Rockliffe Hall — Hotel in Great Britain

This is long but hopefully helps you to make an informed decision.

The Good Greeting and valet - Very welcoming and efficient (nice touch charging the car when requested) Mini champagne bottle for bday and welcome card, lovely touch Check in and welcome - Always good, receptionist nice Hotel grounds - Beautiful Massage - Very good, one of the best I've had Room 4 (Old Hall £425 B&B) stunning as expected Food quality in Clubhouse - good

The Not So Good Spa is looking a bit tired since previous visit 2 years prior, it was also SO quiet which I guess can't be helped but at one point we were the only people in there The loungers are INCREDIBLY uncomfortable and can't be adjusted, and as for the almost vertical chairs...just why? Empty glasses around the pool area The toilet in changing area was dirty with wrappers on the floor and no soap, dirty floors throughout changing room and flaky paint dotted about Clubhouse has no atmosphere or music playing and the staff started spraying/clearing all tables whilst we were still eating our dinner (pre 10pm) The ambience and decor in The Clubhouse do not justify the pricing, it is not luxurious in any way and the menu is incredibly limited Cocktail bar playing slow spa music, again no vibe or atmosphere, it could be so much better in there as it is a gorgeous room, staff seemed uber stressed, took an age for someone to take our order Every time we showered it leaked all over the floor Missing cutlery at breakfast and a very long wait for food

The Bizarre I've stayed at a few 5 star hotels across Dubai and England and of course expect to a pay premium when doing so. However, the price points need to match the quality of the service. Not to be crass but I've given a few examples of the pricing below; £9 for just over half a lager round the pool £18 for a glass of alcohol free wine £21 for a glass of unbranded champagne £48 for a fillet steak in The Clubhouse (not even one chip or teeny tiny pea included) £17 for a medium sized glass of malbec served in a white wine glass (took 15 minutes to arrive by which point my steak was almost cold as the barman (bless him) didn't know how to use a corkscrew...the manager looked on oblivious) They managed to 'squeeze' us into The Orangery for brekkie after saying it was full and we'd have to eat in Clubhouse. Weirdly it was empty when we arrived, so naturally I expected to be offered a window seat and not to be sat in a corner when there were window seats available Coffee in the cafetiere was like dish water and the plunger had already been pushed down, I had to send it back, it was undrinkable Sausage sent back as looked underdone and toast arrived as we were half way through brekkie (1 slice of toast per person)

If you are booking for a special treat and expecting a true 5 star experience I don't think you'll find it here. However it is relaxing (almost too relaxing as there is no atmosphere anywhere) the rooms in The Old Hall are gorgeous (although I do think some complimentary snacks would go a long way) and the quality of the spa treatments are great. Dining wise I would recommend dining in the local area to find a restaurant/bar with more with a bit more oomph.

I believe when you are spending £420+ on a hotel room and in the region of £750+ in total (dinner, bed, drinks and a spa treatment for one night) then the quality of service, environment, food and general experience should make that cost feel as though it was worth every penny and sadly this time it didn't and I've came home feeling more annoyed than refreshed. Grantley Hall has set the gold standard for me on every metric and it's hard for other...

Stayed Friday just gone after receiving a generous gift of a night in the Tiplady Lodge with a 7 course tasting meal with wine tasting. Checked in and went straight to the spa which was great and the facilities were fantastic. After a great day we got changed and went for our meal. The meal was something I have never experienced before and likely won't again and we had alot of laughs during. At the end of the meal we were presented with the bill. We questioned the bill as the meal was included in the gift and we were informed that we just needed to sign the bill and then pay the difference on checkout which was £33 for the couple of additional drinks we had. All seemed fine, we left merry and in good spirits and returned to our room. We were then woken by our room phone at 11:15pm by a member of the bar staff informing us that we needed to go to reception with a card and pay the outstanding bill now. We were surprised at this with the info we were given at the restaurant as we would have paid there and then and to wake a guest at 11:15pm we felt was unacceptable. Still we proceeded to get out of bed and walk to reception to sort this. Needless to say we were unhappy was an understatement. We got to reception and the gentleman on reception was shocked and embarrassed with what had happened and apologised for this and passed us off to a member of the bar staff (possibly manager) however this guy didn't really care about our complaint and was more interested is taking our payment and sending us on our way. This experience didn't sit well with us as it made us feel as though we were judged and couldn't be trusted to pay such a bill. A simple check could have been done to see that we were also booked for breakfast and this could have easily been sorted in the morning rather than waking us up at this time of night. So we returned to our room after paying however, due to this experience we decided not to stay for breakfast and check out early in the morning as we felt unwelcome.

