Golden wedding

Our stay at the Bellsfield was a gift from our Son and family in New Zealand.
We were disappointed in the size of our room although the beds were comfortable. Breakfasts were good with very friendly staff. Dinner menu was disappointing and the same both nights. Hotel a bit soulless with no cosy bar to meet other people. So maybe not a couples hotel.

Excellent location however .

We stayed here for our anniversary.
The Rooms were very clean and the staff are very helpful and friendly.
However
The View from room wasn t the best. (Overlooked dirty old 60s garages), the evening menu could of had more variety and breakfast could of been on longer (8-10?). On our 1 nights stay here, it was very noisy as we experienced being woken up numerous times during the night by doors slamming and people walking up and down the corridor. We genuinely had very high expectations of this hotel and the stay which unfortunately wasn t met.

Poor reception

The reception was atrocious, neither friendly or efficient. Impossible also to get them on the room phone!

Expecting more

As always the staff were wonderful, professional and accommodating. However there were many disappointments. On booking this reservation I made it clear that I am disabled and although I didn t need specific facilities I specified that a walk in shower and no stairs was my requirement. In fairness to Offpeakluxury.com they checked with the hotel who assured us that a room with a shower was available and that there were only two steps to negotiate from the lift. On arrival this proved to be very far from the truth, with two steps down and along the corridor there were 8 very steep steps up to the room. I found this upsetting as I could barely get to the top. The room itself was of a disappointing standard with a shower room so cramped it was impossible to take a walking aid in with you. Leaving the room to try and sort things out required me to get down those stairs which did not have a handrail of any sort To say that was dangerous is to underestimate what I felt. Even with help it was painful and difficult and took a lot of time and effort to get down. I have never been made to feel so disabled in my life. All told taking into account the time it took to get a lift which didn t arrive because a previous guest had not closed the gates , it took almost 40 mins to get back to reception, by which time I felt really distressed. In fairness to the staff they did their best to sort the problem although I got the distinct impression that they really didn t understand what the problems were or how disability limits what you can do. The point is that hotels need to be more honest about their disabled facilities or lack of and it needs to be made clear on their website so that people like myself can make informed choices . The Belsfield hotel most decidedly does not cater for disabled guests and that should have been made clear.

Belsfield Hotel

Architecture of the hotel was excellent and its position overlooking lake was outstanding.

The restaurant was very disappointing. The evening dinner had a poor selection and was overpriced,

The breakfast was SO poor . The fruit and cereal selection but the cooked food was, apart from my husband s smoked haddock with poached egg, appalling. Bacon and eggs were overcooked, poached eggs too. We noticed many guests were leaving their food, My second breakfast of poached eggs were served icy cold.

On our last morning the hotel had a coach load of guests and, by the time we arrived for breakfast (9.00am) many items from the buffet were unobtainable. .No marmalade, no danish pastries, etc.
The staff just shrugged off our requests saying they were unable to help as they were out of stock of these items which the coach had devoured at their early breakfast. Bad planning!!

The Lake District at its best

Although the hotel is very luxurious rooms spacious with wonderful views
Very comfortable
We found the restaurant very disappointing
As good choice on the deal we had was very sparse
We had 30 per person for our food with the prices this only meant one of us could have 2 courses
We also waited a long time to be served the wine we had ordered we had started our meal and had to enquire were the wine was which made the experience a bit disappointing.
The hotel it s self is absolutely gorgeous with stunning views from the top of the hill
Just felt a little let down over the restaurant and the service there

The bed room and Restaurant.

1. The bed room was nothing like shown on website. I should ask for compensation for the quality and standard of room.

2. The menu in the restaurant was the same every day and even that was not very good. The starter was just sauce pasted on the plate

2 night stay with friends

Our arrival was really excellent and the reception staff and porter were amazing, the same can t be said of all the bar staff or even one of the managers. The package we had included a boat trip and everything was ready and waiting for us. The bar kept running out of things like Hendrix gin! Fever tree Tonic which they substituted with one that left a horrible after taste in your mouth. The manager who served us in that occasion said no slimline, but the bottle said very low calories, surely that s slimline. The reason we were given for such a poorly stocked bar was a change in ownership of the hotel resulting in a change of supplier. We were directed to the garden one afternoon by a bar tender by going through the small restaurant, however when trying to return the same way we were very abruptly told we couldn t do that it wasn t allowed and a point of the Managers finger sent us around the outside of the building. When I said we were told to enter the garden that way he then admonished the person who told us we could, right in front of us what a bad management style. Each morning we were left standing at the restaurant waiting to be seated while a lady continued taking orders from other guests, on one occasion 3 orders, she had even seen us arrive, poor service. Overall it is a beautiful character hotel but it is in need of a fair bit of TLC in the public areas (our room was beautiful though). Our room was amazing and looked over the lake and the package was good but allowing for the poorly stocked bar and some poorly trained staff and managers I would not say it was a luxurious hotel which is a shame. Having said that we would return with the right package as the location is fabulous.