Dartmoor, Bovey Castle

My wife and I recently attended a wedding at Bovey Castle. The surroundings are lovely and the hotel's decor is very nice. The service however was shocking. During the wedding breakfast a waitress spilt a cup of coffee over my wife. The apology was very curt and the waitress made no offer of a clean cloth or napkin, and didn't even ask my wife if she was Ok, bearing in mind a scalding cup of coffee had just landed in her lap. My wife was left to clean up the mess using a dirty table napkin and then had to go to the toilet (which involved walking from one side of the hotel to the other and through reception and the other hotel guests, covered in coffee) in order to get some damp tissue to try and salvage the dress. No offer to cover the cost of dry cleaning was made.

The disco/party was in a separate part of the hotel and had its own bar. This bar charged a premium for drinks however and only had Fosters on draught. When I went to the hotel bar to buy a pint of Amstel I was very rudely refused service (in front of a number of other guests) and when I queried this I was told very abruptly that the bar staff had orders not to serve anybody from the wedding. I took this up with reception and was told that they didn't want wedding guests getting in the way of their "exclusive" guests. When I explained that it was the only bar selling the drink I wanted they agreed to bring it over to the bar we were in for the wedding. However, when I got the bill at the end they had charged me £4.00 per pint, rather than the bar price of £3.50.

Overall my wife and I have never been anywhere where we have been so obviously treated by staff as second class citizens, and so cynically exploited for our money. Considering what was spent on the wedding I would expect to be treated as an "exclusive guest" but they made it very clear that they didn't really want our presence or custom, just our money. If you're considering this for a wedding venue and you want a day where you and your guests are treated as special then I wouldn't recommend this as a venue. If you want your guests to be made to feel like second class citizens and leave feeling ripped off and exploited (and covered in coffee) then this is the place for you.

Whilst we enjoyed our stay at Bovey Castle in Dartmoor, we felt that overall the hotel did not provide the level of service and comfort one would expect for the very high prices charged.

We arrived in time for lunch on our first day, and found the service from the bar waiter very abrupt. The menu was unimaginative and overpriced, and the food was of a standard similar to the average pub lunch, eg. beef sandwich made with white sliced packet bread - very disappointing.

The building itself and the gardens are beautiful, and we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy the outside space, as the weather was beautiful during our stay.

Our bedroom was pleasant, and a good size, with lovely views over the grounds, let down by one of the smallest bathrooms I've ever experienced in any hotel, let alone one of this calibre.

Low water pressure and mouldy tile grout let it down further.

At this price, I expect a decent sized bathroom, and really, a separate shower. I'm surprised they get away with this standard of bathroom with all the Americans who stay in the hotel.

The swimming pool, sauna and steam room are very nice, but they are let down by poor changing facilities. The communal changing area with no private cubicles reminded me of school changing rooms. There were no lockers to put your things in, and you just have to leave them on a wooden bench in the changing room, and there were no plastic bags provided to put your wet swimming costume in, so you end up walking through the hotel carrying a soaking wet costume up to your room - nice!

Pre-dinner cocktails in the Piano Bar were very nice. Dinner was enjoyable, and the food was of a good standard, served by pleasant staff, but again, not of the outstanding quality one would expect.

The restaurant was pleasant, but the atmosphere was somewhat lacking. There should perhaps be some way of screening off part of the large restaurant when it is only part full, as this might help improve the ambiance.

On a more positive note, we really enjoyed the wine tasting down in the cellar before dinner. It was informative and interesting. Also, the falconry display out on the terrace after a delicious and excellent breakfast served outside in the glorious sunshine. It was really something special.

The business centre with complimentary internet access and telephones (bearing in mind mobiles don't work here) is very useful too.

When you arrive at the hotel, there is a parking area at the front. There is also a further car park (out of sight) to which the staff move guests' cars until departure. When we arrived, we were in reception and one of the porters came and asked my husband for the car keys to move our car down to the car park. When my husband gave him the keys, he saw the Aston Martin logo, and said "Oh no, Sir, that's fine, your car can stay outside the hotel". Snobbery of any kind is offensive, and really this is snobbery of the worst kind. After all, they are perfectly happy to take your money whatever type of car you have, but by the same token they want to hide your car away if it's not quite up to their perception of acceptable. Not good at all.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay, but we didn't think it was worth the money. Better standards are available elsewhere (even within South Devon) at similar (or lower) prices.