Swinton Park Hotel

A very enjoyable 70th birthday treat

Lovely entrance and greeting form the receptionists and Porter. Room not ready but enjoyed a welcome drink in the drawing room whilst waiting. Room large with a large well equipped bathroom with quality towels and dressing gowns and lovely products. Television fairly small and couldn t get view TV - only Firestick available. Spa was a fantastic experience - with lots of different areas. The garden walk was a disappointment - probably not the best time to offer this activity as there was nothing much to see. The walks in the grounds were really extensive and very enjoyable. The maps were extremely useful.

Shortened stay at Swinton Park

Booked this break as a Birthday present for my wife. My mother died the night before we were due to go. I asked Offpeakluxury breaks if we could cancel and go another time but they were only willing to change by a few days - the offer expired at the end of the month and it was in the Terms and Conditions, no compassion! We went for one day and thoroughly enjoyed the hotel. The hotel is superb and we will go again, but I will never use Offpeakluxury breaks again. That is in my Terms and Conditions!

Troubles in paradise

The 20,000-plus acre Swinton Estate in North Yorkshire undoubtedly lives up to its claim to provide an incredible feeling of space and tranquility in a truly natural environment. Our visit was an anniversary treat, and we were delighted to find the setting as stunning as the publicity promised. Our room was the essence of comfort, with uninterrupted views of the rolling countryside, probably the most comfortable bed we ve ever slept in, a stunning bathroom (more of which later), wardrobes with internal lights, a Nespresso machine and cosy sitting area.

Unfortunately, however, the fantasy started to unravel almost immediately. The bottle of champagne which was supposed to be in our room to greet us was missing. The bathwater was at best lukewarm, we couldn t get a picture on the TV (though as technophobes we accept that was probably our fault but an instruction manual could have solved the problem) and to crown it all we couldn t ring down to reception to complain because the phone in the room was dead.

We called at reception on our way to dinner to explain the problems and a very helpful member of staff said he would go and fix them immediately. The champagne, though, would not be delivered until the next morning.

Our table in The Terrace restaurant was booked for 7.30pm, and we ordered almost immediately. An hour later, however, we were still waiting for our food. One member of staff claimed it was probably because my husband had ordered his steak medium to well-done, and as it was a huge piece of meat, it took a long time to cook! I don t know whether he was joking, but when the rib-eye arrived it was no more than half an inch thick and so small that the stack of onion rings on top almost covered it. My husband said it lacked flavour, and at a menu price of 58, we felt the joke was on us! The two small plates I d ordered came five minutes after the steaks. My barbecued cauliflower was virtually raw and tough to eat, while the lamb rump was nothing more than OK.

When the supervisor asked how our meals were, we explained and she offered us a free drink each a coffee for me and half a lager for my other half. When we paid the bill, the manager again asked about our experience and seemed surprised when we said it had fallen far short of expectations. In the end, he said he would look into refunding the cost of the steak, and we would have to check with reception in the morning.

Come the morning, we had more reasons to check in with reception the newspaper we had ordered had not materialised, and when we eventually found how to get hot water in the shower it kept reverting to cold like with the bath, we were told it was a boiler problem due to heavy demand at certain times!

We had a lovely breakfast in Samuel s restaurant, but by the time we were ready to leave our room at 11am, the champagne had still not materialised. It was there when we returned at 2.30pm, but the room had not been made up, and we were told the cleaners would not be round until after check-in started at 3pm. That meant our plans for a long and lazy bath followed by a celebratory glass of fizz had to be shelved. We ended up bringing the champagne home.

That evening we dined in Sir Samuel s and had a wonderful meal. Our delightful waitress said that in view of the problems we d had there was a complimentary glass of champagne to start with, which set the stage for a meal that was memorable for all the right reasons.

Despite everything, we enjoyed our stay at Swinton, but it could have been so much better. I sincerely hope the problems we experienced were the exception rather than the norm.