Peckfortoncastle Reviews 

From booking to paying for this Birthday Afternoon Tea it was a total disappointment . On booking a few weeks ago, the receptionist was most unhelpful & unpleasant , until Ryan helped me out! Staff were beyond rude , had attitude & not attentive , hence made the occasion unpleasant !!!The food was nothing special & not worthy of a 4star establishment . We are very frequent diners at high rnd restaurants &hotels , most certainly will not recommend Peckforton Castle to anybody ! Not worth our 50mile disappointing visit !!!!

Peckforton Castle charged us over £1000 to book 3 rooms in 6 months time and when we were forced to cancel only 48 hours after booking (there's a pandemic you know !) they wouldn't return any money for weeks and when we eventually got money back they charged us for the honour of booking ....yes £150 for nothing at all. Terrible people who care only about your wallet. Steer clear is my advice

A big thank you to the General Manager of Peckforton Castle.

I’ll be honest, we had a disappointing stay on our previous visit. We’ve been a few times as it’s a special place to us as it’s where we got engaged.

Our last stay didn’t live up to usual expectations & we were kindly given a complimentary stay & we had a lovely time last weekend & want to say thank you.

The customer service was much better, the room was lovely & the stay definitely made up for the previous one and we just want to say thank you.

The only little bit of feedback would be to still consider new mattresses & to bring back cocktail menus for a variety of drinks in the wine cellar, but none of that impacted our stay so thank you! 🙂

We have just completed the Land Rover experience at Peckforton castle we also stayed for two nights thoroughly enjoyed the Land Rover experience was amazing Don was an excellent instructor could not fault would highly recommend the Land Rover experience and Peckforton castle food very good staff friendly helpful 10 out of 10

What can I say...We've just had our dream fairytale wedding here and the whole family stayed over. The price, the food, the venue, the staff and rooms were all exceptional, with nothing to fault. Reception always at the other end of the phone to attend to any requests. We got married in the wine cellar and had arranged for the Duke box privately to no barriers in our way. All family described the whole experience as one of there best ever. Thank you so much to the staff who couldn't have done any more for us. I really struggled to see anything negative about this place after reading these reviews. If in doubt, please visit the place 1st or call to arrange an afternoon tea and why not throw in the wedding planner? You will get to see this place and all its glory. Thanks again love Mrs Ford! We will be in touch to arrange same venue for our 1st wedding anniversary ❤️

We had been given a Travel Zoo voucher for Sunday lunch as a gift. The booking was originally made for 5th September, a date we had to wait a considerable time for. The castle contacted us to reschedule this booking due to staff shortages and gave us a new date of 31st October, which we accepted. Unfortunately, we have been contacted again this week to further cancel our booking. The voucher has been extended until April but have been informed that we they cannot book us in until January at the earliest as all Sunday lunch dates for November are full and they don’t provide Sunday lunch during December as this is Christmas lunch bookings.
Why this company have not approached this fairly by putting all bookings back in an ordered way I don’t know and they were unable to tell me. Perhaps it’s because we have a voucher.
They are stating the issues as being staff shortages due to Brexit and COVID and that they can’t guarantee a suitable standard of service as a result. Strange isn’t it that other companies are managing quite well under the same circumstances. We for instance called at a restaurant just a mile or so from this venue yesterday and we’re catered for without any prior booking and it was very very nice.
We have totally lost trust in Peckforton’s shambolic management of the situation and will ask the person who bought us the package to apply for a refund instead. We would not trust this bunch of amateurs and risk facing further disappointment when they cancel the next booking.
My feeling is that it is voucher holders who are their victims. They accepted the voucher bookings some time ago but have probably increased their prices in the meanwhile and therefore not making as much out of those bookings.
DO NOT BUY A VOUCHER FOR USE AT THIS ESTABLISHMENT…

Bought as a birthday gift via Travelzoo on a DBB deal and arrived in early July.
Excellent Grade 1 building on entry. Reception efficient but like all interaction with staff - lacking an empathy , no warmth or engagement – not what you would expect from a 4 star hotel.
Room 305 dull / drab , shower - grout not clean, frame dirty , ceiling plaster not decorated,
Restaurant - dinner marketed as ' fine dining' portion sizes so small you could barely taste the food. Additional cost for side dishes ie fries , greens, carrots !! Water glass still had lipstick on the rim.
Any bread we asked ? only if you have soup came the reply’ - they did not explain why. - Asked for 2 rolls anyway, they came standard white, not warm. - Nothing to suggest fine dining .
Breakfast - standard English , Continental below average - no pepper in the container , no natural yoghurt.
Pre prepared invoice slid through the door.. additional £50 added for dinner ( although part of the deal !) - reception agreed ' computer error'. Sorry... again no interaction with the customer and on leaving not a hint of ' did you enjoy your stay , hope to see you soon etc etc.
In summary- a hotel in our opinion geared for weddings and corporate events not customers wanting a simple break away.
Emailed concerns with photos to manager who replied that a director would contact us ... a few days later and after a prompt, a director of BHG ( Boutique Hotels Group) who own the castle rang and his opening gambit being ' what are your expectations from me '.......sums up the whole experience really. Appears not to have read the em , or looked into the claims made to either agree or deny.. Simply no customer focus.

