Oulton Hall – Leeds

The Hall itself is lovely surrounded by lovely grounds and has very welcoming staff. My spa treatment was fantastic with maybe the only gripe being the seating area outside the pool wasn’t big enough for busy periods. Buffet lunch was tasty and despite paying £35! Yes £35 for 1 bottle of Prosecco I was happily looking forward to the evening meal for my sister’s hen night. 11 of us in total. THAT’S WHEN IT ALL FELL FLAT.

The restaurant manager couldn’t seem to find us on the list initially but as we had all pre-ordered, seated us. After a few minutes we noticed a distinct lack of waiters and the few there where seemed overworked and under trained and all of them had a fascination for filling up water Jugs but doing little else. We waited 45 minutes for starters, another 30 mins for mains and after waiting another 45 mins for desserts we walked out. Remember these meals were pre-ordered.

The waiters did have time however to sing umpteen verses of happy birthday to another group and noisily clear away the table behind me slating some of the other customers whilst doing so.

The evening was saved by the lady manager who we complained to. She had our desserts brought to us and supplied us with lots of free drinks.

My advice would be if you are charging premium rates ALL of your services must be premium. The service in your restaurant is not worthy of a beefeater at the moment. Poor management filters down.

You shouldn’t have to throw away profits making customers happy, which you seem to have to do a lot. Just sort out the area’s that are letting your hotel down.

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend this hotel. Forest Pines is a much better choice, as is The Village hotel in Hull. Shame really.

Stayed for a 1 night spa break with my friends. Lunch was okay and I had a very good massage with Olivia but sadly that’s the only positive thing I can say about my very disappointing stay at this hotel. From my experience, this hotel is a one size fits all hotel. It try’s to portray itself as a luxury stay but actually just crams as many people into the place as is possible with no consideration for its guests or for the experience they hope to have. The hotel was full to the brim with weddings, group spa breaks, couples nights away etc. We were issued with dressing gowns and slippers.

After a relaxing massage we sent into the so called “relaxation room” which upon entering resembled the inside of city centre hostel dormitory with about 3 ladies per bed and no water or drinks available.

We decided instead to head to the pool which was again rammed with people sitting in every available space in and around and on the sides of the pool. The spa area had a very small coffee area which was also full so with nowhere to relax we decided to head to the drawing room for afternoon tea only to be told upon arrival that we could not enter in our gowns. We were told instead that we could sit in the champagne bar so we headed there and sat down in one of the settees hoping to have some champagne and cakes but again we were approached by a waiter and asked to leave!!

We were made to feel like vermin whilst dressed in the gowns issued by the hotel and whilst trying to enjoy the afternoon for which we had paid for a spa hotel break!! At no point were we advised that the gowns could not be worn in the hotel and it would have been more palatable if we were able to sit in the spa but given that this area had been overbooked it seemed shocking that we were unable to sit anywhere other than the internal corridor or our bedroom to have a drink. This is not what we envisaged for our spa break.

The dinner was average at best with no bread to keep hunger at bay whilst we waited 2 hours to be served our main course. Service was very slow due to the high volumes of customers and the fillet steak priced at £28 did not represent good value in my opinion. We usually go to the nearby Thorpe Park Hotel & Spa which is set at a similar price point for a spa package and in my opinion is a far more comfortable and relaxing experience plus we are treated there like people and not like cattle which is what we were made to feel like at Oulton Hall. I will not be returning to this hotel and unfortunately, due to my disappointing experience I am unable to recommend this hotel to others

My wife and I first visited Oulton Hall in August 2016 for our 25th Wedding anniversary. We stayed 2 nights although a bit pricey the surroundings were fabulous and it was a special occasion for us so why not. We had a nice time. We even had time for a spa and a round of golf.

Unfortunately our second visit last weekend has changed our opinion regarding this hotel and these are the reasons why!

The horrendous weather in Newcastle where we live was a real concern regarding travel arrangements so we kindly asked because of the amount of snow that the North East has had could we possibly delay our stay until the following Saturday?…. A point blank no was the answer……so much thought gone into thinking about customers safety I think not!!!!

So having thought long and hard about do we just cancel and lose £157 or do we risk braving the elements ( we already had to abandon our car earlier in the week due to bad weather)….We decided to give it a try.

We arrived at Oulton late afternoon on Saturday with the place really busy 2 Weddings on apparently ( no problem ).

The receptionist explained to us because there were weddings on they gave us a room out of the way on the 3rd floor – how sweet what she failed to tell us is that you have to walk about half a mile and 2 lifts to get there!!

Room was ok. We chilled a bit and decided to phone room service at 21:30 looking from the menu I fancied burger and chips. My wife fancied a chicken burger.
“oh! that’s strange! They’ve hung up me”. My wife said.“Try again” I said.

She dialled the number again and once again after ringing a while the phone was hung up by someone at the other end!!!!

Quite upset she phoned the receptionist who apologised and took our order and was personally going to hand our order to the chef herself. We did ask if the restaurant was still serving we would have gladly dined downstairs we were told that it was too late at 21:35. That’s ok at least we have room service.

Two hours passed without a knock at our hotel door so with rumbling stomachs at this point my wife again phoned reception to ask about our food order to be told by a different receptionist that the kitchen staff had gone home so now no food available. Apologetic a note of our treatment will be made and passed on to a manager on the morning.

Meanwhile, my wife and I had nothing to eat all day by now and we’re not in the least happy!
I think personally it had been a busy night for the kitchen staff who couldn’t be bothered to do another room service delivery especially at the very far end of the hotel so decided to hang up!!!!!! Twice!!!!!

Probably told the receptionist to do one when she personally tried to give our order to them and yet this may get swept under the carpet because the money at the hotel keeps rolling in.

