Skipton Hotel formerly known as Hotel Rendezvous — Attraction in Great Britain

I was unfortunate enough to receive a gift voucher for a 1 night Canal Facing Room at the Hotel Rendezvous. This stay included a £25pp allowance for the on-site restaurant. This review will be long, so I will leave headers for my paragraphs to help readability.

Location

The location is great, on the outskirts of the town and on the Canal which allows for a 30m walk down the canal to town of Skipton. The road noise is quite excessive on the walk and the canal and road run in parallel. I would worry for those staying in rooms at the front of the hotel, but not an issue for a Canal facing room.

Night Experience - Sleeping - Beds

On retiring to our room, we laid in bed and found that the double bed was actually 2 singles pressed together, so no cuddling for us on our romantic stay at the hotel rendezvous. The mattresses were very uncomfortable I woke up with terrible backpain and my partner could not sleep at all - she was in so much pain and discomfort from the bed we skipped breakfast and left the hotel early. I can usually sleep anywhere so even I was surprised to be in so much pain early

Room 302! This room is next to the public restrooms on Floor 3. Not sure why there are public restrooms on this floor, early while in the room we had heard what we assumed was a vacuum cleaner above us. We later learned this was the hand dryer on the wall outside our room and was going off constantly as we tried to get to sleep. As a heavy sleeper myself I managed to get 3-4 hours throughout the night but my partner did not sleep at all.

At around 6am the hotel woke up and all the bathroom facilities noises from the public restrooms and other rooms using water woke me up. Having noticed my partner had not slept at all and the constant noise being so frequent we gave up and left the hotel.

Customer Service

The staff were very unusual throughout the stay. The man on reception in the morning was oblivious to me having to wait for 10m to get a basic answer to a question; with no apologies for the wait. It felt like he was trying to extend his phone call by confirming and reconfirming multiple basic details about the booking that was being made..

On arrival to the bar, the staff were talking on the end of the bar and I had to wait for them to finish their chat and then go and complete another task out back before being served. Very unusual.

The restaurant experience was so weird. The waitress staff were split into certain groups: 2 could take orders; 1 could seat guests; and 2 could bring food & a lone bar man brought us our drinks once which was the only pleasant experience of the evening.

We were unfortunately given a waitress (Potentially known as Kerry, but will be known as Neck Tattoo Lady from now on) who seemed to take a disliking to my partner, not sure why after taking our first drink order she seemed to ignore us and seem generally unhappy interacting with our table. (We said our pleases and thank you's!). Our wait to make our first order was so long - I would not expect to sit for 20m to place an order for a drink - so on our first order we ordered food too. Our drinks were brought to us by the Bar Man who was very pleasant while serving us. But then we had to wait a substantial time for our mains. After being without a drink for 10m I managed to wave down one of the waitresses but she couldn't take orders so again had to wait for Neck Tattoo Lady to arrival, scowl at my partner and take our drinks order. The waitress who could only seat guests was very pleasant, she actually asked if we had had our order taken yet and went to chase the order-taking waitress although we still had to wait another 15m in order to place our desert orders. The younger waitresses who didn't take orders and mainly served food were very accommodating and tried their best to improve the experience for us.

Overall

Unfortunately a poor experience. Location is good - rooms require some TLC. Prices need reconsidering. Staff need retraining. Public Restroom rooms need reviewing or restrooms need closing at a...

Hi Skipton / Rendezvous Hotel,

This is just a complaint regarding my birthday celebration held there. I have called your office to give feedback and sent you an email of complaint - which I find it appalling that you never bothered to reply.

I booked for the Afternoon Tea for 23 adults, and 'order on the day' for the 7 kids, a total of 30 heads.

I don't have issues about the quality of food and the venue, it was all good. I was really dissapointed with the way food was presented - instead of afternoon tea set-up, it was arranged as a buffet. This is clearly not what I have discussed with your manager and coordinators.

