Eleanor Borland

Review of Howletts and Port Lympne Wild ...

We were guests at a wedding at Port Lympne and dec...

We were guests at a wedding at Port Lympne and decided to stay overnight as it was also our wedding anniversary.

From booking, to check-in and the bottle of prosecco we had ordered with our room mistakes were being made constantly. There didn't appear to be any communication between teams or any general understanding of what was going on. From double booking our room, to trying to force us to check in at 2pm despite repeatedly being told we were attending the wedding at 2pm and then forgetting our prosecco.

The staff members that had to sort out the mess their colleagues before them had created were to their credit very good. We were offered accomodation in their new Forest Hideaway without additional charge to rectify the double booking, we were eventually checked in & then driven down to the wedding in a buggy so we wouldn't be late. And our prosecco was upgraded to champagne half an hour after we reported it was missing.

The forest Hideaway could have been lovely, it certainly looked it however it had clearly been rushed as fixings were falling off the walls and one of the doors couldn't open. Don't be fooled into thinking it will be completely quiet as a "hideaway" either as it is next to a main road which can be noisy.

The reserve is amazing and use of huggies was brilliant. The signage however is pretty poor so make sure you allow plenty of time to see everything you want to and don't forget your map otherwise you'll have no hope!

TL;DR - Beautiful place with some poorly finished elements. Mostly good customer service but simple mistakes shouldn't have been made in the first place