Lyme Regis, Alexandra Hotel

You may wonder why I have given Lyme Regis, Alexandra Hotel such a low rating when overall there are so many good points. The reason is this - we had our wedding reception here. As a hotel it is lovely but as a wedding venue I couldn't recommend it. Whilst the days itself ran relatively smoothly and the tables looked fantastic, they did manage to lose bouquets for mums and bridesmaids, didn't serve toasts on time and didn't bother to get a photo signed by guests as they arrived, the service in the lead up to the big event was appalling.

We had an intital meeting with the manager who also arranges the weddings last year. We booked our day and 3 bedrooms. We paid 50% deposit on rooms at this stage. The next time I looked on the internet I saw there was a 3 nights for 2 offer and our booking fitted all the relevent criteria.

My father very kindly paid for the reception meal and mentioned the online offer. He was told that it didn't apply to him! I found this a bit rich as

A. He had just spent a lot of money

B. He had had to chase the hotel manager in order to pay that money! (3 messages left that weren't returned!)

C. The offer did apply (as later confirmed by another member of staff after my parents had made other plans)

About a month and a half before our wedding, we discovered that the grooms mother had cancer and would not be able to make it to the wedding. I called the hotel manager 3 times over the next 3 weeks and none of my messages were returned. I did not really want to discuss the situation with anyother member of staff as the manager was hitherto our point of contact.

We paid a visit to Lyme about 2 1/2 weeks beofre wedding to sort out last minute details. I had phoned the hotel several times and spoken to the older lady at reception. I wanted to check that the manager would be there so I could go over some last minute details and introduce our photographers. She was very dismissive and wouldn't book an appointment. She kept saying that the manager should be there!

As it turned out the manager wasn't there on the day our photographers were which was a pain. We finally saw the manger to sort out last minute details and all was fine until we mentioned we would no longer require one of the rooms. She said we would have to sort this out with reservations (even though she was manager and had taken our initial booking?) We were not unduly surprised when reservations told us that despite the fact the grooms mother had cancer, that we had paid a lot of money for our reception and several of our friends were staying (incidently no discount ever offered for wedding guests who were staying!) that we would have to pay an 80% cancelation fee!!!!!

We said this was outrageous and the girl said she would speak to the manager, who was now 'out'. We finally received a phone call from the miserable old lady to say they would waive the fee if they rebooked the room. (In off season March - hmmm) This was entirely unsatisfactory and showed a total lack of compassion. I said as much and was told by lady -well we've got to protect ourselves! As it was obvious that the room would not get rebooked, one of the grooms relatives very kindly stayed in the room so we would not have to pay or have the argument about the cancellation fee before the wedding.

All in all, it was a lovely day only spoilt by the mean mindedness of hotel management. We really felt that the attitude was that they were doing us a favour letting us have our reception there. If you want a reception where nothing is too much trouble and staff bend over backwards to make you feel special then to not go there.