Broadoaks Boutique Country House

Never thought I could put a review like this about our beloved Broadoaks. Started coming 17 years ago, usually at least once a year and got married there. Came last weekend and wow, what a difference. What has happened. Started off at reception with a quick look in the restaurant, now all white and looking like a doctor’s surgery. Then to the Riverhaven which is our go to room. Gone is the mattress under the window, which we loved to relax on looking into the woodland. Now replaced with a cheap looking sofa. Toilet door rubbing on the floor and very dim bulb. Noticed we were the only ones staying in the lodges where normally all three are occupied. Evening meal was okay but not a patch on what it used to be. Must be a new chef. We always came for one of our birthdays and the dessert plates had Happy Birthday written around, with the other one Welcome Back. Never had to remind them. Nothing this time. Maybe new owners? The bar shelves all gone with awkward seating, plain wall just looks cheap. Breakfast now a Premier Inn style serve yourselves from heated containers (still not very warm) no black pudding or choice of eggs. Worse was the staff going around the tables asking that we do 5 star reviews and to include their names! Beautiful old country manor being slowly ruined. It’s lost all its soul and character. Please do not change the music room. Although we won’t be back to know. Anyone not been before probably won’t find anything wrong but they have missed out on a very special stay.

Broadoaks was the perfect wedding venue. We had full use of the hotel & accommodation rooms for 80 guests. The wedding team & hotel staff provided a first class service during the planning & on the day. Their priority was to ensure all our ideas & requests were accommodated to ensure my daughter’s vision of her perfect day was provided.

My husband (to be, as he was then) arrived with all the table decorations that I had made. Mel asked him to drive to the back door and he was helped by staff to get everything out of the car which was great. The day went really smoothly despite the ‘goddamn’ awful rain we had booked on a beautiful crisp sunny Jan day just under a year before ;-) When I arrived Mel came to greet me in the rain and helped me into the beautiful Walnut room to get changed with the bridesmaids so we didn’t have to traipse across from The Boudoir in the rain. Great advice from Mel to keep this as one of our available rooms…. We had about an hour to get ready when we arrived but as I’d come from Chorley with hair and makeup done there was no stress at all/time pressure as all I had to do was pop the dress on. As I entered the ceremony room (we had the semi circle layout suggested by Mel - I was dubious about this at first but went with it and this was a perfect choice as we then had a view over the fell side) I noticed how it had been laid out beautifully with our decs by the Broadoaks staff, with candles lit and it had a lovely ambience. Due to the time of year and because they’d had Christmas and New Year Celebrations Broadoaks had left the curtain lights up which made the room look extra lovely. After the ceremony we squashed 33 guests into the Music Room for a group photo as we would probably have been swept away by the beautiful Lake District weather should we have ventured outside! The canapés looked great but unfortunately we didn’t get to sample them all as they were brought out when photos were being done. The groom and myself did brave the elements for a few outside photos. I came in bedraggled and with a muddy dress but that was because we ventured down to the outside cermenony venue over their rockery! Did it stop my smile? Did it heck! I sneaked into the Wedding Breakfast room to see if it had been laid out nicely with all the arrangements that I’d made and I was awestruck. It looked as beautiful as I’d hoped for, especially when the waiter lit the candles when I asked him to!!!! The food was really delicious, great quality and plentiful (something that Broadoaks should show off with more - unlike mediocre food we had at Cragwood on a very disappointing minimoon - for many reasons, that we had for a couple of days afterwards). The only slight niggle we had with the meal is that tea and coffee are extra, something we felt should really be included in the package when paying for the 4 course meal option). We didn’t get our sparklers that were included in the package but I guess they wouldn’t have lit outside in the rain. Anyway… the rooms were beautiful but you’d know that if you book this venue as they will show you around several of them first. The breakfast was of high quality, beautiful half flat mushroom, poached eggs perfectly cooked, great quality sausage - no plain fatty porky here, lovely bacon, thick hand cut toast from ‘proper’ bread and I actua

