Great Christmas Not!!

[ChrisHunt]

Trip Adviser tells the tale Nigel - obviously one to avoid.

[Buggyman]

Know the feeling only too well. Booked into a 4 star hotel in Cumbria and found that the only 4 star part was the price! The room reserved for disabled patrons had the curtain hanging off the rails and someone had nicked/lost the TV remote. So we complained and - eventually - got another room. Room No2 was not as bad but the bath side had been removed to repair a leak and replaced leaving twisted and ragged screw heads to catch the unwary; the headboard on the bed was in front of the bedside light switches so one had to get out of bed to turn the light on/off.

Thankfully it was only a one night stay. The only redeeming feature for the whole place was that they served up a stonking full cholesterol breakfast complete with fried bread.

Sadly the above is not unique, certainly in our experience we have tried experienced 3 such hotels in the past few years where they list themselves as 'Spa and Country Club' just to keep the prices high with service second-rate or non-existent.

On a positive note; we have been regular customers of Rudding Park Hotel in Harrogate for the past 6 years. The prices are not cheap but the accommodation, food and staff are first rate and we always feel at home when we arrive.

Happy New Year folks.


Allan

[Kevin Farnell]

Trip Adviser tells the tale Nigel - obviously one to avoid.

Out of interest, I took a look at this. After a series of at best mediocre and mainly bad reviews, suddenly one appears giving five stars to everything and write up praise that the proprietors would have difficulty bettering. Hmmm

Kevin

PS sorry Nigel to read that your Christmas was ruined.

[Nigel H-J]

Many thanks for your replies, it is surprising how many do get a raw deal when staying at hotels, if I had known about trip Advisor or any other site that held ratings then and read them before booking I would have given this place a wide berth.

Usually when we do go away it is the Premier Inns that we stop at, the bedrooms are very clean, beds comfy............very comfy and altogether the staff in the hotel are friendly and helpful. The restaurants are not owned by Premier Inn but work alongside them, such names as Thyme, Beefeater Grill and Table Table. The breakfasts are brilliant with plenty of choices and you can eat as much as you like. For an evening meal you can book the meal deals for around £22 per person, that will allow you a choice of starter with your main meal or main meal with pudding. However, the restaurants are very much like the old Bernie Inns (which I enjoyed) and mainly favour grilled foods though there are alternatives such as fish and Salmon Fillet Beef and Cheddar Pie etc..

Next time we go in the summer we will just have B+B then in the evening go out and sample some of the local restaurants.

Regards
Nigel.

[ChrisHunt]

Trip Adviser is useful but it pays to use more than one source (if available), especially if reviews are borderline or seem too good to be true. There's also the issue of people awarding 5 stars for what is pretty average. As a general rule 3 stars should be satisfactory, 4 good and 5 outstanding - trouble is there are far too many 5 star reviews for the ordinary which tends to skew things quite a bit. We have a couple of eateries near us that regularly get 5 stars, which, in reality, struggle to scrape a good - but then again that is purely my opinion and others may think ordinary is outstanding.