Macdonald Portal Hotel, Golf & Spa — Hotel in Great Britain

Day 1 :

Upon our arrival, reception staff were friendly but the young lad in the club shop at The Championship course was unfriendly and uninterested...

We continued onto the course where we met with extremely poor conditions, it was not only wet but also muddy, pretty much everywhere! Now I understand we've had a lot of bad weather but an email informing that the course was in this poor condition and giving us an option to amend our dates to visit would have been nice. We then arrived at the "halfway house", which unbelievably was closed, again this would have been nice to know prior to our arrival and is a first for us to encounter in the many years, we have booked this trip at this time of year!...

Then it was a visit to the leisure facilities, which included 2 x steam rooms, 2 x saunas and a pool, all of which were fine albeit in need of updating as they are looking a bit worn...

The room was a nice size, 2 good sized double beds in our twin room but the 24" (max) TV didn't cut it and really needs to be larger for a room of this size!...The Housekeeping staff were friendly and helpful...

On to the restaurant, the staff were friendly but unfortunately they had the job of informing us, after we'd chosen them off the menu, that there were no fish & chips or chicken left!? Followed by the disappointment that the draft Peroni had run out as well! The food we had was nice but could have been hotter and with our golf deal we normally get £35 per person for the evening meal, here we only got £25 per person and so ended up paying more for our food!...

At the bar, we chose to have red wine, again very limited choice left and we then changed our minds after hearing the price of £28.00 for 2 x medium glasses of Malbec! This was closely followed by purchasing a bottle of Sol, which once opened was flat, and so I took it back to exchange it, only to be given another one that was also flat! Upon checking several others, it was found that ALL of the remaining few bottles of Sol were also flat!...

Not a great start but surely this would get better...

Day 2:

Unfortunately again, it started as we left off...Friendly staff to greet us at breakfast. It seemed that there was not enough staff with pretty much all tables now empty (0830am) but still uncleared of used breakfast items and quite a wait for breakfast too. The continental area was unappealing, with nothing covered and the food was again in short supply - no toast, milk or butter! We then received our full English breakfast but they were both COLD, so we returned them to the kitchen!

Upon re-visiting the golf shop to see if we could change our golf tee times / courses around for today and tomorrow, due to the poor weather and on this occasion, the Staff in the golf shop were fantastic and really helpful. We then went back to the leisure facilities, which were fine.

The golf this afternoon was fine albeit the course was still wet & muddy! We then got changed and went back to the restaurant...

Again the staff were friendly, however, again they had to inform us that there were no chicken dishes, other than Buffalo wings, which we ordered but we're then told they apparently had no buffalo sauce?! The fish & chips were available this time and they were really tasty!

Day 3:

3rd and final day...breakfast was luke warm again but we didn't send it back as, be honest, we'd given up!...

We then checked out and unfortunately weren't even asked how our stay had been otherwise this feedback would have already been given?!...

We then went to play one last round of golf at the Premier course, which was also extremely wet and muddy! The member of staff in this shop was also friendly and helpful...

We finished golf and due to our overall experience decided not to eat at the restaurant at the golf course, as we didn't want it to let us down.

We then headed home, not angry but...

I sent the following complaint through the enquiries form on the website over two weeks ago as well as to a direct email address over a week ago and have heard nothing back:

I had a hotel room booking for myself and my husband from 10th-12th May. The hotel was recommended as somewhere we should stay by friends and after reading the description of the room and hotel we were excited for our stay.

It had taken me over a week to email as I wanted to take some time to reflect and measure my experience at your hotel against other experiences I have had during the week travelling around the country. I am left feeling that our experience at your hotel fell extremely short of the experience expected and advertised.

We were disappointed to find the room in the following state once we checked in: There were small moths all over the walls and coming out of the carpet and curtains. The sink in the room was heavily cracked. The lighting in the bathroom was very dim which made it difficult to see. There were marks on the walls, not scuff marks, more like dirt. There was dust all along the edges of the room.

Individually, these things aren’t nice, but together it gave us the impression the room was dirty and hadn’t been used and/or cleaned in a while and that the room has an infestation of carpet moths.

As we were at the hotel with friends and spending time with them we tried not to let this bother us too much and I spoke to the man at reception about the issue. He offered us another room and said he specifically checked this room for moths (whilst it is of course appreciated he checked, it was worrying that it wasn’t known), but that: the sink was also cracked in this new room and that there were marks on the toilet that wouldn’t come off.

