The Rothley Court — Restaurant in Charnwood

We arrived mid-afternoon on a Saturday. We remarked on how magnificent the building looked and how wonderful it must have been to live here in its heyday.|Upon entering reception, we rang the bell, as instructed on the sign. We waited ten minutes and rang the bell again. A young man entered, and we informed him that we'd like to check in. He couldn't help us, but he'd send in the manager.|After a further five minutes, the manager arrived and informed us that we should have come through to the bar, as that's where all the staff were because of a wedding. Well, we would have if the sign had informed us of this fact. But it said, "Wait here."||We were then told our room number and that it was in a separate building. After stepping outside, we saw there were a number of buildings, so we returned to clarify which one. The exasperated manager told again with more detail and then whispered to her colleague that she couldn't believe these people couldn't find their room! Yes, we heard you, Laura. We may be old, we may be stupid, we may be both. But you're in the hospitality industry. Try to be hospitable.||We did find our room, and although basic, it was warm and clean. However, there is a large gap under the main door. Aside from letting in, and out, noise and voices etc., it could also be a fire risk.||We returned to the main bar, and I tried ordering a bottle of wine. After being informed many times that my choice wasn't available, I asked just what was available, and I'd choose that. He apologised and explained they had a wedding that day. A poor excuse, as I'm fairly confident that the wedding won't have been booked the day before. There had been plenty of opportunity to stock up.||The outside area was littered with glasses, cups, and crisp packets. After forty minutes, the glasses were cleared, but the cups and debris remained. We went inside and booked dinner for 7.30.||We arrived at the restaurant at 7.25 and were shown to our table. The menus were brought to us, we made our choice, and the food was brought to us in good time. The food itself was excellent. We enjoyed our starters and main course and then asked if we'd like to see the dessert menu, which we did. We waited, and nothing happened. We were then approached by a different waiter who informed us that if we'd like a dessert, to order soon as the kitchen closes at 9.00 - in a hotel! We informed them that we'd love to order, but after waiting fifteen minutes, we still had no menus! They were quickly brought over, and we made our choice and enjoyed our dessert.||We returned to the main bar to enjoy a quiet drink. However, a decision was made to close the wedding bar in the function room. The wedding guests then stumbled into the main bar. As you can imagine, it was quite raucous! Of course, we have been to weddings and being part of that raucous group when you know everyone is fun. When you're trying to enjoy a quiet drink, less so. We left them to it at 10.00 pm. We had been previously "assured" that the wedding group wouldn't impact our stay as they were in a separate room.||Breakfast the following morning was quite a contrast. Caitlyn looked after us, and both she and the food were excellent. We dined out on Sunday evening. But returned to breakfast on Monday morning. This time, Caitlyn wasn't working and we were served by a young man. I can only assume it was his first day or that he had been poorly trained, as the service was dire. We placed our hot meal order and I had a bowl of strawberries waiting for it to arrive. He walked past me empty bowl eleven times, I counted. He then brought out the hot food, realised the bowl was in the way and asked if I could move it. Of course I could, but I wouldn't have to if you'd looked!||Overall, it's a basic hotel. Some of the staff require much more training. Being told not to lean across a table whilst serving should be self-evident, but it can also be taught. Wi-Fi coverage was sporadic, according to staff and other guests. I chose not to use it as the details asked to access it were more than a mortgage application! Almost... As a previous worker in hospitality management, I can only assume they were short-staffed. But it's the job of the manager to resolve this, or manage the issue. It's a shame because this hotel could be so much more. It needs better-trained staff and a more...

First impressions were reasonably good right up until I found my room in a tired, dirty side building - the Annex. My room was badly kept and indifferently cleaned, the bathroom had dirty tiles, filthy toilet seat, mouldy window frames. Looked like it had last had a proper clean when the Knights Templar were there. The towels were few and far between, and thin and rough to the touch. The whole place was cold even with radiator up on full. The bathroom in particular was Baltic. Lots of empty fireplaces that could have had lovely welcoming warm fires in but didn’t. Staff ranged from utterly disinterested - nobody says hello, welcome, good morning or any other basic attempts at politeness - to chaotic and utterly untrained. Dinner on the first night was a comedy of errors even though we had ordered food days before. When the food eventually arrived it was basic cheap frozen fodder that had been tossed into the fryer, burger was edible, salad brown and limp in places. My colleague’s dessert was given away to another table while he repeatedly said to the waiter that it was his. My dessert - chocolate brownie - was actually pretty good and the nicest thing I had with an attempt at presentation flourish. This same hassled waiter later appeared behind the bar, desperately trying to stock things up while customers waited for poor quality, badly kept Greene King beer. It was like a franchised Fawlty Towers. I retired to my cold room after one drink just after 9.

