Woolley Grange - A Luxury Family Hotel

We stayed for a couple of nights with our two young children and there was lots to like. Our room was fantastic, with bunk beds for the kids, a very comfy bed for us, and the pool, Den and play areas were all excellent. It’s clearly a hotel that understands the needs of families when it comes to facilities. Unfortunately, the food and drink service really let the stay down. Coffees regularly took 30 - 40 minutes to arrive (if at all), even after chasing, and food service was similarly slow, with the food itself fairly average given the prices. Judging by other reviews, this doesn’t seem to be a one-off. If you’re also going to have lounge areas and offer table service, they need to be properly staffed and serviced. Otherwise, put QR codes on the tables so ordering a drink doesn’t become a two stage endurance event - first finding someone to order from, then waiting for it to appear. A couple of the staff were excellent, but others seemed inexperienced or simply stretched too thin and in need of more training and support. If you’re charging these prices, you need enough people on shift to deliver quick, efficient service - especially in a family hotel. And kids are the toughest critics: at almost every meal ours were asking, “Where’s our food?” and “Why is it taking so long?”. Once you’ve lost the kids, any hope of a relaxing meal tends to disappear pretty quickly too. We’ve been fairly regular visitors to Another Place in the Lake District, which offers similarly strong family facilities but, in our experience, much slicker and friendlier service. An enjoyable stay overall, but improving the food and drink operation and general levels of service would make a huge difference.

Went for a pre booked afternoon tea, service very poor waitress attitude very poor, food average scones too hard, flies around food when bought out, fruit flies in abundance we put serviette over food trying to keep them off, asked for a hard chair to sit on waitress asked what do you mean !! Coffee not good no sugar offered !! All in all very poor atmosphere certainly would never go back . All staff seemed wrapped up in their own world customers seemed to be a nuisance

Plus points - the house and grounds are lovely. As so many reviewers have mentioned, the service is poor, as is the coffee. I went this morning with a friend and we ordered two lattes which were just hot milk - could barely taste the coffee. I mentioned this to a waitress who was clearly irritated by my feedback and I was charged the full amount (£10.13) - no apology given or discount. Not my first visit to Woolley Grange but certainly my last.