I just wanted to let you know about our golf break experience at the Vale Resort this weekend. The whole weekend started off really well, the golf on Saturday was fantastic on the Lakes course. We finished our golf and then checked in. Our dinner time was at 7.30 but they allowed us to push it back to 8.30pm. When we got up to the club house, we asked why we weren't down in the restaurant, to which we were told, golf breaks always come up here as they are too rowdy and we always get complaints from families and other people staying in the hotel. To be branded with the same brush so early on wasn't great and we felt upset by that. We were just four blokes there to enjoy the weekend. The menu choice wasn't great, being a four star hotel it felt limited. There was also a £5 supplement for one of the choices. Our starters came out and my friend ordered the seafood salad and it was stone cold, when the waitress checked back to clear our plates, my friend asked, ``Was that meant to be so cold", the reply was "what do you expect, seafood is cold!". So we felt a little upset by that answer. Our mains came out and we asked if we could have a portion of chips as an extra, the waitress went back to the chef and asked, outloud we heard " if they want chips go to the other bar!" Again that wasn't the answer we were looking for, again that was rude and very unwelcoming. We were rushed through our dinner, where we were literally in and out in 30 mins max for a three course meal.
The next day, we had our tee off time on the main course, we turned up and there was a golf society on the 1st tee. The course marshall then asked our group name, to which we replied. They had let some of the society off in front of us. We were then told we can tee up and go, this meant we were playing in between them. The golf took forever as we were held up on every hole and every shot, our round took over 5 hours. As you can imagine this wasn't great and as golfers we shouldn't have to wait on every tee and every shot.
We came away from your resort feeling very deflated. I have to say, we've been looking forward to playing and staying at your hotel for a long time. It's not every day you get to play a European Tour event course and stay in a four star hotel. All in all I wanted to share with you our experiences this weekend so mistakes like that wont happen again. We paid a good sum of money for a poor experience I'm afraid. My wife has stayed at your hotel many times, and she spoke so highly of your hotel and restaurant and that was a real pull for us in booking your hotel and golf.
I called the Vale and emailed the manager but there has been no response at all.
