Trout Hotel

Disappointing experience following last year's stay over the same new years eve period. Unwelcoming on arrival, a male member of staff allowed the door to close in our faces whilst we were carrying our bags in.|Management who were unorganised and were unsure what our package included. Attempted to charge extra when we had paid for two course evening meals.|Food not up to the standard of last year. |Had to wait for tables to be cleared before we could sit down for breakfast as only one member of staff serving.|The invoice was incorrect however after contacting the hotel I have had no response.|I can see why the hotel was not nearly as busy this year as it was last year if this is the level of service customers receive. We won't be visiting again anytime soon as there are far better hotels in the area for the same price we paid for this one, which certainly wasn't cheap.|On a positive note the majority of staff are pleasant and helpful.

I don't often like to write negative reviews of places as the staff on "the front line" are often doing the best they possibly can and it's the higher ups who are the real cause of problems, but after a couple of years of persisting with what was once I quality hotel, I feel it's time to post an honest review of how down hill things have gone since it was bought out a few years ago.||I normally stay for 2 nights during the run up to Christmas, but this year for several reasons I was only able to stay for one night.||I arrived at around 5-5:30 on a Friday night and expected a full car park (based on previous years) however, this time, there were three cars in the entire car park (this did not change much over the rest of the evening) - this was initially a flag for me as in previous years, the car park has been mostly full.||After checking in (no problems with the front of house staff on reception as they were very friendly and helpful), I was advised where my room was to be....||I was initially worried as for the previous 2 years, I have had a upstairs room, which overlooked the are of the hotel which was used to store the summer furniture, covered by blue tarpaulin sheeting, but this year, I was on the ground floor, with a slightly improved view of just the (empty) car park this time.||The room itself was nice enough, but it would have been nice to perhaps have had an upgrade to a better room, considering how empty the place was (more on that shortly) - not that I am one to expect it to happen.||There were two things that I noticed upon getting to my room - firstly the clanking of the radiator directly outside my room (which clanked rather loudly every 30 or so seconds!) and the stain/damaged wall directly opposite the room (see attached photos).| |You would not expect to see this sort of damage at a hotel with a 4 star rating. Benefit of the doubt - it may be a new bit of damage, but it certainly did not look the case.||After several hours of listening to the radiator noise, I decided to see if there was anything that could be done, as it would have seriously affected my sleep! Luckily for me, turning down the dial slightly stopped the noise (I wonder why no-one else had done this as surely some member of staff had wandered past at some point!)||After this, I went out for a wander around the town to see the Christmas lights (again, at about 8:30 - 9, there were still less than 10 cars in the car park (the hotel across the road had a very full car park for comparison)).||Normally when staying at a hotel, you hear general noise of people walking round, doors opening and closing etc, but during my stay I heard no-one else down my part of the hotel, which again, made me wonder why I was abandoned down there with the obvious damage. One benefit of this lack of noise however was a nice and peaceful nights sleep.||In the morning I got up and went for breakfast (included in the room rate), when you arrive, the server ticks off your room from the list - I noted that there were only about 4 or 5 other rooms on the list for the morning and I had pretty much free choice of table in the dining room (in previous years, there had been many more people around or at least on the list not yet risen).||I went for the cooked breakfast, which was nice enough and served in good time, what did let down the breakfast though was a lack of toast offerings - previous years, the waiter offered a selection of toast options when ordering the cooked breakfast, but this did not happen this time (and looking around there was no sign of any bread or toaster to make your own).||I would have asked as I was leaving, but the waiter disappeared for about 20 minutes or so as he apparently had a case of vertigo come over him and he had to sit down (In the end I decided not to ask about the toast as he was still not looking well when he did come back again).||Whist sat in the dining room (and on a quick wander around the hotel after), I observed that the Christmas decorations were looking a bit sorry for themselves and appeared to be the same ones that are put up each year (I first stayed here about 10 years ago and I am pretty sure they are the same ones as back then!)||So, overall, the stay at the hotel, although ok just did not seem to really stand out for me and as other people have commented on, the quality just seems to have gone down hill since the hotel was bought ot 4 or 5 years back.||I had similar thoughts last year (2024 that is as we have just passed into 2026) but thought I would give it one more go, but for Christmas 2026, I may need to source an alternative place to stay in the Lakes for my annual pre-Christmas trip.

Excellent location for walking into the town. Relaxing atmosphere. River view suite excellent. Very clean and beautifully furnished. Staff are very friendly and efficient. A special mention for Ellis in the restaurant, a real trooper and our cleaner Deborah. However this hotel is let down by the kitchen, for a four star hotel the food was dreadful. Undercooked Christmas pudding with tasteless rum sauce. My partner had a tough ribeye steak which was sent back. The chips that accompanied the steak were overcooked and tasted of stale cooking oil. He ordered Turkey instead and his meal arrived swimming in gravy instead of being served in a jug like mine. However the turkey was dry and hard, the mashed potatoes were tasteless and the gravy was so dark there was no way it was poultry gravy. I could go on but I think I've made my point. Breakfast could be improved upon as well.