Macdonald Old England Hotel & Spa

We used this hotel for 3 nights B&B as a base for seeing family nearby and for that it was fine. Fabulous location lakeside in the centre of the village. We got nights 3 for the price of 2 offer but at full price it wouldn't be good value. Staff generally pleasant and helpful. But it needs some upgrades and general tweaking to make it any where near a luxury property. Check-in: we knew in advance that there is a charge of a whopping £25 per night for parking but what they don't say is that the car park isn't on site, although it's only a short walk. You have to unload your bags and leave them in the lobby while you drive to the car park, and in reverse on check-out. There was a coach party there so less pressure on the car park, don't know if it would be large enough if all residents had cars. Room: we had a "standard king" which was huge but poorly lit and generally drab, with a TV which was far too small for the size of room; the bathroom was very nice with both a full-size tub and separate shower. No air con and only small windows, a fan was provided but the room remained surprisingly hot despite the weather being only average. A little more attention to housekeeping would have helped (two mismatched bulbs in the main overhead light, and a broken hook on the back of the bathroom door). Food: we only used the restaurant for breakfast; the hot menu was only adequate, with no fish options such as kippers or haddock and there was a supplement for eggs benedict and eggs royale; the cold buffet was very basic; the restaurant itself overlooks the garden, with the lake beyond, but some of the window frames were in poor condition; we had sandwiches in the bar for lunch one day which were fine but took ages to arrive although there were very few other customers. General ambience: an old building on a "difficult" site and our room was in a newer wing, so lots of corridors and odd corners, but the older corridors upstairs were oppressively gloomy and the newer parts were lighter but also drab; the large lounge bar had an atmosphere of faded gentility and there were some public spaces which seemed to serve no useful purpose - a large seating area outside the restaurant, a small lounge between the lobby and the main lounge, a "Library" without a single book (probably mostly used as a meeting room) and a small "Residents' Lounge" which had a bar counter but no stocked bar, because no residents would have wanted to use it. Overall, if the price is right, it's a perfectly adequate base, but don't expect 5 star luxury or even 4 star. Given its great location, some capital investment and better attention to detail could make it fabulous.

Location Views Decoration Pool Breakfast Garden

That there was no air-conditioning

The property decor is a little tired looking, the room was big, the staff were amazing. The balcony view sold it for us.

The breakfast were poor, looked like shop bought produce rather than locally sourced, and to be ask to pay for eggs in a different way was insulting.

Breakfast was nice

Great location and some of the staff were lovely, some were not so

Property needs a refresh decoration throughout…. Quite tired in lots of places