It was supposedly an afternoon tea party, I was and we were expecting it all on a cake stand - per table (you know the proper Skipton Hotel - Afternoon Tea experience) and much to my dismay, it was set-up like a buffet - don't get me wrong - buffet set-up would have been nice if thats what I booked, if thats what we discussed, but no, I didn't request for a buffet set-up, I asked for an afternoon tea arrangement, so everyone was expecting that it will be presented that way and will take photos with it - it would have been perfect.

I was so upset and frustrated that day, that my friends had to console and talked me through it. So not to cause commotion and not to ruin my make up, my day and my celebration, we had to settle and salvage what's there.

Another thing, I had to ask twice for a cake stand for myself for our table since I'm the birthday celebrant. Imagine I had to ask a couple of times. I was told that the reason why you can't put it on tea stands is because I have loads of guests, which I truly understand - so I told the staff, can I request for at least 1 or 2 cake stands per table and the rest buffet / on plates but was adviced that you don't have enough cake stands and most are in use - which I find it surprising because its a hotel and you do weddings and other big events. Does that mean you only have 3 - 4 cake stands in total? I really don't get it. I find it really hard to believe.

You know what, the main reason why I chose Skipton / Rendezvous Hotel to celebrate my birthday was because of the view of the canal from the conservatory and the afternoon tea experience but we were all let down. I should just booked Nana's or Betty's. My friends were coming up to me asking why is it not on a cake stand at all? You know how upsetting it was? We were complaining that we are not just paying for some sandwiches and sweet treats but for the experience that goes along with it. With this I'm thinking of refunding them the money because of that and you should as well.

This should have been communicated to me during calls and visits. No managers talked to me during the period of the event to apologise for what happened, they should have explained it to my guests and all. Shout out to the 2 ladies who worked tirelessly during the celebration, they were lovely and professional, its not their fault. They have done what they can do.

I hope this won't happen again, and won't happen to anyone. Please next time you deliver what you say on ur website. If you say Afternoon tea, people will automatically expect it on an afternoon cake stand with a great experience and not some snacks buffet. Communication is key.

Such a bad experience and received negative feedback about the set-up after the celebration. I will never recommend you.

Up to this day, you never had the nerve to apologise. What a terrible...

My partner & I did a two night stay here. Parking on site was easy enough. There are steps & a ramp to gain access to reception (beware that if you need wheelchair access -there is a parking space literally at the bottom of the ramp so you may not get the chair on & off the ramp).

On check in, we were informed that the gas is off due to problems down the road- so limited breakfast option only. Beware, they will charge an extra percentage to your bill in case you order room service etc, this is fully refunded on check out of no extra costs have been added to the room).

We stayed on the 3rd floor, although the corridor smelled a bit of urine, our room didn't (our room was at the end of the corridor next to some back old stairs so think it's from there) the cleaners did a fantastic job of cleanliness so thank you to them & they were also more engaging & friendlier than some of the other staff throughout the hotel. Very dated hotel in need of a face-lift.

Spa: We didn't use the spa facilities as we were informed that due to no gas, a few guests had mentioned that the jacuzzi /hot tub etc was cold. We didn't fancy coming in from the rain, being wet through & cold - to more cold. So couldn't state what that side was like.

Room: Our room was clean, sparse & a decent place to lay your head. We had a view of the canal & greenery. Tea-coffee-biscuits. The surfaces in the room were all sticky from cleaning products, so if you placed any items down they would stick to the surface. A shower that maintained a decent temperature but doesn't drain too well.

Breakfast: I opted for continental & my partner -a cooked breakfast. Asked if we wanted coffee, I wanted a latte -but this is charged extra to our room-having already paid a healthy sum for a basic room, I decided against it. My partner had 'basic' coffee which he said was like weak tea. As I went to get up select my breakfast, the waitress told my partner he can't have both a cooked & a continental- to which he told her he was going for a glass of juice, assuming it's allowed?! ...though the woman on the next table wasn't issued with the same memo as she was eating both options. His breakfast was very salty & greasy which he didn't finish. My croissant was okay- fresh fruit & they had cereals & small pots of yogurts ( don't expect toast or waffles etc...) We didn't bother going down for breakfast on the last day (you also have to pre-booked a timed breakfast slot each morning). I wouldn't stay again...more up to date & more welcoming hotels...