Skip to checkout and when we were checking out we were dealt with by Ben (Reception Manager) and when he asked why we wouldn't be staying for breakfast we informed him of our experience and that it had tarnished an otherwise great stay. Ben was shocked to hear our experience and apologised for this and informed us that he would look into this and contact us with an update. If I'm honest I didn't expect to hear again about this issue. Ben did however contact my partner later that day after looking into the issue and again apologised for our experience. He then offered a complimentary afternoon champagne tea to compensate us for our experience. We thanked Ben for this offer however this wasn't needed as we didn't log the complaint for anything free but to simply draw their attention to something that needs to be improved.

I would like to say that we are impressed with the efficiency that Ben looked to resolve our complaint and are thankful for his efforts.

Over all, the venue is fantastic, the spa was awesome and it's a shame that the end of the night put a blemish on what could have been the perfect experience. And thank you to Ben who has dealt with our...

My wife and I recently stayed for 3 nights in the 2 bedroom Armstrong Suite. We have been frequenting Rockliffe Hall 2/3 times a year for the past 6 years; during this time we can see that it has declined in many areas, including dining, customer service, staff, cleanliness and general up keep of rooms and furnishings. We believe that the standards of a 5 star hotel you expect , are not there anymore as they once were.

We was on this latest visit, very disappointed, and here’s why ...

Checking in was usual, collected the room cards and headed to the 2 bedroom Armstrong Apartment. As we have been many times before we did not need escorting there by the concierge which was kindly offered.

We found the apartment to be tired, dusty and not particularly clean. The bath/shower silicone sealant had black mould on parts of it and was far from clean or hygienic. The Kitchen floor tiling was cracked in places and had large areas of grout missing between the tiles. The kitchen sink Tap was loose and wobbling around when in use. All of the furnishings in the apartment are very tired; the sofas bottom out as they are well past usable and comfortable. The TV in the lounge area would not turn up and therefore could not be heard, it was reported but knowbody came to fix it. The Hallway wooden floor is covered in thousands of heal marks and looks tatty.

Breakfast dining is somewhat limited now and can only be ordered from the kitchen; gone are the days of fresh fruit , croissants, fresh yogurt, breads, meats , etc ... from the central continental style buffet table. If you enjoy, eggs , fish , and toast your laughing! When my wife asked the waiter if they have cereals , the waiters response was yes, then he walked off and served other customers with coffee ? He never informed her of which cereals or that he could go and get her some , just left in the lurch ... very poor service indeed !

The Brasserie dining experience was poor , we ordered 2 steaks for our main medium to well. When they came you could not even see them on the plate as they were covered by a mushroom ? The steaks were ridiculously tiny ! Frazzled and tuff , the quality of the steak was terrible, like and old rubber sole. Words fail me for a five star hotel !

To top it off the last night of our 3 night stay the fire alarm malfunctioned at 00:30am and scared the living daylights out of my wife and I, whom had been asleep in bed since 10:30pm ! 20 minutes later it was switched off and reset. We found it hard to settle after this, let alone get back to a decent nights sleep.

Upon checkout we informed them of our poor nights sleep due to the alarm going off. The response was ‘ it’s just one of those things and cannot be helped ‘ !!! We will ensure it doesn’t happen again , sorry for any inconvenience !

There has obviously been some serious problems and serious cut backs at Rockliffe Hall, at best it should be a four star hotel as it certainly is not worthy of five stars anymore. We won’t be rushing back in a hurry if at all , there’s far better 5 star hotels that are much more deserving than...