I've regularly used the Leisure Centre in our local Swallow Hotel, so the fact this chain of hotels needs investment on general refurbishment was not a surprise to me.
Yes, the decor, carpets & equipment desperately needs an overhaul; however, the room, bedding, towels etc were all clean & serviceable.
The service from staff was helpful, courteous & pleasant. A couple of minor problems were dealt with efficiently & very speedily.
The food was very good - I chose to use room service for my evening meal & this was delivered very promptly.
Breakfast was also to a good standard.
It's just a shame this chain has not invested more money into it's hotels - the staff do seem to do their utmost to make up for this and I hope to see rolling improvements in Swallow Hotels generally.
Although I have graded the rooms as 'Poor' this was more to reflect the need for a re-vamp as my room was a good enough size and had all facilities I would expect.

My wife & I stayed at the SWALLOW HILLTOP HOTEL CARLISLE from Saturday 21st Jan.2012 for 2 nights on a Bed / Breakfast / Evening meal basis. We had room 64. The bedroom was very clean but all the furniture needs replacing. The double glazed windows even had all the seals hanging out so where ineffective.

Breakfast on Sunday was a disaster. When it arrived after a long wait the mushrooms were cold & uncooked., We drew it to the gentlemans attention who served us, he took our plates back to have the mushrooms cooked,the plates were brought back 5 minutes later the mushrooms where now cooked but the bacon,eggs,tomatoes & black pudding where now stone cold because they where the same ones they had taken back & they had not been put somewhere to keep them warm. The plates where also stone cold so this did not help.
Its a shame because the Evening Meals where great as was the breakfast the day after.

Water stains all over the ceiling,wallpaper hanging off everywhere tape all over the worn pieces of carpet.Got to the room it was disgusting put the tv on it was nearly black and White the tv was that old.Went to have a shower no hot water.We decided to have a sauna and jacuzzi these were fine but this area is the most run down out the whole of the place.21 pounds for the evening meal if they had a chef the bar guy told me I decided to eat out if the drink quality was any reflection of the rest of the place.Went to bed at 11 woke the next morning aching we'd have been better off sleeping on the floor the beds are that worn out.Breakfast was less than average so we went straight up for our bags never again I'd rather pay double for somewhere half decent sorry swallow staff you were all very pleasant many thanks for that.

Clean sheets, towels and adequate breakfast. Certainly very quiet. Not much more to recommend from my stay. Just about everything else was worn, grubby or past its best. I didn't try the leisure center. At a last minute £40+ inc breakfast I can't complain - you get what you pay for.