The Coniston Hotel Country Estate & Spa — Hotel in Great Britain

We pre-booked the view restaurant for our 10 year anniversary and stated on the booking that this was for our anniversary. We booked this place based on the reviews and somewhere we wouldn’t normally go. We are not local to area either so it was a special treat. Upon entering we were greeted by a friendly receptionist and continued to make our way to the restaurant where we saw two staff members, one male with his back to us and one female who saw us but continued to chat with her colleague. I do not know what they were discussing but I do know we had to wait until they were finished before we were acknowledged. A simple ‘hello we’ll be right with you’ would have been perfect in this scenario. Once acknowledged we were greeted with ‘hi’ and no warm welcome or smiles. We said we had prebooked and were then escorted to a table that was so close to others we said we may as well join the tables together. The restaurant was mainly empty so I don’t understand why we were placed here but we did then witness other couples arriving and being seated apart round the edge of the room. We were not happy as we felt like we were eating with the two tables next to us, felt we had to be quiet about our discussions as they were so close and couldn’t understand why we weren’t seated round the edge of the room with plenty of surrounding space. We were asked if we were staying at the hotel and we said no. From that point we waited over 20minutes before we had to ask someone to take our drinks orders as we watched guests that had arrived after us all enjoying drinks and ordering food. We couldn’t understand why we were being ignored. The drinks order and delivery of drinks were by two different staff members. We then waited another 10 minutes, after seeing other people getting their food that had arrived after us, before having to ask someone different again to take our food order. My partner ordered the steak and I ordered the steak sandwich. My steak was so blue and fatty it was no edible at all. I left the entire dish. My partner on the other hand said his meal was lovely and had no complaints about that. We then waited with our finished plates in front of us for another 10/15minutes before we had to ask yet another member of staff for the bill as we’d had enough at this point. No one checked in on us during our email. Even when the bill was delivered no one cleared our plates or asked why my whole dish hadn’t been touched or if it was ok. Witnessing how other guests were treated during this service was entirely different to our experience. Our 10 year anniversary was ruined and this establishment couldn’t care less about our experience. My partner waited a further 10minutes from receiving the bill to still have no one come back and had to go to the bar to pay whilst we watched other guests have card machines brought to their table. I have never in my life experienced such an appalling service from a restaurant, let alone a restaurant of this supposed high standard. We made a complaint to the reception up on leaving and she informed us someone would call. The following day I received a call and went through our entire disgusting ordeal with her on the phone. She apologised and offered us to come back and have a free meal for them to rectify the experience. I declined on two reasons, one I would never go back to dine with them following that experience - the worst hospitality I’ve ever had! And two we don’t live nearby and certainly wouldn’t make the long trip back out to dine again. She said she would have a word with management and get back to me.That was nearly two weeks ago and I’ve heard nothing since. The money we paid and lost and the anniversary meal ruined is a disgrace. I do not recommend this venue at all, for food or hospitality or service or complaints. I held off writing this review to give them the opportunity to rectify this but with no more correspondence I have to submit this review. Never again! The worst experience in dining...

Booked this as a long weekend away stay to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. I found the Sleepy Sunday Retreat offer online and added a Saturday night.

First impression of the room wasn't great especially as it was meant to be an upgrade from the basic room available. Tea & coffee was missing, along with bottles of water. The decor & furniture came across as very dated and dusty, especially around the doors to our patio. The bathroom was lovely but black mould was growing in the shower. The view was the selling point, overlooking the lake with sheep grazing (even the odd little escapee!). Wi-Fi wasn't great, smart tv was useless so terrestrial TV was the option. Bed seemed comfortable. One of our robes was tiny and unable to wear (we think it had shrunk in the wash!)

We booked a couples massage at Reception which left a gap between our spa access and the massage. I would of thought it wouldn't have been much of an issue to allow us an extra hour in the spa to save waiting around or having to walk back to our room and return again, however we were informed this would be chargable. Fortunately we were able to wiggle round our spa time to avoid any waiting. The receptionist confirmed the price and the additional fee to have the massages together, so when I questioned why the 20% discount had not been applied, I was asked to "provide evidence" of there being such a discount available. This seemed a little accusatory and caught me on the back foot, especially as it was a term on the deal on their own website.

The room was very hot during the night and as we was on the ground floor, we didn't feel comfortable opening our patio doors to let cool air in. The air con didn't go any lower than 18 degrees. We opened our window but being behind very heavy blackout curtains, it did very little to cool our room down. Rooms are not soundproof and our door creaked as other doors are slammed shut so we wedged a brochure under the door to stop this.

