Review of the Lakes Hotel, Windermere
By Darren Cronian on Friday, June 1st, 2007

As I have mentioned previously, I always check Trip Advisor to read reviews of the hotel I am planning to book prior to booking, and Lakes Hotel, had one review, which was negative, but I decided to still book, because of the location and price.

I should have taken the advice off Trip Advisor

What a mistake that was..

The Lakes Hotel is located only a minute’s walk from Windermere station, and tourist information office, so is perfect for those travelling by public transport. The hotel itself though is run down, and is badly managed in my opinion.

We arrived at 10.30am, and was told that the room wouldn’t be available until 1pm – that was probably my fault because I did say we would be arriving around 1pm but I got mixed up with the bus times, so we went for a walk and came back just after 1pm.

After ringing the bell for sometime the owner appeared, and gave us our room key, but said that the hotel is still not ready and to come back at 2.30pm. We returned, to find a note on the hotel door to say that the hotel is closed until 4.30pm, so again we disappeared and went for another sightseeing trip.

Arrived back at the hotel at 4.30pm and went straight to the room – the room smelt horrible, it was run-down, dark and dingy; the only window to the outside was small window with a brick wall just in front of it, so not exactly scenic views.

I left the room, and went straight to the reception desk, and told them I wasn’t going to book the room, and left in disgust – thankfully I didn’t pay until I had seen the room. It only took us 10 minutes to find another B&B called Brendan Chase, which was in a good location, had bright and airy rooms, and was slightly cheaper.

Lesson learnt – read various review sites, and go with your gut instinct.


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14 responses to “Review of the Lakes Hotel, Windermere”

Julie | 1 June, 2007 at 11:19 pm

What do you do if the initial reviews on trip advisor are good and you book your hotel based on these reviews.

After booking, it seems all the reviews have been negative - and all cite a change in management.

Is it possible to renegotiate the choice of hotel without penalty with the people you booked with? (in this case BA). Can you use travelers’ reviews as a reason?

Darren Cronian | 2 June, 2007 at 11:26 am

Julie, I’d say that you would have a nights stay to pay for at least, and then the hassle of finding another hotel. All that Trip Advisor can do is advise you and it’s best to check a few review sites before booking.

gje | 2 June, 2007 at 1:19 pm

You lost me

Your gut instinct said go there….or not?

Julie | 2 June, 2007 at 2:00 pm

Read the first sentence. I did check review sites before booking . They were all good at the time of booking (which is a few months ago). As the date gets closer, the reviews have become negative, which concerns me.

Darren Cronian | 2 June, 2007 at 2:18 pm

Julie,

Yes, you refer just to trip advisor though

>> What do you do if the initial reviews on trip advisor are good and you book your hotel based on these reviews

What I am saying is dont just check trip advisor, check other hotel review websites.

If you have booked and then see bad reviews, if booked through sites like ebookers then y ou could change the booking but I am not sure if theres a fee for changing the booking

Who did you book through? (BA?)

Darren Cronian | 2 June, 2007 at 2:20 pm

gje,

No what I am saying is that if you read reviews of a hotel and your head says don’t book it then follow that. The hotel I booked had 1 review and the review wasn’t very complementarity but I still went ahead and booked it which was a mistake for me.

Rohan | 2 June, 2007 at 2:32 pm

We use trip advisor all the time.

What other hotel review sites could we use Darren?

Darren Cronian | 3 June, 2007 at 3:45 am

Rohan,

Have a read of this blog post

http://www.travel-rants.com/2007/03/15/read-hotel-reviews-before-you-book/

It gives some good sites to check out.

Debbie | 3 June, 2007 at 12:57 pm

How weird, we stayed at the Brendan Chase b&b too and the room and breakfast was fantastic.

Darren Cronian | 3 June, 2007 at 1:01 pm

Debbie, I agree, I think it deserves a hotel review of it’s own, so I’ll do that this week.

Jax | 20 July, 2007 at 7:04 pm

There is an easier way - look for its AA or VistBritain star rating on http://www.visitbritain.com or http://www.theaa.com and don’t book anything without one. These star ratings are given based on an anonymous, overnight stay by a trained professional inspector. They are not subjective (positive or negative) and any areas of doubt warrant a second visit. Reviews on the other hand may have been posted by someone with a grudge, a competing business, the owners themselves or journalists after a sensational story - and as the consumer you have no way of knowing which it is.

john | 2 January, 2008 at 12:01 am

Interesting article but it may be worth noting that nealry all hotels don’t usually accept new arrivals until 1pm due to having to clean the rooms etc.

George Burke | 3 February, 2008 at 5:31 pm

Why not just use priceline to book your rooms you could have probably stayed at a much nicer hotel for the same price using the bid now feature. I do it all the time. The biggest problem I have is all the pillows they put on the bed. I also hate those fancy comforters with the sheet around it and the comforter in the middle. I am so W.T. I don’t know what they are called. Probably some French name.

Nick | 26 February, 2008 at 11:53 am

Thanks for the heads up I was looking at the this place!
Now to have a look around the site for other places I shouldn’t go!

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