Little Smeaton Holidays

The positive: Staff were great. Good location in town centre. Bed was clean, as was the bathroom. The negatives, and there were many: Bedroom looked grubby, sofa with several stains and the carpet was in need of a good vacuuming and clean. Furniture surface lamination lifting off, bathroom shelf was struggling to stay on the wall. And where are the bedside lamps? What happened to the buffet breakfast? Two slices of toast and preserves, along with an apology. The hotel management need some guidance with regards to fixtures and fittings. It should be a grand hotel, and can be, but it is let down by the overall condition.

It’s difficult, because I can understand the wide range of reviews. The fact that there are no staff on site, coupled with an unusual door access system, makes thinking of this as a hotel (never mind the star rating) somewhat of a stretch. Having said that, a mobile number was provided if needed. Our room was clean (although somewhat dated) and had all the equipment we expected. One big issue that we only subsequently learned about was that some of the rooms did not have an en suite. Ours did (with a much-appreciated heated towel rail), but I would have been very annoyed if we had been allocated a room without. Make sure of your room number! The location is excellent. Parking is available, but limited, so don’t be the last to arrive. All in all, we enjoyed our stay and felt we had good value for money.

We chose not to have breakfast but the choice seemed good and the dining area is in a lovely setting. My only gripes would be that there was no fridge or water in our room and I could not speak to a receptionist, having to leave a message instead the day before we arrived, which was not responded to. Overall cleanliness was good.