Thorpe Park Hotel and Spa

The pool was clean and tidy, and the restaurant dinner was spot on. I liked the little detail of my daughter's tomato soup being served cooler so she could eat it straight away. The mushroom linguine and her sausage and mash were just as they should be, and the live singer made a lovely atmosphere. We came for an overnight dad-and-daughter stay with my five-year-old, and had a really fun time from the welcome at reception onwards. The room was lovely and seemed very well maintained. It had loads of coffee pods, plenty of Taylors teabags and some treats that had her bouncing on the bed. She was thrilled by the bunk beds and couldn't wait to sleep on the top bunk. We'll definitely come again.

We've stayed twice while visiting family in Leeds, once in a double and once in a family room. Both were fine, and the staff were lovely, welcoming and helpful. We'd stay again. Dinner took longer than we hoped, with half an hour to place our order and another half hour for the food, though it was clearly freshly cooked. As a vegetarian I found just two main options. One wasn't to my taste, and I'd had the other on our last visit. This time it was too oily for me, unlike before. A bit more choice would be good.

The spa was the highlight for us. It felt calm and modern, and the masseuse gave a really good massage. Dinner was nice and the service felt right. We might return for another spa visit, though probably not to stay overnight. Our standard double was clean and tidy, but some of the decor looked tired, as did the carpet between reception and the rooms. Breakfast was fine, just the sort of cooked breakfast you can get anywhere. At dinner the live singer was so loud we could barely talk to each other, though she turned it down during one of her breaks.

We booked a birthday spa break for a friend, with treatment, food and an overnight stay. The day began really well: a lovely receptionist checked us in quickly at 1pm, we dropped our bags, enjoyed the pool, then had a relaxing treatment at 3pm and a late lunch. Dinner at 7pm was where things fell apart. My friend's birthday cocktails arrived wrong, and the replacement took 90 minutes despite us asking about it. Our mains were also slow. The £80 chateaubriand had been ordered medium pink, but most of it was well done, so we left some. The waiter said he'd pass the feedback to the chef. My second spiced rum and coke came as a dark rum, and when I pointed that out, the waiter questioned me. A waitress heard what had happened and promised to take 25% off the whole bill, which seemed fair, so we thanked her and ordered dessert. Then nobody came to our table. I had to go to the bar for another drink, and after waiting 40 minutes for dessert, we cancelled it and asked for the bill. Our taxi to Leeds had been booked for 9pm, but by then it was 9.20, so we had to cancel it. The restaurant was nearly empty, and it felt as if complaining meant being ignored. We'd managed only one course in two hours and 20 minutes. Only £16 had been taken off the bill, not the promised 25%. We'd paid £120 upfront for the meal, and were told that amount couldn't be refunded. We asked for the manager. She apologised, took the bill away and refunded what we'd paid, then charged us roughly the same again, saying she'd put a large food credit on our account. Our taxi was waiting, but she said it had to be paid then or we'd be treated as walking out. We made the taxi wait and paid a further charge for that waiting time. We left upset, and the relaxing day was ruined. The stay cost £300 for my wife and me. On the way home the next morning, staff called to say there was still a £33 drinks bill outstanding from dinner. We told them it had been paid and that we had the receipt, since the manager hadn't let us leave before paying. They asked us to speak to her. It felt like one hand didn't know what the other was doing. Everything else had been excellent, but dinner was a mess. If you serve an £80 chateaubriand, it should be cooked as ordered. Staff need to try to sort problems out instead of ignoring a table after a complaint, and the attitude we got felt rude. We stay at spas around the country and have never had this kind of experience at the swiss lodore in keswick. Nobody handled our problems competently, and they weren't resolved to our satisfaction.