Booked DBB here for Valentines, on Friday 14th February, with my partner and we were so excited to stay here after seeing lovely pictures online - especially that the hotel had an outdoor hot tub! However, looking back on our stay there were so many little problems that have overall made our experience really disappointing...
On arrival, we were greeted by a friendly member of staff at reception - didn’t catch his name but a young man - who explained where our room was, what times breakfast was, where the restaurant for our dinner was etc. Answered our questions too. We then went to find our room, parking right outside the block was great, but when walking into the building there were cleaners equipment and bin bags dotted around the halls. We then asked a member of staff to point us in the direction of our room, who took us back down the stairs and told us to head towards the restaurant. We then saw another member of staff go then told us to go back to where we had first went and our room was there so we had to walk back to the other side of the building.
When we got to our room it was a lovely renovated room, massive bed and lovely bathroom! There were Elemis toiletries which was great. We had a plate of chocolates and a card which both said “Happy Birthday” on them which it wasn’t either of our birthdays so this was a bit confusing! I noticed we were given a pencil with no lead in it to use for ticking off on our breakfast menu, so we had to phone reception for a pen. Staff were so nice the full time we were here. Only downfall to the room was that all of our drawers handles were so loose and shaking as if they were going to fall off if you pulled them too hard!!!
We then went to the spa after unpacking, which had lovely changing rooms and a nice big seating area with great views. I was so so so disappointed to see that there was a sign saying that the outdoor hot tub was being refurbished. The hotel never once mentioned this when I booked, nor told me before arrival or on arrival. I think that’s really bad for a hotel to not notify a customer, especially when this is a feature the hotel highlights online and on social media this is what a customer see’s first about the hotel when others post reviews & pictures of this hotel saying there’s an outdoor hot tub!!! Shocking!! Additionally, the steam room was out of service too. I mean... this was a busy evening so many couples? I was not happy.
I’m the evening as we waited for our dinner reservation, the fire alarm went off around 6:50pm. Now, we all evacuated and stood outside the building block however I didn’t see any member of staff at our fire exit to direct customers. When the fire alarm stopped, customers all went back inside. No staff member present at this point once again. After 15 mins, we called reception about something to then be told that all customers should actually be outside the building as the fire brigade hadn’t actually arrived!!! Looked out our window to see about 4 people standing in the pouring rain looking confused. Really badly dealt with.
Our dinner was okay, nothing special, staff were lovely, steak was over cooked. I ordered muscles to start & half of the muscles were closed shut, which I couldn’t then eat...
The highlight of our overnight was actually a member of staff, , that made us forget about all the downfalls. He was so chatty and made sure we had everything we needed at dinner, helped answer questions and checked up on us. He is a credit to your team honestly I would have said the full experience was pretty bad if it wasn’t for him!!!
Overall, I would not be going back with the price I had paid for the food to be so average and no access to the hot tub or steam room - with no prior notification to these being out of service!! Expected big things and this was totally the opposite... Also know a couple who stayed over the following evening and they had a fire alarm in the evening too and had to go outside without any staff members directing people again. less