Upon arrival we were met by the door staff, they were very friendly and directed us to reception. Check in process was easy enough and the young gentleman on reception led us to our room and explained a few things about the surrounding area etc and the heating controls in the room and so on. The room was lovely, it really was spotless, we stayed in a junior suite, had a beautiful view out to the walled garden. Now….. We take our small dog with us, so our stays are dictated by ‘ dog friendly hotels ‘ (and we like nice hotels, 4* +) Grace was made to feel most welcome here and the staff loved her, plenty public areas, lounges etc for her to lay with us, lots of fires on and the building was warm with a nice feel to it. On our first night, we decided that we would opt for Palmers, would thought this would be suitable, as it was expected to be a 5*, more relaxed dining, gastro type place. We were given the menu and after a couple seconds realised the choice was little to nothing special beyond typical pub food, burger, fish n chips etc, and we left, deciding to further opt for room service as we had found a link on the website to the room service menu. I called down, placed our light food order as it was now getting later, i was called back 5 minutes later to be asked where did I find that menu and they no longer serve any of the ‘sandwiches’ I had placed the order for…. And it turned out, the room service menu was actually the Palmers bar menu, so we were really disappointed to say the least as we didn’t want to eat in the bar with the limited ‘pub grub’ food, nor on the other hand were we prepared to pay 10 euros per person for a tray charge to the room for what was the normal menu, so off we went back there, we ate, we left feeling very underwhelmed and with the realisation that the staffing levels were low and they are stretched to the point of the detriment of the hotel. Our experiences of the staff were good, they were all really nice, polite, but there is a lack of presence of someone in charge overall, the shortage of staff shows and the lack of leadership and standard of service of that what should be 5* is seriously lacking. We travel a lot, and this isn’t a 5*in comparison to many 4* & 5* establishments we have stayed at. From Scotland & comparing 5* Gleneagles, to the standard of Glenlo Abbey 5*, is a comparison too far apart. The lack of facilities is also really disappointing. For a ‘dog friendly’ establishment, there are no poop bins. A suite should have fresh milk in the fridge. Breakfast tables should be set up accordingly without a guest having to get up numerous times to hunt a spoon, to repeatedly ask for butter and see the server too busy to remember, some tables had butter, some didn’t…. We were told we couldn’t have a sandwich in the lounge, so i asked for afternoon tea, we were told no, the lounge isn’t a serviced area…. I’m paying over £1500 for 2 nights here in a 5*, we should be able to eat what we like and choose where to sit - within reason. We eventually had afternoon tea in front of the fire but it wasn’t the norm…. All in all, very limited offerings in the way of food. Sitting with a bottle of wine and having to go find some one to order again, isn’t really my idea of great service. The outdoor area to walk around the golf course was nice, the golf course wasn’t open and it was peaceful for us to take our dog. We can’t comment on the Pullmans restaurant as we were too full from a very delicious afternoon tea, which was home made pastries and scones, with fresh sandwiches. Overall, this place was nice, it was clean, the staff are doing what they can with the tools they have but they are stretched and it is obvious, I certainly would not give this a 5* rating. Definitely, (we would 200%) recommend booking Jason for the falconry experience. It was a beautiful time spent with a great guy and a more knowledgeable guy I’ve yet to meet. His birds are well kept and adorable. An asset to the Hotel and i hope the 3 owners realise that he makes a persons stay memorable. The owners seem to be purchasing more hotels, i think they need to concentrate on the ones they currently have in their portfolio and invest into existing by way of more facilities and possibly make working conditions better for existing staff so that they stay, which then brings consistency and less turnover of employees…... people like consistency.…