated part of the Island of Ireland , I have stayed many times for work and pleasure in Slieve Donard hotel and one of my favourite hotels . I do feel though that new owners have made changes which were unnecessary changing much of the old worldliness of the hotel which made it so popular . The dark green room colours are very dark and not in any way warm , equally the beautiful breakfast room has been revamped to an urban feel which isn’t fitting for this long standing seaside location , the bench’s on the main lawn have become disheveled and damaged which I never saw over the years previously, a lot of the local staff are gone replaced by east Europeans which also takes from the traditional Slieve Donard experience. Still a fine hotel but slipping a bit from Hastings Hotels personal touch .

Sorry for long review, but feel important to detail the extensive issues we had. Arrived around 4pm, pleasantly upgraded on check in. Beautiful lobby and entrance, nice cosy bar area. Loved the snooker room & little nooks. Came out of lift on 4th floor, greated by walls with holes in them, dirty carpet & walls, certainly didn't look recently refurbished. Thought maybe just house keeping hadn't got hallways etc hoovered etc yet & damages happen! Unfortunetly as our time went on, it became clear the standard of cleaning & the refurb left alot to be desired for a 5* hotel. Cleaning: Room 408, noted as soon as walked in, room was dirty and dusty. Quickly by just looking around noted: - dirty walls - dirty, ripped bedding - sticky, stained dressing table - alot of dust & cobwebs around bed & walls - sharp broken & dirty bedside table - thick thick dust built up on radiators - sticky & dirty window ledges - dirty shower (previous stayers shower gel etc) - brown lumps & splats of 'stuff' on wall at toilet & floor - **********s etc all over floor and dust - stained toilet seat Rang to reception to air our concerns about the state of the room as did not feel comfortable staying in room as is. A lovely concierge came up, apologised & brought us to another room on the corridor, to move us to a new room. He offered for us to look at the new room with him & promised this is not the standard at the slieve. We went round to the other room, although not just as bad, still had: - dirty bedsheets with orange stains and rips on edge of pillow case - hairs all over top of duvet - brown stuff at bottom of toilet (not flushed properly) - walls extremely dirty - mirror covered in splats - door handles dirty The poor concierge was mortified understandably, was very apologetic & advised he has never had this happen. He offered us to come downstairs to speak with the manager, but at this point, 2 rooms being of an extremely poor standard, I wasn't keen to stay, where cleanliness was clearly not a priority. We went back to our room to think about what to do. A cleaning surprivisor soon arrived to look at and wanted evidence of the issues we had raised in the room, showed her around, initially apologising, then as she went round, stated she was appalled at how 'disgusting' areas of the room where, and even pointed out more we hadn't seen. The duty manager then arrived & we where again asked to detail all the issues (not really sure why we had to do this for a 4th time, when the supervisor who had just left, had documented it all & taken extensive photos and videos, so that it could be followed up on & shared with management) this felt very awkward. At this point, what was due to be a relaxing spa break, was just turning into a stressful mess & I wanted to just leave as felt going in circles, manager offered us that if we where able to vacate room 408 temporarily, they would get a team in, to deep clean & then allow us to come back in. We thought right give them a

Great hotel all around can’t say anything about it that’s never