Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool > Reviews > Fawlty towers deserves 5 * after this

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Terrible
Quality of Rooms	Terrible
Standard of Service	Terrible
Quality of Facilities	Terrible

Advantages:	it is a roof over your head
Disadvantages:	The whole Hotel

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

We went to blackpool to meet the father in law and brother in law for the weekend with the kids one 7 months and 1 3 years old.
My wife had booked the hotel because it looked really decent on checking in. Well let me guide you throught the experience:

Checking in at reception:
This was actually ok, the staff were very friendly and the main reception looked really clean and organised. We checked in and booked the dinner sitting for £12.50 per head and got our room keys.

The Room:
The Elevator up to the room was one of those posh types that you get in five star hotels so was quite curious as to the room but the we got to the 5th floor. it was like one of those science fiction horror movies when you step out of an elevator into one of those caves filled with flesh eating alliens. It was dark and dingy with the paint coming off the wall. All I noticed as we went along the corridor was when people opened their doors to come out of their room was the frames coming away from the wall with cracks.
Our room which was meant to be a family non smoking room stunk of smoke and the first thing I noticed was a sink in the bedroom and everything else in the en suite bathroom.
Now to me personal hygiene would imply that you would have the wash basin near the toilet so that you could wash your hands instead of having to get germs on the door to open it.
The bathroom was grotty with stained tiles and I actually got stuck in there at one point. The door handle kept turning round and round.
We thought we would make the best of it and go down to dinner. We were already 10 minutes late for dinner because after going five floors up we got to the room and they had not programmed the key card right so I had to go all the way back to reception.

Dinner:
Once again a complete joke. We were shown to our seat by some grumpy waiter who got us a high chair for my daughter. Before i had even put her in the chair it actually no word of a lie fell appart. Because of this we had to have her on one of our laps all through dinner as there were no waiters insite for 30 minutes and also no drinks because of this fact.
The food on the buffet was completely dried up in all categories and there was very minimal option for my eldest daughter so both her and my wife virtually never ate anything.
Enough was enough:

I went back to reception and asked to speak to the duty manager to complain. She offered us a new room and gave us a refund on our dinner. This was not the end of it unfortunately.

At 9.30pm with two tired children myself and my brother in law moved everything over the otherside of a very large hotel to the new room. The room was slightly better except aside from having new bedding, it had never seen a cleaner in its life.
The windows were filthy and all the furniture was laden with dust but it was better than the previous room except:

After being totally exhausted in the middle of a good nights sleep the fire alarms went off at 3.30am. My poor children were completely scared and when my wife rang up reception as they stopped quite quickly they just said it was a false alarm and there was no word of appology.

We checked out as early as possible the next day and made the best of a long day in blackpool before we went home. I got the e mail address of the hotel chain that owns them and sent them a complaining e mail but no one has even had the decency to respond.

Definately do not stay here ever!!!!
The best of it is my Father in Law, Brother in Law and fiance had stayed there for the week half board and it had cost them £1300 which I think is crazy as they could have got a better week abroad.