Appleby Castle

Staying at Appelby castle was an experience we combined it with a performance of the Handlebards in the grounds. The owner Sally is lovely and Peter manager slways helpful. We stayed in what was the ' servants quarters ' on the top floor. Unfortunately it had a parapet window so no views but the room was spacious the bed comfortable , nice linen and towels and a good shower. The floor in the bedroom and to the shower was sloped so not recommended for anyone with mobility issues the room was up 3 flights of stairs the last ones quite steep. We didn't have dinner but had breakfast . It was ok. With a bit of tweaking it could be v good . Ie better choices of cereal , fruit and availabity of yogurt. English breakfast was fine but would have been nice to have toast and jams after. Coffee was Ok. At about £16pp it was expensive for what was available. The castle is tired but has so much potential . We were disappointed that the museum in the tower was closed . With a little bit of tweaking the experience could be so much better but we enoyed our stay and would consider staying again

This was a very odd experience. The male receptionist was also the person who showed you to your room. He was also the barman, restaurant waiter and pianist in the dining room. He was wearing what I can only describe as the most creased shirt I have ever seen. The food is very overpriced and you don’t necessarily get what you think you’ve ordered. The dauphinois potatoes were made with blue Stilton and whilst I quite enjoyed them, my husband hates cheese, especially blue cheese. The menu stated that the Lemon Blush dessert was served with a sorbet, but when I asked what Lemon Blush was I was told that it’s a lemon dessert served with ice cream. I asked, “not sorbet?” and pointed to the menu, to be told, no, that’s wrong. We and the other guests (total of 8 people) were asked to leave the dining room and go into the lounge shortly after finishing our meal, but there weren’t enough chairs in there so they had to bring extra ones in. At 9:50pm we were told the bar was closing.There was no coffee machine in the bedroom. The shampoo and shower gel dispensers in the shower were empty. No hot tub, no spa or massages available and the tower housing the Norman museum was closed. The river walk and moat walk were both inaccessible from part way round. Most of these observations contradict what the hotel description says. It’s sad to see such a lovely old building looking so run down and I feel the running of it as a hotel needs an awful lot of improvement. We won’t be returning.

Cobwebs are visible throughout multiple common rooms. The building is unstaffed for at least 8 hours a day — there's no night porter, the phone frequently goes unanswered, and no emergency contact beyond calling the front desk and hoping someone picks up. On arrival, we found a large number of bees on the 2nd floor landing. Our room and bathroom had dust and grime on the windows, and the ceiling paint was peeling and cracked. When we found bees in the bathroom as well — my fiancé has a bee allergy — we immediately alerted the owner and manager. They attempted to vacuum the bees, told us it's illegal to use store-bought pesticide on bees so we'd have to "deal with it," and then both left the hotel for the night. For a hotel marketing itself as 4-star and luxury, it's worth knowing what you're actually getting: Toiletries: No shampoo or body wash in the shower dispensers. Below expectations for the price point we paid, denied a refund by the hotel manager for my expectations being too high for a historic building - even though it’s marketed as a luxury four star hotel and unrelated to the building's historic character as we have stayed in historic castle hotels previously. My main issue is no one being available to contact for escalations or emergencies, very disappointing in both customer service and maintenance of the property.

Didn’t stay no one in reception property looked in disrepair and no where to park my car

The building is old. Its was clean and comfy for what it is. We knew that and accepted that at the time of booking, its was authentic. The food was amazing !!! The drinks ovepriced so the bill was a shocker if honest, the games ropm little run down and darts broken but a nice stay overall.