My husband I had been looking forward to this trip for a very long time, we were very excited to stay in a 5 star establishment with 5 star facilities and 5 star customer services. Unfortunately this was not the case. First for some positives. Our room in one of the cabins was lovely, we enjoyed the hot tub, one of the main reasons we booked and the quiet as what we wanted most was peace. On our arrival we were given vague instructions as to where our accommodation was but ok we found it and settled in. Instructions given that breakfast was between 8.30 and 9.30 in contrast to the info in the room that started 8.00. All was well until breakfast (which did start at 8.00 but we waited till half past due to the conflicting information). So far all a bit disappointing but nothing major, when we did arrive at breakfast there as no one there to greet us and no staff appears for at least 10 minutes after we sat down. There was a very poor selection of continental choices, cereal, yogurt or a croissant was the extent of it. The breakfast was a buffet style no menu or vegetarian option. When staff did show up they were stressed and rushing past. My husband practically had to shout to ask for some service, cold toast and coffee arrived 10 minutes later. No one asked about dietary requirements or if we had any other needs. When staff did appear to ask if everything was ok they literally walked away before we answered. It wasn’t just us either, we could hear tables around us saying order you toast quick or you won’t get it. I could understand if it was incredibly busy but there were only 10 tables in there. It all sounds very petty but I feel like I paid a lot of money to stay somewhere that staff felt it ok to ignore me and give the minimum amount of service.. i could have forgiven it all if even one of the staff members had smiled or even acknowledged us. Not 5 star, ruined our experience and we definitely won’t return, we have stayed in a lot of nice hotels in the lakes, some considerably cheaper than this one with excellent service and food. Give this one a swerve if your after good service.

Firstly, we would like to say that the staff were lovely, bright and helpful. We were very pleased with the service and the dining experience! The food was delicious and the speed of service was perfect. However, we had a few issues with the room. We chose to pay a bit more for The Boudoir room as this was part of our honeymoon trip. The website is very misleading in the description of the room. It was described as ‘private rear entrance and driveway’. It wasn’t very private as there were people walking around the area for a while, on the driveway and entrance, and it wasn’t clearly marked as ‘private’ so they would not have known. However, the main issues with the room were the bed and the bath. The bed is described multiple times as ‘the comfiest mattress in The Lake District’, ‘it has, without a doubt, the comfiest mattress in The Lake District!’, and even more mentioned as ‘The eve original mattress is wonderful. Sleep on it and you’ll get the best night’s sleep you’ve ever had. It gives you the type of out-of-this-world comfort that puts a skip in your step the next day. Because, after all, every great day starts the night before’. This is a big statement, and we just hoped for a nice mattress, not the ‘best’ or ‘comfiest’ as it mentioned, but it was actually not great at all. It has a big dip in the centre, which we both were rolling into most of the night. It was ok at best, and definitely not as promised. It was extremely creaky and any movement woke the other one up! Also, on the website it says a ‘very grand double ended sensory whirpool Spa Bath with flatscreen TV’, ‘a very grand double ended Spa Bath’, ‘whirlpool bath…the hydrotherapy jets work on the muscles let the chromotherapy lighting lift your mood’, ‘our final surprise is the flat screen bathroom TV’ . One, the lights were not working. Two, half of the jets did not work. Three, the drain was blocked and tap was wobbly. Four the settings for the bubbles had been bodged, weren’t even attached to the bath (the whole part could be lifted) and seemed very old. The flatscreen was mentioned, but it was only normal channels, and even then only a few. We tried to use some channels and the signal was not strong enough, so we gave up on that. There were some small other issues as well: a review card was there, but no pen, the blind operator was hanging off, one of the light switches didn’t work, the staff tried to call us to confirm late check out but no call came through and hairdryer was so small it didn’t touch my hair. As said earlier, the food was delicious though, the staff were brilliant, and we had a lovely time, but the room was NOT as expected, particularly when described overzealously as ‘best’, ‘luxury’, ‘comfiest’ and ‘grand’.

We stay in pine room - it’s sunken extra large spa bath and huge comfy bed was absolutely amazing!! The food was so good, staff super friendly. The house its self is stunning with amazing grounds and views. Cannot find fault. Such a good stay. No our regular base for our Lake District Trips!! Good work to you all!!