Down Hall Hotel, Spa & Estate

corporate hotel set for functions and groups

On arrival lack of staff to check in and long queue of corporate guests waiting for coats.
No information given about hotel or location of dinning etc not even info in rooms.
The room was excellent, large and clean. top marks for room.
We eventually found the dinning room, carried owns drinks from bar and were given wrong menus.
Steak was tough but wiped from bill. some staff not trained. Most items had supplement costs.
Lights were turned almost out whilst sitting in bar at 10.45, Obviously time for bed, rude. Informed to go to reception if you want to order a drink. Breakfast, we returned to restaurant, but not informed breakfast in another room. Had to ask reception. All self service, no white cups only dark coloured mugs, more cafe,, very corporate. Drinks are from a self serve machine like wetherspoons, No service at all and not what you would expect in a 4 star hotel.

Be aware if booking one of the

Firstly the positives: It is a beautiful old building and our room was better than we expected, and the view from the window was lovely. The room and the communal areas were all very clean.
The food was excellent, couldn't fault it and for the most part, the staff were very helpful and friendly.

Now the negatives: We took up their offer of 2 nights with inclusive 3 course dinner and breakfast at a cost of just under 400. Their site says "some items (on the menu) incur a surcharge", what it should say is "most items incur a surcharge". Only 3 of the 6 starters were "inclusive" and the same applied to the main course, and that was only for the "main dish" itself. Whether there was a surcharge or not, if you wanted for example the Salmon, that is what you you wanted a small dish of vegetables that was 6 extra, and if you wanted a small dish of potato, that was an extra 6.50. A medium sized bottle of water was 5.50 and even the "nibbles" they offer you whilst waiting for your starter were 5 or 6. If you shared a dish of veg and potato, shared a bottle of water and some nibbles, your "inclusive" meal would cost you an extra 23 (for two).... more if you didn't share the extras and even more if you chose a meal with a surcharge (For example Beef @ 10 extra each) ....Plus a 10% service charge. The "offer" is very misleading, because the "inclusive" dinner wasn't very inclusive.

That was by far the biggest let down. Other issues included a stone cold room on arrival and only lukewarm water (that was soon resolved though).
We decided to have an evening drink in a lovely large room with a beautiful fireplace. It was cold so we asked if the fire could be lit and although the staff tried, they were unable to do so as they'd "run out of kindling". My partner chose a Pina tasted great but the four large ice cubes reduced the amount of actual drink in the glass and at 14.50 we expected better.

Finally, on the second morning we didn't get down to breakfast until 09.15 (open until 10.00). Most of the fresh fruit had gone and wasn't replenished, and the "hot" food was only just warm. I should add that the hotel was not very busy during our stay.

A beautiful place but the experience could have been so much better.

Not as good as it should be

On arrival, checked in, asked about use of wet spa was told that only one time was available for one person and it was in 10 minutes time. So was unable to use the lovely wet spa. Was never informed that we had to book well in advance. Decided to have a coffee outside, which we ordered from the waitress. Outside had to locate cushions for the seats myself, in a storage box.. 20 minutes later our coffee had not arrived, I then went inside to order a jug of water, was told to order from a waiter outside. I did this. When our coffee eventually arrived I asked for sugar, the waiter went to get it, never to be seen again so my wife went inside to get it herself. We finished our coffee our jug of water finally arrived. In all this time I was asked 3 times how I would be paying.. For a 4 star hotel this customer service was very very poor and below standard. Your staff were not helpful or apologetic in any way. This ruined the rest of our stay as we were put into such a negative state of mind.