Please do not stay at this hotel if you are hoping for a relaxing stay.From the moment of checking in to leaving i had a most unpleasant time.The staff,when you could find them were not very helpful and seemed totally dissinterested.The room i occupied was dreary and in need of a coat of paint and also a good clean.There was a cd player in the room which was a nice touch,but that is about the best thing i can say.The hotel has great potential and it is sad that it is not of a higher standard.My next stay in Harrogate will most definitely not be here unless great improvements are made.

Lovely location and impressive description on website, but what a disappointment! Great potential but currently more like a dreary hostel than a boutique hotel! Clean and comfy beds but grotty bathroom in the family suite. Amusing contrast of fancy Molton Brown toiletries and trendy black and white tiles but no toilet seat! Bedrooms a little grotty too - not very clean and with ricketty furniture. Someone had spilled cocoa pops on the bedroom carpet and these had not been hoovered up. Lovely underfoot! New management evidently still finding their feet and struggling with too few staff. This just was not up to scratch for the money expected and so we ended up checking out after one night and booking into the Premier Travel Inn where we were greeted with a friendly face and given a spotless room. Hopefully things will improve at the West Park, but I don't think we will be rushing back.

Stayed 7th July for one night with friends, booked 6 rooms between us. A very disappointing stay, but we made the most of it!

The Hotel:
A lovely old building overlooking the stray and an easy 5 min walk to the town centre shops & Betty's etc. Small parking area at rear (through arch). Public car park around corner (£4 for 24 hrs).

Hotel has just been taken over by new owners (2 weeks previously), who obviously have some improvements to make, namely:

Reception - welcome was OK, if a little confused about which rooms we had booked. However, it was poorly manned and unfriendly (to say the least) when we complained about the room/breakfast/ security.


Rooms - Despite being the first to check in, we were offered the twin room on the ground floor by reception - dark, cramped, damp smell, designed for disabled access and window shaded by fire escape - we soon asked to move upstairs!

Double room (£60/night) - double bed v small but room a reasonable size, and bathroom huge (shower cubicle only, despite there being room for a bath)
Room/hotel decor dated and scruffy, but liveable. Small CD player (but no CDs) in the room. Kettle, TV, hairdryer.

The suite is not worth the price (£135) - small double bed + extra put-up bed (child's size), cheaper to book 2 doubles!

Bistro - lovely menu and quality of food, but service incredibly slow (+charge for using debit card). The waiter/server was very friendly and professional, however.

Breakfast - v slow (35 min wait for some, 1 hour+ for others, despite being well within opening hours) then uncooked meat, ran out of supplies etc. No menu just offered 'English breakfast', and no veggie options just same but without the meat, however there was fruit juice, cereals and yoghurts available on the side.

SECURITY!
at 7pm when we went out there was no-one on reception, so all left our room keys on the desk. Returned at 11.30pm hoping to get a few drinks in the bar - the place was in total darkness. Door locked, no-one on reception or night watchman.

The key pad on the front door had the pin number written by it so we could get in (!), and our keys were nicely laid out exactly where we had left them, in other words, they don't appear to be staffed between approx. 7pm to 7am! We were very concerned and made sure our room doors were double-locked. Our room ran out of loo roll too, but luckily had tissues to hand!


Overall an 'interesting' stay, tempered by gorgeous Harrogate and having brought plenty of champagne with us!

I'd recommend giving it a few months before visiting this hotel, and even then, grill them hard first to check all of these faults have been rectified.
Tip: Go to the Bistro for a quality (if leisurely) lunch, but avoid the breakfast!

Its true that this hotel does have a great location close to the heart of Harrogate, but thats about the only compliment I can pay it. I found this hotel on the internet and was quite taken with the pictures and its description as a 'boutique' hotel. When I arrived I was greeted by a member of staff who I can safely say did not graduate from a hospitality centre of excellence. I was handed a key and had to ask what time breakfast was (7.30, too late for me unfortunately I informed the receptionist, as I had to leave the hotel at 7.10 every morning to attend work) and what floor my room was on. Upon making it to my room I was relieved to see that it was at least clean. Beyond that, it was small, dark and obviously needed lot of money spent on it to bring it up to scratch. I pulled open the curtains expecting maybe a view across rooftops to be confronted by smoked safety glass through which I could see nothing, and beyond that a 1960's prefabricated concrete wall. The TV wasn't tuned in properly so I had to spent 15 minutes sorting that out and then went for a shower. I looked past the fact that the tiles needed regrouting, just hoping that the shower would be nice and hot. No chance, it took ages to heat up to its maximum temperature of lukewarm and the pressure wasn't great either. Added to that, the attachement holding the shower to the wall was broken meaning that the showerhead got lower and lower as you washed - I was practically on my knees trying to get shampoo out of my hair!!! I stayed here three nights and was glad when the final morning came round to be able to pack up and ship out. As I handed the key back and was walking out of the door the same receptionist that checked me in asked why I wasn't having any breakfast. I said she had told me that breakfast started at 7.30 to which she replied, "oh, well, it usually does but this week its on at 6" - she had 'forgotten' to inform me. Says it all really! Very glad that my company paid for this stay as I think I would have wept had I to part with my hard-earned cash for a stay in this place. Just don't bother.