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“Chose Ruthin Castle based upon their website. I have...”

written by oldwease on 21/03/2005

Good Points
Set in own grounds, quiet and quite good cuisine. Friendly peacocks in the grounds! Magnificent carved marble lions at entrance.

Bad Points
Communal rooms OK but much of the Hotel is very tired and in need of upgrading/modernisation. Overall standard well below that implied by brochures/website.

General Comments
Chose Ruthin Castle based upon their website. I have to say, we expected a much higher standard than in fact exists.



Our bedroom was "functional" only. The decor was generally poor with mould visible on the ceiling. The bathroom fixtures and fittings were again very old and poor, though the taps worked! The room came complete with clanging central heating radiator (old style, of course).



In general, the housekeeping was sloppy. While towels were neatly turned out each day, cobwebs were left hanging in the room. On the last day, we were invaded by flies; perhaps the spiders are left intentionally as a "home guard". The scale of the invasion was such however that we provided reinforcements for any spider brigades present and set about swatting at least 14 flies!



The Hotel encourage wedding parties. While accepting that this is a commercial reality, it was unfortunate that the particular wedding party during our stay seemed intent simply on getting drunk. As a result, they took over the Hotel completely, even managing to set off the fire alarm around midnight.



Breakfast was standard fare with a cooked buffet available. It seems everybody was expected to make use of that. If the cooked offering was not to your taste, the options were limited. No yogurts were available and some of the sliced fruit seemed to be sourced from tins! The staff were efficient however.



We had dinner one evening which was good. There was a choice between a set Menu du Jour and A La Carte. This offered a good choice. This was probably the highlight of the stay.