Oh dear it just makes 3 star and only because of the evening meal experiences.
We arrived for four nights, pre booked and pre paid as two by two, as the way we did it got us two evening meals in four nights. The evening meals were excellent and all the serving staff were very welcoming and couldn't do enough to help.
It struck us that if this place is managed (a big if) then it's invisible and ineffective management and that cascades detrimentally everywhere and it shows.
So to the evening 4/5 star food. Darn great quality salmon starters and Ras el hanout chicken salad starters. A bottle of wine averaged £25 and pints of beer/cider £5.
First evening meal I had the Ras then sirloin steak served with chips, a delightful dressed salad and what else but Colman's the worlds greatest English mustard.
My wife opted for the smoked salmon and a half chicken main.
Night two - menu didn't change - they had no chicken left and the curry main wasn't available (7pm Saturday night) so it was two excellent salmon starters and two great flavour steaks. Their pepper sauce (£2.5 extra) was very good.
The dessert of rhubarb and apple crumble with great ice cream was divine and 5 star - Great British menu stuff.
Breakfast was pretty grim 1/2star but at least the sausages and bacon were great quality. We asked on our first morning for scrambled egg to learn there was just one chef who may or may not bother depending on how busy he was.
Now that's a first in over 50 years staying in hotels. Sorry mate but customers make paydays. He did make scrambled eggs albeit badly. In fact his scrambled eggs on the plate looked like they'd already been eaten once before and were poor tasting.
Staff couldn't cope at breakfast most days and things that should never run out were unavailable including eggs - I mean eggs - we were on a cruise ship for over fortnight and they didn't run out out of anything.
They also ran out of pancakes and note they ran out of chicken and curry early Saturday evening.
Guests had to wait for cups for the awful coffee. It got so bad that paper cups appeared.
The Nescafé machine coffees were zero star rancid. I'd suggest that Nestle should be evicted as the coffees were foul. The hotel has no espresso machine either in 21st century Britain. Seriously?
There was no cold meat selection at breakfast and the croissants very poor zero star quality indeed but even they ran out so guests had to be desperate to eat that rubbish.
It's all ineffective senior management.
The morning grilled tomatoes were never grilled; now they may have been put into a grill that wasn't switched on but that doesn't count. Grilling would have helped the flavour chef I mean nature has provided delicious raw material so it's the least you can do? No? It's why you grill tomatoes.
The baked beans had congealed in their water bath and the mushrooms boiled to much but at least the toaster worked very well indeed. I toasted an English muffin but had no egg to put on it nor any hollandaise sauce so I reverted to the cheap marmalade.
The worst of it was that in 4 days our room was only made up badly once on day 3 despite our leaving a make up our room note on the door.
At one point I went to reception to ask to be told it happened automatically and I do think the receptionist genuinely believed it.
The bin wasn't completely emptied. Used glasses remained in the room, the bed was left unmade over our entire stay but the quilt had been given a shake. Y theft knew what left we were glad we didn't have to sleep in the same sheets and I cleaned floor for a 5th night.
Those supposedly servicing the room all seemed young, likely poorly paid, certainly untrained and ineptly managed, if managed at all.
Despite all this we were happy as the deal was good. We would return but we'd look for similar priced alternatives on the basis they'd hardly be as bad.
Only those who own this place can make the genuine changes needed. It may need some more money to help it but the real overarching problem is lousy senior management - it is ever thus. read more