the hotel has been refurbished downstairs and looks a lot better than it used to - which was pretty dire, old fashioned, dull, very time warp. we didn't stay at the hotel, just dined there. have stayed at the hotel before a few years ago, when the rooms were pretty dull and needed a lot of work, and the communal areas were very tired and ininspiring.

Under the new ownership, the food is better but a bit patchy, a meal for 4 of us, 2 out of 4 starters were good, same with the main course. bit inconsistent. they did the more technical dishes better than the simpler ones, which were the ones which were a bit of a let down. maybe will settle down in time and be better overall.

service was fine. the bar and bistro are a big improvement on what was there before as it really did need bringing up to date decor wise.

2 of our party had a meal that they had issues with and two of us found the food fine so hard to judge really.

Stayed for four nights while walking in the area. Warm and friendly Hotel, excellent food.
Room was very comfortable and had everything needed. Will definately stay again.

I have just stayed at this hotel and it was chosen due to it's location and exterior pictures [looked lovely].
1) On arrival, I was given a room that was not en-suite. Changed immediately to en-suite. What I don't undersatnd is, when booking I should have been given the choice of what type of room I wanted and not assumed.
2) Came back later in the evening to watch television - No television.
Would have read my book since there was no TV - No chair in the room.
Wanted to phone reception to solve problem - NO phone.
Had to walk down 2 flights of stairs to explain problem, TV brought to the room.
3) No bedside cabinets so nowhere to place anything except floor.
4) No shower, only a bath.
5) Staff helpful when problems arise.
6) Very good breakfast.

This hotel is under new management and they are working hard to bring the hotel up to date but as a paying guest I do not think that I should have been presented with any of these problems and this is the reason that I am writing this review. If some of the rooms are not up to standard then it is only polite to explain to your guests.

!!!! New owners from March 2011- Ignore all reviews before this !!!!!

My friend and I stayed here for 2 nights as another friend was getting married in the area. If we had any other choice we would have stayed elsewhere but everywhere close by was booked up. Before booking this hotel my friend and I looked at the website and decided that it seemed very nice and was worth the price of £42.50 per person per night.

However, on arriving at the hotel the first thing that we noticed on entering the room was that there was no shower. We asked straight away to move but were told that there were no more rooms available even though we knew that there were people arriving the next day for the wedding. As it was 10:15pm there was not much we could do (we did phone around the area to see if there were any rooms available but there was not).

We decided to go down to the bar to have a drink after out long journey- on the website there is a private hotel bar but this was not open so we went into the public bar.

The next morning we again spoke to the hotel owner as we were not pleased with the condition of the room once we could see it in the daylight. We pointed out areas that were below par, for example peeling wall paper in the bathroom and cobwebs on the ceiling (see pictures). His answer was that we would not get anywhere else better. He did knock some money off the price which took it down to 32.50 pppn. We still did not think that this was good enough. His response was "this is what we are". He was not very helpful at all and didn't seem to realise that his standards were low. When we mentioned about the website showing different images to the ones we say he just said that he didn't think the website was very good.

Believe me that if we were not in the area for a wedding we would not have stayed one night, let alone two.

The town itself is lovely and this hotel is in a prime location and could be a luxury hotel with a bit of work.