The Devonshire Arms Hotel & Spa - Skipton

Faultless.Stayed for 1 night only with dinner and breakfast. Room lovely. Bed comfy. Food of a very high standard with the emphasis on quality, not quantity. Friendly and attentive staff. As I previously said, faultless. Do yourselves a favour.....

We have been coming every year for the last 6 years to celebrate our anniversary. Unfortunately, this year, it felt different, as if they had been through a cost cutting exercise. On arrival, no one offered to take our bags to the room. Previously, someone has always insisted. I am not that pretentious, but it is just an example in the change in attitude. In the room, the snacks were trimmed back. The service in the bar was lax. In the afternoon, we had to go and search for someone after waiting for 15 minutes, and the lovely roaring fire was left to ebb away. After dinner was the same although but this time we sat for 20 mins with dirty cups on the table waiting for some to arrive at the bar. They ran out of Pinot Grigio in the afternoon, but at dinner, I heard they went down to the Brasserie to get another bottle. We always have a veggie or pescatarian taster, and while the food was good, we left feeling rushed and hungry. our wine arrived after the first course, the next course arrived before I had finished the first and we had all five courses plus breads and cheese in a little over an hour. Breakfast was the exact opposite. Our coffee pot arrived after 30 mins and the cold toast after 50 mins and our breakfast after 55 mins. My breakfast consisted of a tablespoon of beans, the smallest hash brown I have ever seen, half a mushroom, half a tomato and a couple of veggie sausages. We mentioned it on checkout, and they were very apologetic and took the service charge off the bill. I doubt we will be back next year, which is a real shame.

We had a lovely stay at Bolton Abbey, welcoming well trained staff, comfortable room with lovely views I did find the bed a little uncomfortable but there was no noise disturbance from neighbouring rooms. It was my husbands birthday so we had some birthday cards in the room, this was noticed by the person who replenished our milk and when we returned from the Spa they had left a card and a box of chocolates for him - this was a really nice and appreciated touch. The Spa was very well staffed again very welcoming, there wasn't many using it so we largely had it to ourselves - all very nice, clean and well equipped. We had the tasting Menu in the Garden Room restaurant which was excellent, breakfast was full served I didn't enjoy my whipped goats cheese on sourdough as there was barely any cheese and it was soaked with about 2 tablespoons of honey but my husband enjoyed his breakfast. Our stay included parking at Bolton Abbey but there is a very pleasant walk directly from the hotel to the Abbey. I thought the Staff were outstanding

Had a meal deal as a couple. Meal very basic, little choice and no veg included. You had to buy these as extras. Salmon starter should have been served with bread or toast. . Sauce same on salmon starter as on minuscule portion of smoked haddock main dish. Main dish very small like tiny starter. The portions overall were really small. We did the same event last year and it was very good. Wouldn’t recommend meal deal. Basic. Coffee in lounge previously included little shortbread biscuits. Real cutbacks here from a very fancy venue which isn’t cheap, No complaints about the staff who are very friendly and pleasant.

A fabulous hotel and staff that were extremely welcoming and helpful throughout our 2 night stay. Food in the brasserie was excellent and the service was perfect. Staff really seemed to like being there and took a pride in their work. I generally don’t like visiting a place twice but I’d gladly stay again.

We frequently pass The Devonshire Arms & have often wondered what it is like to stay there, so we did! The location of the hotel is stunning in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. The hotel looks attractive from the outside and inside the communal areas are lovely. Real fires were lit in two rooms and it felt warm & cosy during our visit. We were greeted and shown to our room by a lovely young receptionist who was very bubbly and welcoming. SPA- We visited the spa which is located over the road. It’s small but very attractive and the staff were friendly. Changing rooms are upstairs then you need to come back down the stairs to enter the spa which everyone has just walked up in outdoor shoes so ensure you take your flip flops as none are provided. There are 2 steam rooms & 1 sauna. They were good but the floor outside gets very slippery due to overflow from the nearby shower so care should be taken especially as it’s extremely dark in this area. The bottom bench in the sauna had a loose slat on our visit ( third plank from front) Refixing the slat should be easy, it just needs the screw tightening or replacing . I intended to mention it but forgot as leaving. Guests are requested to shower before entering the pool. We did, but it wasn’t enforced as we saw two guests entering the pool bone dry . This is unhygienic and staff should enforce it. One staff member seemed to know the ‘offending couple’ as their conversation with them seemed more than just friendly chit chat so sure it would’ve have been easy to offer a gentle reminder. FOOD- Food & the service in The Brasserie was excellent ( see separate review) but less so at breakfast. Breakfast is served is The Garden Room, a really beautiful room overlooking a formal outdoor area. On our visit, breakfast service would have given ‘Fawlty Towers’ a run for its money! Firstly, no one was there to greet us and we had to wait a few minutes to be attended to. The front of house male staff member rushed over and apologised for our wait. After giving him our name 3 times he eventually found us on his list and lead us to our very comfortable table and gave us our menus. The table was attractively set with good quality linen & cutlery. After perusing the menu for only a few seconds he returned to take our breakfast orders & asked if we would like any fruit juice. We gave our orders and immediately again he asked if we would like any juice. We informed him we had literally just given him our orders , he apologised and said it was a busy morning. He did seem quite flustered. Service thereafter was slow and when the full English breakfast was served it came without beans even though we had requested them. The hollandaise & eggs were served barely warm , the smoked salmon was delicious though. The toast was cold and the coffee served was luke warm. The poor couple near us were served their cooked breakfast before their fruit cocktail starters but when they flagged up the mistake they kindly agreed to have it