In February 2014, Scotia said:
This hotel totally deserves its 4 star award and even comes close to 5 star facilities in many areas.
The hotel was kept in an immaculate condition and we found its décor to be maintained to the highest standards, and even exceeded our expectations. The rooms are very large and well appointed. The only improvement that I felt could be made would be to include a fridge in ‘every’ room, rather than just offering one by request. The hotel is set in large attractive grounds and benefits from a number of outdoor terraces that must be a delight to use in the warmer months. There is a spa facility and hairdressers (both of which we felt was a bit pricey) and a lovely swimming pool.
Our room’s double bed was a magnificently comfortable super-king size and the bed linen was replaced every day of our 3 night stay, so we got to enjoy that ‘fresh bed’ experience every night. We also found the bathroom towels equally wonderful, all white and fluffy and they were replaced every day too - without asking. The bathroom provided a good selection of quality toiletries including shower cap etc and the shower (over bath) with glass screen was modern - if a little fiddly when we tried working out how to divert the water flow from bath to shower function.
The room came equipped with the usual furniture one would expect, with its wardrobe providing more than adequate coat hangers, a hair dryer and a 28” flat screen TV showing Freeview channels, including radio - but unusually, no pay to view movie option. It was nice to have FREE wifi in all of the rooms for a change instead of just the foyer, and we also found the signal to be very good and reliable. We were lucy enough to got a (low season) free upgrade to a room overlooking the gardens which meant that we had a balcony too with table and chairs. Free parking is in abundance, so there were no issues or problems finding anywhere to park our hire car.
We found that most of the staff are younger eastern Europeans, but they were ALL very professional with a friendly warmth and confidence befitting this type of establishment. They were all extremely polite, courteous and attentive. We even found the service/maintenance staff always gave you a pleasant greeting and acknowledgement in the corridors too.
We cannot begin to praise the standard of buffet breakfast at this hotel high enough. It is beyond belief and probably the largest selection of hot/continental and ‘other’ I have ever encountered. It offered the best quality of ingredients and produce that I have ever experienced and actually goes beyond what is already laid out before you. It will leave you salivating. There is also an additional printed breakfast menu with a ‘made to order’ selection too - offering all the quirky less popular bits like kippers, pancakes etc - the choice overall just goes on and on. We were lucky enough to have breakfast included in our room rate, but it costs £13.95 per person otherwise.
The hotel is set a bit out of town and while it may not look far to walk (as the crow flies) it feels a long way ‘uphill’ to the half way point - and then it goes even steeper downhill again leading into town. Bear in mind that the pavements are narrow and you walk along a very busy road. It is not suited for the unfit or elderly and took us as a 50+ unfit couple about 40 minutes. You can take a bus instead however, which for non residents cost £2.00 one way, or you can get a day ticket for about £4.50. We used the taxi a few times and the cost each way in and out of town ranged from £7 to £9.00 one way.
Some earlier reviews make reference to the “Dog House Pub” conveniently located just up the road from the hotel. It is a clean, well managed pub but most people fail to mention that as a live band venue, it’s really geared up to the under 35’s and they didn’t even have any Bitter on tap when we paid a brief visit.
We had a great time at this hotel and the only ‘blip’ we experienced occurred on our last evening when the hotel hosted a boxing dinner. This meant that residents weren’t allowed to access the full bar area and we had to make do with a smaller restricted part that was divided off for the early part of the evening. The thing was, we then also had the boxing teams ‘entourage’ put in with us, to separate them from the ‘black tie’ event guests.
The event was hosted in the main dining room which also meant that we had to use another of the restaurants for breakfast on 2 of the mornings. Anyway, we had planned to eat in and ordered a bar meal from the ‘restricted’ bar and the service started off wonderfully, but as the boxing guests started to arrive, their presence took priority over the residents. This became a nuisance when we and others tried to get served at the bar and later when it came to clearing up everyone’s dinner plates. It left us and other diners resorting to clearing up our own crockery and cutlery and depositing it on the bar so that we could have some space on our tables, and we were disappointed to see the (busy) waitress deliver more meals, but walk back to the kitchen with an empty tray past all of the empty plates without any attempt to clear the bar or tables. It let the hotel down I’m afraid as did the lengthy wait at the bat to get served, until the event got under way and the staff had time to serve the resident guests. The bar food was nice, but you won't put on any weight when it comes to the portion sizes unfortunately. After the dividers were removed and we had access to the full bar again, we then had to be witness to some warm up sparring with a boxer and trainer - fine if you like boxing, but not really the right place or time for that sort of thing I'm afraid!
A note on the bar area; Why do we have to constantly endure large TV screens everywhere, how about some subdued background music, dim the lights and create a nice ambience for a change?
So in conclusion we’d highly recommend this hotel but check if there are any events on first, I’d hate to think what the service would be like if there was a wedding on - but apart from that, it gets full marks. Now the bit the hotel doesn’t like, it cost us £238.00 for 3 nights which was made up of one couple paying for 2 nights and getting the 3rd free, with breakfast included.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk