This old country house is a wonderful setting for a hotel and spa, however it is sadly let down by poor management, terrible service standards, and a total lack of investment in maintaining the facility. Our weekend there was a catalogue of issues from the very start, to the point we simply had to laugh as we wondered what would happen next. Here are some of the more notable issues: 1. A focus from staff purely on the events side of things - the house was hosting a wedding and numerous private functions the weekend we were there. This resulted in general over crowding (over 30 minutes to get our key at check in!), and a lack of service at hotel facilities (a 15 minute wait at the bar for anyone to even notice I was there waiting to be served). 2. A truly appalling room service experience. We ordered breakfast to our room so we could avoid the over crowded restaurant (a member of staff told us they were expecting 200+ people at breakfast, where a comfortable capacity would be 100 tops). When our delivery slot was missed it took 3 phone calls before anything arrived, and when it did the order was totally wrong. The first trolley to arrive featured only cold toast and a jug of Earl grey, neither of which we ordered. We got our cooked breakfast 25 minutes later but without the coffee or poached eggs we ordered. A third trolley arrived just before noon (two hours after the delivery slot) featuring coffee and a plate of poached eggs on their own! It really made us wonder what state the staff in the kitchen must have been in that morning. 3. The water to the entire hotel was cut off for around two hours on the Saturday morning. I considered not including this in the review as it may have been the fault of the water company, however whatever the cause it was handled dreadfully by staff. There was no proactive communication to guests, I had to phone reception to find out if it was a widespread issue and when the ETA for service to be restored was. I got no useful information at all, just a promise of some bottled water…. which never arrived. 4. There has been a real lack of investment in the hotel. I don’t necessarily expect a modern hotel when I stay at a country house, but some basic care from the hotel would have been nice. On one of the hottest weekends of the year in a hotel with air-con the room was really uncomfortable, with no sign of even a fan to help the situation. We found a snooker room which was a great respite from the over crowded bar, but despite having two snooker tables, there were only 3 pool cues - all of which were broken. Even the dodgiest of local boozers would have been embarrassed to have these cues! 5. A quick word on the dinner in the main restaurant, which was superb quality both nights we were there. However the restaurant was again let down by the staff. There was no single member of staff assigned to a table, with instead a number of service staff who just seemed to float between tables. As a result, basic requ
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