We've just returned from a two night stay at Lakes Lodge and were mostly really happy with our visit. The staff were both friendly and helpful, the room was lovely, and the breakfast was tasty and plentiful. The hotel is situated in a great place, the centre of Ambleside is on one direction and a beautiful walk around lake windemere is in the other. If we hadnt of brought our dog with us we would have had no complaints!
However, we did! I emailed the hotel before booking asking where the dog would stay if he accompanied us. We were told that the hotel was dog friendly (as advertised on the site) and he would stay in our room with us for a £10 a night surcharge. This was ideal for us and so we booked our room. However, upon arriving at the hotel and being taken to our room (by a really friendly and helpful staff member) we read the rules for dogs that was in our room. Unfortunately, the rules read that the dog was not to be left unaccompanied at any time, could not enter the public rooms and was not allowed on the soft furnishings and we must bring something for him to sleep on (which luckily we had!) As we do not let the dog on our soft furnishings at home this was not a problem but not leaving him on his own was. Before our stay the hotel emailed us about the sister hotel that had a lovely restaurant that we should try. This was our intended plan, however, that would have meant leaving the dog in our room (or the car but given that it was an average of 0 degrees for our trip this was not an option) so that meant we ate take away in our room both nights. We were also in a bit of a conundrum about going for the breakfast which was included in the price, did we go one at a time so one of us was with the dog, put him in the freezing car while we ate or break the rules and leave him in the room? We ended up leaving him in the room, inhaling our breakfast and rushing back down to see to him, not very relaxing. Not being able to leave him limited our stay and if we had been sent the dog rules when I emailed the hotel asking about the dog we would not have booked the room. I also wondered what the extra £10 a night was for as with the dog not being able to go on any of the soft furnishings there was nothing extra to clean and so we paid £20 extra to have a dog bowl put in our room.
If my husband and I had come for a weekend just the two of us it really would have been perfect however, it is my opinion that the hotel should perhaps not advertise itself as a dog friendly hotel or should change its rules. It was so clean, the rooms were nicely decorated and very spacious and once again, the staff were lovely, i really cant fault anything but the dog situation! I would recommend this hotel to couples but not couples with their dogs!!