Reviews of The Castle Hotel, Bishop Auckland
Review by Mr A Jackson on 7th September, 2007
Add your review Date visited: 1 September 2007
My wife had booked us into the Castle hotel Bishop Auckland via their website so we could stay over after attending an evening wedding reception. I would never stay there again nor would I recommend it to anyone for the following reasons:
1. Reception – unmanned, accessed via a back door with a notice on it to call a mobile number. This we ignored and when someone heard us come in they came to attend.
2. We had to pay in full as we checked in – this should have set alarm bells ringing.
3. Car parking was non existent. We were told to park in the short stay until 18:00 hrs and then try and get some on street parking nearby. This meant that we had to keep going back to the carpark every couple of hours to renew our ticket. The web-site advertises CCTV, but fails to mention that you can’t park in the street during the day.
4. Room was ok but the TV picture just constantly rolled. We asked if we could swap rooms, but were told that the hotel was fully booked and that all of the televisions in all rooms had the same fault.
5. Old newspaper from June still in cupboard in room – my wife through it out.
6. The bar toilets were disgusting and in disrepair
7. The pool table lights did not work and the staff person did not know how to get them to work.
8. The staircase was dirty and untidy
9. We were told there was no chef and that the night porter would do breakfast between 07:00 and 09:00. As it was a Sunday we asked if we could have it later, 09:30- 10:00 and were told they would see what they could do, but could not promise.
10. Breakfast next morning in the “Residents Lounge”: 1. Was made only after we went to find someone to make it. It appeared that the night porter had gone home, so the bar person had to make it. 2. The tables were left uncleaned and unset. You had to make your own coffee and the breakfast once finally received left a lot to be desired.
11. The bathroom in our bedroom had not been cleaned behind the door for at least a week.
12. After complaining to the Manageress on the evening about the TV and breakfast arrangements. She blatantly fobbed us off with why she can’t fix anything.
13. The hotel has a sign outside promoting its food, but we had to ask to have a breakfast at 9:30 am.
14. Loud noise from the pubs outside went on until 2pm in the morning, so we had very little sleep!!!
All in all it was the worst hotel I have stayed at in a very long time. In fact, I didn’t think hotels could operate like that these days. Maybe a visit from the Durham Tourist board is in order.
Review by Tricia on 19th August, 2007
Add your review Date visited: 18 Aug 2007
My partner and I decided late morning to make a trip south, checking on the internet for a hotel/b&b we came across the Castle Hotel in Bishop Aukland. This hotel the first one of quite a few with availability that night it looked and sounded respectable so we made a booking..My partner jokingly asked why I hadnt questioned why they had availability when other hotels in the area hadnt. We found out the reason,,The telly didnt work properly the screen rolled,(apparently all the rooms television were the same) the hospitality tray was dirty and had very little on,,, staff did respond and supply us with items after being asked. There was a newspaper from the middle of june still in the bedside drawer. The manageress a pleasant person did offer us sole use of the residents lounge and the television in there worked perfectly. We ate a very good meal in the nearby Italian,,,,highlight of the outing. After taking a drink from the bar upstairs to the residents lounge and viewing a few programmes we went to bed to sleep. Or I should have said we tried to sleep, Lound music seemed to surround us this lasted until about 1am in the morning after which came the revellers departing the area in taxis, then the intruder alarm on the local Italian rstaurant went off and then two other residents of the hotel decided to shout rather than talk to each other as they came to bed. Breakfast was acceptable if you can ignore having to wash the cereal bowls before you use them,(grey dust stuck to my fingers as I wiped my hand over one) get clean glasses (lipstick free) from behind the bar and ask in stages for one english breakfast,,, can we get coffee??? this arrived then can we have toast?... this was then brought to the table. Civil pleasant staff.. but I could not say this made up for the sticky stair bannisters, dirty complimentary tea/coffee tray and the general feeling of not enough time and effort into the B&B side of the business 2/10 and the two is for the two staff. Never again.
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