We had a good stay overall. The room was a good size, well equipped and comfortable, check-in was good and we also enjoyed a meal in the pub. Until our final evening, we would have happily recommended the hotel and returned ourselves.
Unfortunately, our last experience left a very different impression.
We returned at around 11pm in heavy rain and walked through the pub to get to our room. The gentleman behind the bar told us the door might be locked and asked another member of staff sitting at the bar. He simply shrugged his shoulders. The door was locked, so we had to go back outside in the pouring rain and use the key code to enter through the hotel entrance.
The locked door itself wasn’t really the issue — it was the attitude and the feeling that we were an inconvenience. We felt so unwelcome that we decided not even to stay for a drink.
It’s a real shame because everything else about our stay had been good, and we would have been happy to return. Sadly, the way we were treated on our final evening changed our impression completely, and we wouldn’t return.
An honest review, as we feel the management should know that what may have seemed like a small interaction to staff actually made a significant difference to our experience.