My experience was a slightly mixed tale…read more
The Last Drop Hotel is a hotel and Spa situated north of Bolton, in the village of Bromley Cross, high enough up to provide lovely views over the surrounding countryside. The hotel comprises a main building with rooms to which has been attached a new, purpose-built spa and gym; several separate blocks of rooms; and finally, the "Village", a series of buildings which look like a small village, but in fact have their origins as outbuildings of the original historic farm called "Orrell Fold". It's very popular with locals, including those with Spa and gym membership.
The current owners have invested in a fine new reception and bar area, as well as the Spa, and these are very nice indeed. The other public spaces retain their black-wood and white plaster "olde-worlde" look, which jars a bit. I don't know if the plan is to upgrade these as well, but they do give a rather 70s feel to the rest of the place.
However, the rooms vary in terms of standard: my bedroom was in a small block, up some steps behind the kitchens. It had clearly been updated; the bed and bed linen were excellent, though the built-in wardrobe retained the original decor, including an out-of-place looking gold-edged mirror. The bathroom was nice enough but needed some TLC, including a tatty venetian blind with obviously broken slats. It was all clean, though, and the WiFi was the fastest I've experienced in a hotel (over 350 Mbps upload and download).
The main problems with the room were firstly, that there was a lot of noise from the store area below the room, including banging doors and vibrations when cages of food were delivered. The hotel is popular both with wedding parties and hen nights, and noise from one of those was evident (and loud enough) to keep me awake intermittently until 3:30am. I gather from other friends staying there that this varied a lot depending on which part of the hotel you were in.
Secondly, on the day of my departure, the water pressure, having been poor on the first day, was fully restored and I had a lovely shower - until I tried to turn it off. Then it poured - and I mean poured - from the bottom of the (live) electric shower unit. I had to turn on the bath taps full to reduce the pressure, lest it flood the bathroom. The reception sent a member of staff (who turned off the taps, flooding the bathroom...) and then a maintenance man, who was very nice and helpful, but had to turn off the water to the whole block of 3 rooms, since the valve on the shower unit had failed and there was no isolation valve for the shower.
This meant I had to leave the room before I had finished using the bathroom, and use the public toilets instead. When I checked out, the receptionist simply apologised, but offered no recompense for what had been an unpleasant and inconvenient episode, on the basis I had been with a group and we had discounted rooms. (Had I paid the £190 headline rate, I'd have been furious.)
When I pointed out this wasn't really acceptable at any price, they called the duty manager, who was very nice and sat down with me to discuss the problem. Although she could not offer even a partial refund, she did happily offer me two bottles of wine from the bar, which suited me in the circumstances. So full marks to her and her professionalism, but it simply shouldn't have happened: clearly, more investment is needed in some of the rooms, particularly the plumbing.
Check-in was swift and efficient; the main evening meal was very nice, and the breakfast OK, though not much choice of vegetarian cooked items, beyond beans, mushrooms and fried eggs. The Spa is well equipped with a large main pool for swimming, a hot pool with an 'infinity' pool area outside, and a selection of sauna and steam rooms. I didn't use the gym but it did look well equipped. The hotel also has a lot of parking.
Overall, I guess a lot depends on which rooms you are in, and (being a large venue) who else is staying there.
