Not impressed

this was our second stay at the hotel. our food was cold, no waiter to ask for help, had to walk into reception carrying my plate with meal on it to ask for it to be warmed up. initially, we waited almost 45 minutes for our meal after we ordered. another guest complained about his meal and the waiter was arguing with him..not a nice experience at all

Very poor for the cost.

No parking available on arrival, was told to go & find a public car park. Room was poor considering I paid to upgrade. Room was the furthest away from reception 301, my wife is disabled & so struggled. the shower took about ten minutes to reach a tepid temperature. The only decent thing was the food however you have to pay a premium to get the decent stuff. We were celebrating our golden wedding anniversary & we were very disappointed overall. I certainly won t be going back.

Give it a miss

Paid 350 for a spa weekend (4pm sat through to 12.30om Sunday), hotel disappointing, dated and lacking basics like shampoo. Wifi did not work on our room due to poor signal, water pressure in shower very poor trickled out. Paint flecks on light fittings and staples showing in carpet joins
Curtain rail in bar area fell down whilst we were in there, whole hotel needs some TLC
Food was good in restaurant, service awful staff didn't communicate, waited long time to order drinks, no spoons with soup course, some food tepid
Spa again disappointing, large pool what was on the cool side, sauna room and steam room, no jacuzzi's
Drinks very expensive
Breakfast selection poor, premier inn do a much better breakfast for half the price
The area is nice right on the shores of lake Windermere, would return to the area but not to this hotel.

Disappointed with our stay

When arriving at the hotel we were demanded to have to leave our car and keys with a stranger for the entire stay as the car park was busy, I was not happy with this at all as nothing on previous emails was said about this possibly being an option. I had a bit of a stand off with the lady at reception over this who proceeded to ring multiple people asking questions and loudly stating I felt hesitant about leaving my car making me feel very uncomfortable. Our room was okay, however had a mouldy ice bucket in our room was not nice at all and made us question the cleanliness of the whole room. We then went down stairs to the terrace to enjoy our free welcome drink which the memebers of staff behind the bar new nothing about making us feel like they didn t have much knowledge at all of the offers they give out. We then went for food, the staff were very rude apart from 1 man who was lovely and kept checking if we were okay! But the majority of the staff were not helpful and clearly did not have any passion for the job. When we left the restaurant there was a young girl behind the bar talking very loudly about handing her notice in due to it being so busy, which I found so unprofessional especially when the hotel is expensive these conversations should not happen when in view of customers. Overall we were highly disappointed with our stay as it was a pricey night away as it was, and would definitely not be recommending to a friend

The Terrible 0ld England Bowness.

Where you got your descrition of the hotel from god only knows.This is a run down poorly managed
hotel living on past glories Just one example.We reqested bathrobes and slippers. We were told
none were available as there were problems with the laundry supplier.Every time we left our room
we were met by an icy blast from an open window that could not be closed because the window frame
was rotten.Good prep for the pool, it was FREEZING, another ploy to save money? The only saving
grace to some extent was the restaurant,the food was brill but for some strange reason the staff walked out in the middle of our meal for 15 mins,during our second night
To summarise,we arrived at the Old England with great hopes, having just spent two great nights
at the Novotel in Edinburgh.The Old England by comparison is a one star b&b.

A beautiful hotel just in the right place

The hotel is really lovely. The restaurant evening meal was as good as you could get anywhere along with a lovely breakfast 1st class and highly recommended.

Our room which was of very good proportions overlooked the lake, idyllic!

Only 2 downsides which spoilt it for us, very very poor and patchy internet, we mentioned it 3 times but no solution.

Also, and disappointingly, only luke warm water available in the shower and sink, again mentioned it to reception 3 times but no solution ( the young lady on reception was surprised about the lack of hot water but a quick glance at the hotels reviews reveals it s peppered with negative comments and complaints about the cold water and it been going on for some time now.

Disappointing Stay

We stayed at the Hotel one weekend last year and the only issue we had was the Evening Meal was cold and we had to complain.

Unfortunately when we recently stayed 13th April 2024 we had a few more issues:

A glass of wine for the welcome drink but had to pay 2.50 for a glass of Soda.
We were informed on arrival that the Sauna was out of order.
Evening Meal was cold. Had to complain.
Breakfast was self service, every item on the Breakfast was cold. Had to complain.
In general Hotel would benefit from some

Our experience with offpeak?luxury.

Macdonald Hotel,obviously suffering staff problems and finance for upkeep.Occaisional examples of staff uncaring also lack of humour. Food was nondescript,menu unchangeing,restaurant staff impolite.This is on top of our stay at the Swan at Hay, where most of the above were found,again lack of upkeep maybe helped. The Harbour at Sidmouth was way ahead in the league. Some system of grading would be needed before we book more. We are booked at Buxton and Harrogate, fingers well crossed. Henry Davis.