I want to rate this hotel at 3.5 stars, but I've r...

I want to rate this hotel at 3.5 stars, but I've rounded it up as I think 3 stars is too harsh.

The hotel is set in lovely grounds, and the buildings themselves are suitably historic and well maintained. We (3 couples) stayed in rooms 36, 37 & 40 and they're lovely spacious rooms, recently refurbished but missing something in the way of character - some soft furnishings like pictures on the walls would make it feel more homely.

The staff were very hit and miss. Check in was messy, we'd booked 2 rooms originally on Groupon then added another room later, but rather than everything ready for when we turned up as far as individual billing for the rooms goes, instead we had to establish with the reception staff who was paying for what, and were then incorrectly charged anyway. The mistake was spotted and rectified immediately, but it shouldn't have happened at all. And bearing in mind we'd also booked some spa treatments, we should have been issued with 2 room cards from the off, rather than having to request then after we were handed single entry cards. We also asked to reserve a table for 6 to eat in the restaurant and were told this would happen, but when we arrived in the restaurant later that evening they had no knowledge the booking, and were borderline surly in having to deal with us, an attitude that carried on through the meal. The food was good but 3 of the party of 6 are vegetarians, and not only was there a lack of imagination on vegetarian mains but there didn't seem to be any real enthusiasm in preparing something else.



So to sum up, a few little tweaks, some decent training and improved processes, and awareness of customer needs and this could be an excellent hotel.