We came to the Rutland Arms hotel for a special occasion, a 60th birthday for a lady who has always loved Bakewell and the stories surrounding the history of the Rutland Arms Hotel and the Bakewell pudding.A perfect place for four ladies to take afternoon tea. We arrived in the bar area to see four other ladies tucking in to their sandwiches and cakes from lovely tall cake stands filled with cakes and scones and topped with pots of clotted cream and jam. Wonderful! How we salivated at the sight
However
When our afternoon tea arrived
We were not asked about our choice of sandwhich, it didn' t arrive on lovely cake stands even though we requested them, Also we had to request more jam and cream because we only received enough for two and there were four of us.. The service was a little surly from the head waiter. A member of our party is a vegetarian. The only veggie option for the sandwiches was egg mayonaise and she doesn't eat egg. When she requested cheese sandwiches she was told this was not possible as it wsn't part of the afternoon tea menu and the waiter was not accomodating to her needs but positively looked down his nose at her. All in all it was a special occasion made very flat by the attitude of the staff and the fact that we didn't have the afternoon tea experience everyone else in the room seemed to have . ie the grand gesture of cakes on a cake stand. The suprise for our friend who loves to take afternoon tea in special places was spoiled and this was a shame given the history of the hotel and its association with the Bakewell pudding. What a shame. A marketing trick missed ! Not even Bakewell Pudding on the afternoon tea platter.!

The hotel has an excellent location in the very centre of bakewell and on the surface seems ok. The rooms are of a good size and relatively clean if not a bit old fashioned. However, if you scratch this surface you will find numerous faults within the rooms, poor service and when fully booked, a hotel that is barely able to cope. We stayed in this hotel as part of a wedding party and the majority of other guests found something to complain about too. I will not be returning.

Stayed one night for dinner B&B, drinks priced like a city centre hotel, which is the only downbeat comment I could make, food was very, very good and the room was very pleasing with the bed being extremely comfortable.
The staff were all extremely pleasant, helpful, courteous and all worked together to ensure you enjoy your experience while staying at this hotel which is full of charm and character.
Would definitely recommend this hotel.

We only went for the one night just a litle break after christmas ! The hotel is lovely very clean large room with very comfortable bed the breakfast was nice the waitress very friendly and helpful.On arrival sunday around 1.30pm we were told that the room would not be ready till 2.30pm no problem with that as we were happy to look round Bakewell it was just the receptionist attitude i could not make my mind up she seemed to be polite but i got the impression she was being a little curt (maybe it was me ) When i later discovered that we were one of only two couples staying that weekend i wondered why the room was not ready? Anyway that said we had a lovely stay in a very old fashioned clean and homely hotel we did not have a meal in the hotel but the breakfast was very well cooked and great choice. Car parking is good too just across the road and they let us park on departure day for a few hours because they were not busy that was a nice touch.