In the morning I found ‘the fire’ which looked like a couple of matches in the grate and gave off as much heat. The laughable ‘fire’ in the breakfast room was a light bulb behind the plastic faux logs with a bright orange extension lead running across the floor to complete the effect. A pathetic attempt had been made to grit first 2 feet outside front door - why bother at all? Sat at breakfast with just four other diners who were awaiting their food surrounded by the detritus of various previous diners - maybe from the day before? The lone, scruffy, poorly trained waitress wandered about aimlessly and asked me my room number 4 times (first language is English and I don’t have a strong regional accent). Didn’t order cooked breakfast because I couldn’t face it given that the staff openly discussed problems in front of the diners. It was pretty clear that they were in over their heads so I settled for the bruised banana from the display and an extremely weak cup of tea. Somebody else was sat at a dirty unmade table and after 10 minutes had to remind the waitress he was there and wanted coffee. Another older lady walked past my breakfast table with a bucket of cleaning chemical bottles then came back a few minutes later with the empty bucket, then back again with a bucket that evidently contained hot water with cleaning chemicals in as the stench went up my nose, at which point I walked out of breakfast. Why not go around the back way? Nobody at this place has the first idea about customer service. Returned to my room to make a cup of tea with water that I purchased myself - no bottles in the room - and eat a muffin that I picked up on the way out. I bit into the muffin and found that it was sour and disgusting - clearly very old and gone off - so that went straight in the bin.

I should have trusted my instincts and just driven home through the snow rather than settle for this awful place. I had no choice but to stay here as a course that I was booked onto chooses to use it for reasons I couldn’t even begin to guess at. The positives - there are few - are the history and architecture, which are undeniable. When you first walk in, it is a striking building. It is such a shame that everything else lets it down so badly. I suspect the problems start with Greene King’s tightness with money - but they end with the staff and their complete lack of interest. Presumably they are paid a salary regardless so feel they have no stake in...

We got married at Rothley court in June and had a fabulous wedding there. Kate the wedding coordinator and all the wedding team and all those more behind the scenes making the meals for the wedding breakfast and evening buffet, serving the meals, reception staff and cleaning staff, etc, did a great job making the day run successfully and smoothly.

Our wedding was held in the beautiful and atmospheric chapel with registrars, so the wedding ceremony has a fantastic church-like setting and the whole event is in one location, as the wedding breakfast, evening buffet, etc, is next door in the main hotel. Plenty of parking and many of our guests stayed in the hotel.

Thanks to Iris events for doing a fabulous job decorating the chapel and the wedding breakfast room.

We only had one hitch in the wedding, which was Rebecca Barnes harpist (seems to have started using Rebecca Witts since this happened) did not turn up and when Kate the wedding coordinator at Rothley phoned her, said we had no booking (despite having paid in full and seen her a few weeks before, where she played our music selection). We only got an admission of error and refund when we contacted her later showing proof of payments. Anyway, Kate the wedding coordinator at Rothley was on hand to provide recorded music, if necessary, but we fortunately had friends who stepped in at the last minute (literally), so to everyone else everything went without a noticeable difference.

We also had a fabulous cake from Bay Tree Cakes, who were very friendly and helpful from the start and all the way through the process to delivery of a great looking cake with our own music selections around the cake and with different flavours in each tier and some gluten free cupcakes.

Thanks to David Kinsey Photography for taking our fabulous wedding photos.

All of our guests said what a wonderful venue, with the chapel and hotel and grounds and many told me it was a fabulous wedding occasion. Our wedding breakfast was in the Templar room upstairs decorated beautifully by Iris Events and the buffet and disco in the Wilberforce room downstairs. Plus people could also sit outside and enjoy the grounds and setting in the evening because it was summer. Everything ran smoothly and both us and guests said the meals and buffet were great.

I'm sure some places might have posher/newer rooms, but Rothley has a lovely atmosphere, friendly and helpful staff, rooms with character in the main hotel and a lovely chapel all in one place. Everything was coordinated well and ran smoothly. We had looked at a number of places and we are so glad we decided on Rothley Court and our guests told us they thought it was great too. Thank you to all staff that made it such a great day (and great breakfast the...