We left the hotel early Sunday morning having expressed our feelings to the duty manager who turned out to be powerless in resolving our issues. One would think that good customer service is of paramount importance but hey!ho! not in this instance!

Meanwhile back to the North East we had a lovely Sunday pub lunch at our favourite place and felt valued once again.

My Husband and I stayed for Saturday & Sunday night to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

Having viewed the online photographs of the Hotel / rooms on the De Vere site along with reading the previous reviews on Tripadvisor prior to booking we had high expectations. However these weren’t met:

– On a plus note the parking & Check In / Check Out were both hassle-free.

– We booked a De Vere Double Deluxe room rather than the Chambre Unique as we specifically wanted a Kingsize bed. When we booked in we were given directions to our room which was on the 3rd floor and a substantial distance from the main reception area. We were advised it was in the ‘quiet area’…. This we found translated into outdated / forgotten about rooms when we eventually entered our room. The furniture was old & worn in pine, we had to struggle to open the doors to the wardrobe and unit and they barely closed. The bathroom was tiny with cheap toiletries. On first impressions I was disappointed with the room and considered i’d stayed in better Premier Lodges for a fraction of the cost!

– Things got worse when we started getting ready for the evening, much to our dismay we discovered the tiles in the bath/shower were covered in mould & once we turned the cold water tap on in the bath it would not turn off! Following a complaint to reception, Housekeeping arrived to clean the bathroom and turn the tap off. We then had to stick to the shower as couldn’t use the cold tap in the bath. We were offered a move to a Chambre Unique, but not until midday Sunday due to it being fully booked.

– We moved on the Sunday and were pleased to be located on the 1st floor closer to the main area of the hotel. The room was more modern looking and contrary to the literature appeared to have the same size bed as the double delux. Had we have known this we’d have booked it in the 1st place! The toiletries were Espa which was nice, the bathroom looked better, but still not overly clean and the black ‘public lavatory’ toilet seat was a bit off putting. The room didn’t have a fridge / minibar.

– We were given a complimentary bottle of wine for our inconvenience which was a nice gesture. We opted not to eat our evening meals at the hotel as the menus appeared quite limited and there was noting we fancied.

– the breakfast was buffet style, there was plenty of food on offer, but unfortunately it was somewhat cold.

– The pool area was nice.

All in all we’d consider this hotel to be dated and in need of some TLC. However the staff were all very polite and courteous

Beautiful building, quite dated in the area of the hotel we stayed in.

The dinner service and food were very poor. We were seated at 8pm and were still waiting for mains at 10.30pm. The soup starter was quite simply awful. So much so that they took it off the menu. This is unlike any De Vere hotel I have ever stayed at…and I have visited a lot of them. The food and service were so poor they offered to send out free Sunday lunch vouchers so that try we them again….. the only problem is that they have never actually sent us them!!

The spa and treatments were again not up to the usual De Vere standard!

I am sure this is not the norm for them, however, we were very disappointed.

Turned up for a golf break this weekend which was booked last September to be told, that despite paying for single supplements, we all had to share!

Given an option of staying in a hotel 25 mins away. Not ideal if you want a relaxing game of golf and a couple of pints after. 1and a half bottles of bud put on our table as an apology one evening.

Q hotels obviously put profit before customer service.

Oh and don’t bank on a buggy if you want one, only 12 available for a very busy course.

Reviewed by a tired golfer who had no sleep due to sharing with a loud snorer!

Oulton Hall held promise.

A very grand entrance, but the anticipation waned with every footstep along the long corridors towards room 179. The room was ordinary. Everything worked, but it was a bit tired – chips on the bath, crack in the mirror, etc.

The warning sign should have been the frosted lower windows, but after an eight hour drive including Leeds rush hour, we were anxious to get to our function. The night was punctuated by a noisy fan.

Thinking it was the air conditioning (which didn’t do anything to keep the room cool enough for restful sleep) I turned it off. The noise continued for a while, then went off. Only to re-appear every hour or so, waking me up. In the morning, it was clear what it was – outside the room, instead of a view across the West Riding, if you climbed up and looked out of the upper window panes was a view of dustbins, laundry, deliveries and a very large refrigerated container. With large fans on the roof.

Feeling tired through lack of sleep (not alcohol-related, simply the disturbance) we did breakfast. Pleasant host, helpful staff. But the food was also tired. Scrambled egg floating in a liquid, etc. You know the score. Not the best ingredients. Damaged pepper pot summed it up. Oh, well. How about a cup of coffee? Decaffeinated for my wife? Sorry, we only have instant. OK, a nice expresso? That will be extra, sir… Any smoked salmon, perhaps? We could do you kippers, but they would be extra, sir.

On checkout, the manager was charming. The hotel wasn’t full, so why didn’t we arrange a room change last night? The simple truth, at midnight we weren’t aware of the problem, only every hour after that. And if you had other rooms (which you clearly did) why do you put guests into the crappy ones first? We were given a small reduction, but the experience was still a 4 star price for a poor star experience. It would appear that the hotel has little discretion, being part of the Q hotels group who clearly specialise in taking hotels over, cutting costs and running them down. Well done, you have achieved this. I frequently stay in 4 star hotels; this is one of the worst I have come across. If you pay that price, you expect coffee from beans, you don’t expect to have to pay extra for breakfast components.

I was offered a better room next time. Sorry, there won’t be one – here or anywhere else – if I am aware of it being another Q hotel.

It may have been a uniquely bad experience. But do check your room when you go there. £155 for a dustbin view isn’t what you expect from somewhere badged as luxury.

And, by the way, there was some sort of music coming out of the bathroom extraction fan. But you can at least throw loo roll at it and stop that.