Had another night away staying in the Retreat at the rear of the hotel. Loved it as much as the 1st time we went back in 2014. Close to lots of amenities. Lovely and clean with great spa bath. Excellent breakfast brought to the room in the morning. Sat on the own private terrace and ate.
Stayed one night at the retreat suite and was really impressed. Staff on reception really friendly and helpful. Suite itself was lovely massive comfy sleigh bed and spa bath was excellent!! Only a 5min walk into Windermere for drinks and 15 into Bowness for a bit of retail therapy. Breakfast was brought to our suite in the morning and was lovely, even managed a runny yolk in my boiled eggs, now that was impressive 😀Couldnt fault the place at all and will deffinately return 👍
beautiful rooms with jacuzzi tubs (just great to unwind in evening) . the breakfast ( we had veg breakfast) was superb with fresh juices, breads and mains . the staff at the reception (ms. marie) was very helpful and polite. the lake is abt 20mins walk. we even got passes for swimming(indoor heated pool), sauna, jacuzzi at the local club from the hotel on rainy day ...kids just loved it! parking was free ..but the wifi was very slow in rooms.
Stay here for a last minute get away to get away from day to day stresses. Service was good and breakfast brought to the suite was excellent. Was nice our suite was at the back of the hotel and had our own private outside area.
However on check out I mentioned a few points.
-the floor has seen better days, so scuffed and I feel it is polished which turns it into an ice rink and we were slipping about all over the place. My husband slipped and jolted his back!
-The mattress is shot
-No wifi, this is a necessity and frustrating as the tv had the option to do this but with no internet we couldn't get on Netflix
-sofa needs replacing, tatty and horrible
-general cleanliness could have been better.
All in all if these things were improved we would come back and it would be good value for money. Otherwise we wouldn't bother.
For once we found the trip advisor reviews misleadingly positive and wish we'd chosen somewhere else.
This is a B&B not a hotel and a pretty expensive yet mean spirited one at that.
For example the bathroom cosmetics were mediocre at best, breakfast was only available for one hour, seating allocated inflexibly and buffet items frugal and poor.
As for helpfulness, this establishment plumbed new depths. Do you have mustard - no, weetabix - no, have a local map - no.
Our room on the main road was noisy. Our shower water temperature changed without warning from freezing to boiling.
The Howbeck is clean and comfortable but there must be better and better value places nearby.
