Hotel Grange-over-Sands dengan Spa

MY wife and I stayed for three nights at the end of September, accompanied by my brother; we dined in the hotel restaurant for two of those nights. The staff were friendly, helpful and effective - except in one particular matter: I gave explicit instructions when I checked in that on no account should my brother be allowed to pay any part of my bill. Nevertheless he was able to persuade the person on duty when he checked out that he should be allowed to pay for my 'incidentals' - my drinks-bill and the like. How could this be allowed to happen? I was very irritated. We stayed in Room 220 - which was a fine-looking room, but with a number of oddities about the choice and arrangement of the furniture and facilities that made for inconvenience in living comfortably there. I say the same now as I said to the Manager on my departure: the hotel needs to put a couple into the room (preferably, members of staff) to live there for at least 24 hours, making detailed notes about what is lacking, what is inconvenient, and so on. It would be interesting to see what they say about having a shower, or about finding the light-switch in the middle of the night. Why is a large part of the bedroom occupied by one of those old-fashioned scroll bathtubs (with no soap holder or towel rail) when the space would be better occupied by a chest to store clothes in? Why is the bathroom fitted with two wash-basins, positioned next to and at right-angles to each other so that only one of them can be used at any one time? All managers should periodically stay in each of a hotel's bedrooms and experience what it is that their guests have to put up with. We enjoyed our stay, but would have enjoyed it more if attention had been given to The Guest Experience seen from the guest's point of view. (Parking was a bit of a nightmare too, but admittedly it was a very, very busy weekend for the hotel, which managed the flow of guests magnificently, especially at breakfast).

Lets get my gripe out of the way first. When booking, I mad clear that the presence of a lift was important to me because of my age and lack of movement. It was confirmed that there was a lift. Imagine my distress when, on arrival, I found it to be not working and it was 26 steps to my room (not counting the 16 steps required to get into the hotel). 52 steps just to pop down for breakfast or the bar! To be fair, I was given a very generous discount in compensation on my final bill. The hotel is a beautiful building in a lovely setting. Great views over Morecambe bay from my bedroom and the dining rooms. My room was very comfortable, spotlessly clean. The old window-sills showed their age. The breakfast was excellent and I was quite touched when staff assisted me in getting food from the help-yourself buffet. The menu for dinner was imaginative; the food was excellent and well presented, but I felt that it was quite pricey and that a 15% reduction would have been nearer the mark. Staff: all were friendly and very helpful. The range of beers in teh bard was rather poor though bar staff were friendly, in keeping with the hotel staff generally.