Borrowdale Gates — Hotel in Great Britain

Let me start this review by saying that the food was excellent. Great choices for breakfast (cooked and continental), good quality products. We ate in the restaurant on the evening of my birthday - which was fantastic. The food was delicious and you can see why they have 2 AA rosettes - we could not fault it.||The location is also great. Very secluded, quiet and remote location but only a 10 or so minute drive from Keswick. Very peaceful and beautiful surroundings.||We had high hopes, as the reviews are fairly consistently "exceptional".... maybe we got a bad room? Maybe we were just unlucky? ||When we booked the room, my partner mentioned on the notes that it was my birthday on the Tuesday (we arrived on the Monday). |We weren't expecting a bottle of wine or anything, but an acknowledgement would have been nice. There was no note in the room to say "thanks for choosing to spend your birthday here at Borrowdale Gates Hotel". We booked the meal for the evening of my birthday as well - there was no mention then, either. No verbal or written "happy birthday", no complimentary anything.||I've eaten at many other places where they acknowledge the occasion. When you're spending 3 nights at the hotel, spending over £500+ on a room, £120+ on a meal and £50+ on drinks, I'd have expected....something. |(we went to Go Ape on my birthday and the man who booked us in to do our activity wished me a happy birthday - it doesn't take much, does it!!)||Then we get to our room, it's cosy but looks nice. We were both happy with what we saw on first glance. It had most of what we needed, although we were quite surprised to not have a coffee pod machine and instead they provide instant coffee (it wasn't very nice), and UHT milk sachets (nobody likes these....!). I'd have preferred a fridge to replace the MANY drawers and cupboards available in that room. The bathroom was a decent size and the shower was very powerful, which is always welcome after busy days out walking.||Unfortunately, we were let down after that. The room was covered in dog hair. Dog hair over the main room floor and in the bathroom and in the bed.||There was no mention that we were booking a dog friendly room, or that there had been a dog in there previously. What if someone had a severe allergy? It wasn't good. We found dog hair in the bath, over the floor and we did continue to find dog hair in the bathroom even on the last day of us leaving - despite our room being serviced twice by the housekeeping team.|I reported it to the reception within 30 minutes of us arriving and once we had returned from dinner (out), the main room had been vacuumed. ||The room, and the hotel, were also quite dusty. All of the radiators we came across in the corridor and our room, were dusty. The picture frames in our room, were dusty.||The bathroom needs a good deep clean too!! The grouting has slime and grime on - which is not 4 star hotel standards??||On our last full day, we were asked if we wanted the room serviced and some fresh towels - we said yes to this as there isn't really anywhere to dry the towels. The housekeeper was in the room directly nextdoor so we assume that our room was done shortly after we went out for the day.... we left the hotel room after breakfast at about 10am and we got back at 8pm after a long and busy day out. We came back to discover that our room was not locked!! So it had been unlocked for 9-10 hours, with all our posessions inside it! Really disappointing.||The pillows. VERY soft feather pillows and they were really not very nice to sleep on - no support whatsoever. We had to put one of the many cushions underneath the pillows to give a bit of firmness. I don't believe there are any other pillow options as there was no hotel information, room service information or anything like that in our room - just a book with some local recommended walks. ||The bathroom needs some TLC in general, the toilet roll holder is hanging off the wall - why has housekeeping not picked this up and mentioned it to the maintenance staff???||Other:|The WiFi (if it matters to you) is really slowly and generally pants. Even the TV in the room had trouble connecting to it on a couple of occasions.||Parking - plenty of it and no issues. They have EV charging, but I didn't have a need to use it whilst at the hotel.||Summary: |We've stayed in numerous Airbnbs and hotels over the years and this is genuinely one of the dirtiest rooms we have stayed in, in a long time. Given the star rating of the hotel, it can't be forgiven. If you allow dogs in the hotel, deep clean your rooms afterwards, and make it known that you're booking a "dog friendly" room. There is no mention of it on the website when selecting a room and booking.||Despite the fantastic food, brilliant location and the peacefulness, we won't return to the Borrowdale Gates Hotel...

This visit was doubly disappointing as not only had we had looked forward to it so much, but it was also a big birthday celebration for my elderly MIL and all the family were together; we were 5 adults and one 7 year-old. The food was not up to the 4 star rating of the hotel; service was patchy and our room was overwhelmed by cooking smells. I had booked dinner, bed and breakfast in anticipation of gourmet cooking and explained beforehand that there were 2 vegetarians in the party. The 'vegetarian' menu wasn't actually veggie as the dishes contained anchovies, parmesan and gelatine, so on the second night the chef made a tomato pasta dish specially for our 7 year old, who was the only one who ate it. Later that night he was violently sick after complaining that his tummy felt bad. We cleaned up the mess as best we could and went down to reception in the morning to explain what had happened and to ask for a cleaner to clean up properly. We were told that no cleaner was available and my husband was given cleaning equipment to clean up himself. We asked if a cleaner could come later and use bleach on the area as the stench was overpowering. This wasn't done and the room continued to smell for the rest of our visit. When I told breakfast staff what had happened, there was no apology, just 'so that's only 5 for dinner then?' and I took our son out for meals for the rest of the holiday. We were still charged the full dinner, bed and breakfast rate. The communal carpets were grubby, the rooms weren't cleaned properly with dirty crockery left in the room and no replenishing of loo roll unless I asked. This is supposed to be a 4star country house hotel, but relies heavily on it's location for it's appeal and is most certainly overpriced for a below par stay with bad food, dirty surroundings and very poor customer service. Don't waste your money, stay somewhere cheaper and enjoy other parts of the...

This is the first time I have posted a not very good review. We were meant to stay in this hotel for 3 nights, but ended leaving after one night. We booked a Garden Suite . We booked directly on the Hotel Website so they didn't have to pay 3rd party booking fees. The hotel itself looks pretty, and the dining room is lovely. I can't review the food as we didn't eat there. When we arrived we were told that the road outside the hotel was going to be closed from 6pm to 11pm every day, and the main route to Keswick was going to also be closed during the day. This was a complete surprise and we were not told about this after booking. I am not blaming the hotel for the roadworks, I am annoyed that we were not warned in advance, as this had a huge impact on what we wanted to do while we were in the area. On the first morning we got up to find that both ends of the road had been closed. I spoke to the workmen, who said they would let us pass once, so we decided to leave the hotel. The receptionist apologised and said we had been missed off an advisory email, as we had booked after the emails went out. For those considering booking a suite, I would suggest maybe save your money and book a room instead. There is no fridge or safe in the room. The room wasn't very clean. There are wood floors and there was dust and hair under the feature radiator. The hotel allows dogs,( I love dogs) and unfortunately our next doors dog was barking intermittently until 1am. I wouldn't stay there again, but I can't fault the service at the bar. We were probably unlucky, but with hindsight, we would have...