It was fine.
The staff, the building and value for money allow this review to be four stars. We visited just before Christmas. And it was just fine. A pleasant stay.
For what we paid it was value for money. Room was a four poster, a little tired, but fine. Lovely sweet touch with petals on the bed and a hand written card. Food was overall tasty. And the staff were lovely! Castle, it’s history and the location was fab!
A few recommendations would go to the hotel management:
A beautiful historical restaurant for our evening meal, a lovely atmosphere spoilt by a tv showing Emmerdale and Coronation Street, subtitles on but also the sound!!! Hearing the opening and closing theme tunes whilst eating what was meant to a romantic meal, was amusing at first but also disappointing and did not suit the setting we were in, it cheapened the experience. The volume off and nice music in background would’ve been perfect. It does sound like a stupid complaint but really, such an easy thing to change that’d make a big difference (I did ask, nothing happened). Ironically the next morning, for breakfast which was served in the same amazing place, the tv was on again, this time gmtv, but there was also Christmas music coming from a speaker. Sitting directly under the tv, I asked for the tv to be off. Thankfully it was. It was lovely.
Finally, we had booked a winter warmer deal. When we sat down for our evening meal we were presented with a winter warmer set menu- main and dessert. We had no idea of this menu and had been looking forward to a starter and main from the menu that is on the website, in our room and outside the hotel’s front door. I asked three times if we had to have this menu. To be told yes. Finally I told the lovely young waitress that we were prepared to pay extra, did not want a dessert (or a winter warmer burger) and could this please happen. She came back to say that her manager had agreed this was ok. We were prepared to spend more money but we’re initially not allowed. In other hotels we’ve stayed at it is common practice to give a set amount to be spent within a deal price. Give the set menu a certain price and if guests wish to go off menu they can. I was surprised that this wasn’t used, at it gives the hotel more opportunity to make revenue. (I’d also add that the £9 glass of white wine served to me when we first arrived was not chilled and not a quality wine you expect for £9! Staff were lovely and I didn’t want to upset by making an issue at that point. It was fine. )
Overall, a nice stay! Thank you to the staff and the Castle itself for making it so! less