The Golden Lion Hotel

Absolutely appalling - they ruined my birthday party!

I've been to the Golden Lion many times before and the experience has typically been positive in the past. Until now...

My husband booked a table for 10 people for my birthday three weeks before the date. They took his details over the phone and assured him that everything was arranged for us. So far so good, we thought.

A couple of days before the party, my husband dropped off some table decorations at the restaurant. The staff took them and again, said that everything was fine with our booking and they would place the decoration at the table for our party.

Unfortunately, on the day of the party, we turned up with a group of friends, some of whom travelled for 3 hours to get there, only to be told that they had no record of our booking! We were all shocked. How incompetent does a restaurant have to be to lose a group booking, despite having repeated contact with the customer before the event?

However, what was even more shocking, was the complete lack of professionalism on the part of the Golden Lion employees. There was no attempt to make the situation right, no suggestions, and not even an apology! The response I received from the very young man who told me he was the Manager was, and I quote: "Mistakes happen". This clearly shows the attitude the Golden Lion management team has towards customers who trusted them and booked a table at the restaurant for a special event! They completely let us down on every level.

The young lady who greeted us at the door kept wanting to check if the booking had been made for a different date by mistake - as if that was helpful to us in any way. Neither of them made any attempt to resolve the situation, or even handle it in a professional way. Any suggestions from us (e.g. do you have any other tables you could push together for us?; do you have a function room that we can use instead? or even: is there anywhere else you suggest we can go at lunch time on a Sunday that would have availability for a group of 10??) - were answered with an uninterested 'No'.

Needless to say, I will not be setting my foot at Golden Lion again after this experience. For a restaurant to lose our booking, especially considering that we had repeated contact with them up to a couple of days before the party, is completely unacceptable. We were all extremely disappointed. Having such unprofessional and disengaged staff with no customer service skills and no motivation to own and resolve issues directly caused by them or their colleagues, makes me seriously question the future of this establishment.