Not wanting this to ruin our weekend, we accepted the new room and moved our luggage into it and carried on with our weekend.

Although not as bad as the previous room, the room we were offered was in the following state: cracked sink as explained. Stains on the toilet as explained. Small moths that slowly came out throughout our stay. An ironing board with a stain on that transferred onto the brand new shirt my husband had hoped to wear to an event we were attending.

We were really disappointed and dissatisfied with our stay at the MacDonald Portal Hotel, Golf and Spa resort and upset that we have paid an indulgent £364 for what we expected to be a relaxing, comfortable and clean setting which instead left us feeling gross and not trusting the cleanliness of anything in the rooms.

The young seemingly inexperienced waiting staff did not appear to have any leadership and struggled to serve us our meals and drinks, including asking us if we needed any glasses with the jug of water we had asked for.

Whilst I hope that it was a one off bad experience, our friend’s said they too had cracked sinks, we were warned off having the breakfast by them and had to venture out to find food. And whilst waiting at reception for various reasons over our stay, someone asked for an iron because there was something wrong with theirs, a staff member seemed to be dealing with a complaint about a dissatisfied check in for which a refund seemed to be being processed and when we checked out and I was asked how our stay was, the gentleman didn’t seem surprised that I was not happy with the stay, which suggests to me that we weren’t the only ones who weren’t happy.

As we had travelled from Australia to attend our friend’s event, it was a long way to come to be this disappointed. As you can understand this was an unacceptable experience and we would like a refund...

We don`t normally do reviews however felt that the Portal deserved one after our experiences for our special day.

Location: My Wife and I got married at the Portal Hotel this week, the biggest selling point for us choosing this as our venue was the scenery and the outdoor ceremony option. The golf course in the country side just offered fantastic photo backgrounds including seeing out towards Jodrell bank, waterfalls and plenty of tree forestry shots. The room used to host the wedding breakfast was large and offered plenty of space for the entertainment and tables to go without any feeling of being cramped and with the large windows it also offered great views from within.

The planning: Our Wedding Coordinator Chrissie put us at ease from the moment we sat down with her to discuss our day and what we wanted. We were able to regularly keep in contact with Chrissie throughout the planning process and offered add ons and changes inline with new additions to the wedding options the hotel brought in even after we had signed the contract for the package at the time of our booking which meant we did not miss out on new items that appealed to us e.g. new options for evening buffet. Our final details meeting was in-depth and ensure we and Chrissie all new what was expected on our big day and ensured we were getting what we wanted and knew who was involved and when. It also ensured we left no stone unturned so on the day we could be relaxed and enjoy the day.

Food: The executive Chef is an asset to the portal, his ideas and attention to details elevated our meal options for the wedding breakfast and the buffet. He took time to sit with us at the meal tasting to ensure he captured what we wanted and offered advice to enhance dishes from his vast experience. On the day of our wedding all our guests all commented as we did on how spectacular the food was and the drinks to accompany the food of which was also recommended by Chef.

Rooms: We had an allotted number of rooms reserved for our guests to book and we were shown around all rooms that were on offer including our room for the wedding night. All the rooms we were shown were large, plenty contained within to ensure a pleasurable stay and what you would expect from a hotel graded as the Portal is. They were clean, had all the items you would need for a stay within and any issues with any of the rooms or booking of the rooms by the guests and Chrissie was on hand to deal with any issues personally.

Other: On the day of the wedding Chrissie and her team including the Management of the Hotel all showed their commitment to ensuring the client got the service they deserve for their special day and dealt very well under time pressure to tackle a last minute change for our ceremony. As soon as Chrissie was informed of the change she pulled together the team and the change was implemented despite the time pressure they were put under a clear testament of the management and staff attitude and professionalism to serving the client to the highest standard.

Cost: The package we chose was well priced and the others on offer are equally as well priced, what you get for your money is definitely worth it.

If you are looking at the Portal for your Wedding we would strongly advise you to consider the Portal as its an all round package for what you want for a wedding from price, scenery and service. Visit Chrissie and her team and the site as you will only get a true idea of what they can provide you for your special day by meeting the team and seeing the site yourself, you wont be disappointed as we were not.

Nathan & Amie...