We booked two nights in an Executive Room between Christmas and New Year via Secret Escapes, with a two course dinner and breakfast for both days. We arrived into a grand old fashioned reception area with an impressive staircase, we were told our room was up stairs and along the corridor. We had a heavy case and there is no lift, no problem, but this could be for others, especially as the hotel is a labyrinth, up, down, around, up, down, around… We entered our room, it was absolutely freezing, we turned the wall heater on but it didn’t seem to work, it had some sort of timer on it that just made an annoying clicking sound, but sadly no heat. There was a mobile oil radiator placed in the room for our use, but it was so cold I went to reception ask for a room change. The duty manager was called, her response was nonchalant as she shrugged, but she showed me another room, the same spec and it was still cold, she commented it was very cold and said she didn’t know why ‘they’ didn’t leave the heaters on, I thought this would have been her job, to direct staff to prep rooms for guests?! When she tried the heater it worked (and didn’t have an annoying clicking timer on it) so I was very grateful and she followed me to our original room as I’d left my husband there. She commented the clicking noise of the heater would drive her mad and acknowledged the cold. She was helpful and carried the portable radiator down to our room and it soon warmed up. The lights in both rooms continuously flickered, like there is an electrical fault, worryingly.
The grounds are beautiful, I’m sure they’d be gorgeous in the summer.
We went for a drink in the bar, it was empty considering it was Saturday. We ordered drinks and found a small ‘snug’ to sit in as all of the tables were set for food, except a large island that was directly in front of the bar. While we sat enjoying our drinks there was a sudden draft and the temperature dropped, we discovered staff had wedged outdoor doors open down the corridor, one on each side of the corridor, for some reason, we left as it became cold and wasn’t nice sat in a cold draught.
We came back to the restaurant for our dinner, there was only one other couple in the restaurant, very odd for a Saturday night. Our starters appeared to share a hot dog shaped brioche roll, my husbands half smothered with creamy mushrooms that reminded him of ‘toast toppers’, my ‘toasted brioche’ with pâté was the other half, sliced and put through a grill that made it taste burnt, though it wasn’t and it was still soft, weird. I didn’t eat the starter, it wasn’t nice. The staff were very young, and trying their best. We ordered fish and triple cooked chips for main, the fish was okay but the chips weren’t triple cooked, more skin on limp potato.
Breakfast, it doesn’t get any better and I feel mean giving the details, luke warm tea/coffee, bacon that you can’t cut but can snap… I’ll stop there.
Dinner, it was Sunday and I’m sorry to say but it was the worst beef dinner we’ve ever had, it wasn’t hot, just warm and tasteless, there was only one potato between a large dinner and a small (£4 extra, not that it affected our bill). We were sat in the conservatory next to the beautiful wall of glass panes, lovely but very dirty windows, inside and out.
On the whole a really disappointing stay, would we come back? No. Would we recommend, no. We definitely had buyers regret.