We took a map for the walks on site, which were lovely but shorter than expected! The spa facilities were fantastic, clean, welcoming and not overly busy. There was always room in any sauna, infinity pool or jacuzzi. Reception didn't tell us to put a card on our room so we were unable to order drinks at the bar in the spa so were left using the water machine. The couples full body massage, this was wonderful and a definite highlight of our trip (albeit pricey even with the discount). Upon return from the spa, we found full tea/coffee/water in our room, despite not mentioning these were missing to Reception.

The View restaurant staff were another highlight, they are so friendly and helpful. They were lovely enough to offer us tables next to the window so we could enjoy the sunset views of the lake throughout our meal. The food was definite high quality and very tasty, in particular the suet putting and custard tart with bergamot ice cream. There was a little confusion over which meals were included in our Sleepy Sunday deal.

Overall, it wasn't the trip we wanted for our first anniversary. It came across as the hotel wanted money before customer service. It was mentioned on our booking that the purpose of the trip was our first wedding anniversary, but the hotel was more focused on ensuring two hen parties also staying on the Saturday night were enjoying their time. For the price we paid for our stay, I was hoping for much more memorable experience for our first wedding anniversary. I raised all my concerns mentioned on the questionnaire after our stay to which I was told a member of management would contact me to discuss as some of my answers scored lower than they would like. No one contacted me to discuss, instead I received an email from a Director thanking me for raising my concerns and "hope you will give us another opportunity to exceed your expectations on your next visit. We look forward to welcoming you back". Again, it comes across as money before...

A big drop in standards ! Have been before, though not too recently. Got what seemed like a reasonable deal, including a room upgraded & a voucher, so booked. After arriving, told can't have room until 3pm, unfortunately typical now. When went back to check in tried to book dinner reservation. Told main restaurant, The View, was very busy apart from quite early and quite late. So, opted for Macleod's Lounge as alternative. Arrived for drink a bit early and could see virtually no tables laid for dinner, other tables not cleared. When friends arrived, we went to almost the only 4 place table available. There was no visible service. Asked barman/waiter if could have menus and could table be laid with cutlery, got a not very pleased/helpful look. When he came back, asked about ordering and told to order at the bar! Menu choices quite limited. Eventually persuaded him to take orders, including wine. Food very disappointing, ordered warm smoked salmon as starter, two small dry pieces. Wife said main course of fish and chips was worst she had had in years. The beef on the Sunday roast was terrible, as chewy as anything. None of the hot food came hot, was warm at best and that applied to all 'hot' food during visit. This used to be the premier dining area in the hotel, definitely no longer. The breakfast used to be 1 of my benchmark mark breakfasts. Quality ingredients, obviously cooked when you asked for it and served on hot plates, no longer. Arrives too quick, not hot. Also used to be able to get a proper cup of espresso coffee at breakfast, not so now, look at you as though don't understand what you are talking about. Tried a cheese steak open sandwich for lunch, steak was terrible, couldn't bite through it!! Made sure we were in The View second evening. Service was better, not so much the food. Fish of the day was sea bass, which I like and have regularly. Asked how many fillets there were, told two. When it arrived, the two fillets combined would only have been the size of one at our local restaurant, food again only warm and portions small. Wife unsure what to have, so chose pepperoni pizza on safe side. Unimpressed with it, asked for base to be crispy. Managed to come with virtually burnt base and still soggy in middle, hardly any pepperoni on it, seen twice as much on an Asda pizza. Wine prices are now relatively high, bottles I expect to pay about £27/28 for in our local restaurants are in the mid to high £30's. I know it's a hotel and you are a captive audience, but .... Once you think it's not so good, you notice everything. The room wasn't bad, has a pod coffee machine in it, with a choice of 3 different pods, only a couple of decafs when we arrived. Tried to ring reception a couple of times to ask for more, no answer. Eventually asked at reception, told yes more would be provided. Got back to room later after dinner to find a couple of granular instant coffee sachets had been left. Eventually managed to get pods next day. WiFi was generally poor throughout hotel and nonexistent in the rooms, despite o router extender outside the door. The network the manual in the room said to connect to for residents didn't exist. Was going to use the Spa, which you now have to book and was told there were no slots available during the duration of our stay. Eventually told there was 1 slot, not 2 for both of us. On checking out and settling our bill, the voucher that came with the deal wasn't applied, had to ask for it. Don't think our friends even got theirs. What I don't understand is that quite a number of the staff have been there for years, they must surely realise the standard has dropped significantly. Food used to be very good, now average. Upon thinking of drafting this review, I was thinking of 3*, but upon reflection,...