Stone Lodge

Connor was very obliging at breakfast and cooked whatever we asked for. He even went out specially to get vegetarian sausages for me, and the breakfast itself was nice. We wish the young couple running the place well, and we plan to come back next year to see how much it has improved. We stayed for three nights, but our room wasn't tidied, the bin wasn't emptied and the towels weren't changed. We washed our own cups. Parking was listed, but a large car on the drive blocked us in. Luckily, we did most of our exploring on foot. The location also means you have to reverse onto a busy road. At £110 a night, we expected the basics, including a quick room tidy. Booking.com was a hassle too: we had to cancel and rebook directly with the owners the day before we arrived. There's still plenty of work to do for them to make a success of it.

The full English breakfast was delicious, and the whole family enjoyed it. The hosts were warm and welcoming, and we liked the little touches, like books by the bed, chocolates in the lobby and room, and fruit tea bags. This is a small family business run by a young family. They told us they'd only recently taken over the hotel, which had been closed for two years, and were hoping to raise funds to refurbish it. It does look tired, and our stay wasn't completely comfortable this time, but the owners plan to make improvements. We'd be glad to come back to Stone Lodge and see how things go. All the best till next time!

I couldn't stay another night and just wanted to get home. The separate bathroom was full of flies, and after the manager said he'd sort it while we were out for the day, we came back to find plenty still there. We used the fly spray we'd bought as a precaution, shut the door, then returned ten minutes later to a bathroom covered in flies. They were across the floor, in the toilet and bath, and packed along the windowsill. I felt sick. My partner showed the manager, who said he didn't know where they were all coming from. I took a video, though I can't upload it here, and wouldn't want anyone else to go through this. We'd booked two nights but left after one. When we arrived, there were already quite a few large flies in the bathroom. We thought it was because the windows were open, so shut them and killed the flies before going to look around Matlock. More appeared while we were out. Since it was late, we tried to manage until morning, going to the toilet with the light off so we wouldn't disturb them.

The Riverbank Guest House in Matlock turned out to be lovely, and our holiday worked out better for where we stayed in the end. But Stone Lodge cost us two hours of frantic work finding somewhere new during a short break. When we later drove past on two days in a row while visiting Matlock Bath, Stone Lodge was open again. Their reported water leak seemed to have been fixed quickly, and we saw no sign of Severn Trent or anyone else working there. If you want a well run guest house in the area, avoid Stone Lodge. We arrived to an empty lodge, with no welcome and very little parking. We were allowed to park at midday, but couldn't check in before 3pm. At 3:02pm, after payment had gone through, we got a text about a burst water main from a week earlier. They blamed Booking.com for not telling us, although Booking.com didn't know about the leak or any agreement to find us a local substitute at no extra cost. The lodge hadn't contacted us before charging us. One of the two numbers we had just rang out, and the other was for The Cables Hotel next door. After they replied to our worried messages, we got a second number. Once we said we'd contact official channels for help because we were stranded, they agreed to the refund. Booking.com was helpful. They said they'd try to reach the lodge about returning our money and let us find our own place in a similar price range, with the difference refunded if it cost more.