Worse experience ever - frankly abysmal!

My partner booked lunch for fathers day on behalf of my 14 year old daughter Daisy as a surprise fathers day gift for me.
As soon as we stepped into the castle reception and explained that we had come for lunch we where asked for our Wowcher code. We did not book via Wowcher so not sure why this assumption was made?
We where moved from upstairs to the brasserie downstairs where my partner Louise realised she had left her phone on the table we had been sitting at upstairs.
She asked a waitress to kindly look upstairs for her and the waitress came back a few minutes later saying that the phone was not there!
Louise was quite upset and went back upstairs to look herself, She looked all over the table, under the table on her hands and knees as well as down the back of the semi-circular sofa surrounding the table but it was not there. There where no staff in the restaurant so Louise tried to report it to reception but there was a large queue so she stopped Martin Helps (ironic surname) the Operations Manger who was walking past and explained the situation to him. She found him to be quite terse and she didn't feel that he took the matter seriously so she came back to our table in the brasserie looking/feeling quite dejected.
After a while a young lady waitress came to our table and said that she could not find the phone so as you can imagine, Louise was getting very worried. About 5 minutes later Martin came to our table with the phone in his hand and said quite sarcastically that it was on the table that we had been sitting at upstairs and dropped it on our table quite abruptly and turned on his heel to leave.
At this point, we had been sitting in the brasserie for about 45-50 minutes and had not even been asked what we wanted to drink!
I explained this to Martin and that the phone was not on the table when Louise went to retrieve it earlier. He said it must have been as only him or his colleague had been in the room and I said that his colleague must have moved it at some point.
He said that he was not happy that I was implying that the phone had been moved or taken and I said that I was not happy about the lack of service or his poor attitude towards us.
He said fine and walked away then my daughter Daisy who suffers from Tourette's syndrome shouted a profanity as she was very uncomfortable and stressed over the awkward situation.
Martin shouted over his shoulder 'very nice' then 10 minutes later came back, (we thought to take our drinks order) and to our astonishment said that we would not be served lunch today and asked us to leave!!!
I was absolutely astounded at this and asked if I could speak to the Manager. About 10 minutes later Jane Smith the General Manager came to our table and said, I don't think we can move forward so maybe you should leave.
I asked whether she was even prepared to listen to what had happened to which she said yes, she listened and said that there is no way forward on this matter.
I asked her if I could escalate the matter further and she gave me her own business card with her own contact details on it. This was not an appropriate avenue for escalating this matter as she had not shown any kind of empathy to the situation whatsoever and had even asked us to leave herself.
I can't believe as paying customers out to enjoy what we thought would be a pleasant fathers day experience that we where treated this way. To be honest, this is the worse customer service I have ever received!
I have complained to Christopher Naylor the owner/Director and although he has read my message he has ignored it & my google review has been taken down which says it all!

I am writting this to hopefully help people decide whether this is the venue you would like to have your stay or wedding at. I had found an offer for a one night stay at the castle valid for stays until 31st Dec 2021 so I decided to give the castle a call to make sure there was availability. It was the owner that answered the call and was very rude right from the beginning as soon as I asked about this which I couldn;t understand. He lied to me a few times during the call and when he knew that I knew he was lieing he started to get angry. Even though all patrs of the offer were correct and he did have availabilty he just said he wouldn't sell the rooms for that price and that life isn't fair and that's what worried me. It's a night in a castle for me to tick something off my bucket list but I don't want this to happen to a bride on such an important day that they can't get back as I know how many things have to go perfect to have your special day and having an owner who could just turn around and say well life is not far isn't what you want as you totally rely on them. He offered me the room free when I said that I was going to post my experience but i wouldn't want to stay there now. Just think carefully because you only have one day wedding day or a special occassion.

A brilliant day rounded off with a lovely lunch, beautifully cooked and presented. Staff very helpful and service good. Excellent value for money.

We got married at Peckforton Castle a couple of years ago and for that the castle was really great. So were looking forward to returning for an anniversary weekend.

As we approached, the castle of course looked just as grand as the first time we saw it. Checking in was completed in a couple of minutes and we were soon on our way to our room.

We couldn’t help but notice the strong smell of urine in the long corridor that separates reception from the accommodation, and didn’t recall that issue a couple of years ago. It seemed to be strongest outside the gents but the smell really filled the whole corridor. This really detracted from the impression of the place but we were soon past it and up the stairs to our room.

We freshened up and decided to head down for drinks before our meal which was booked for later that evening in the upstairs restaurant. We had our drinks in the atmospheric cellar bar.

The meal was delicious, very tasty and of great quality, but don’t think you’ll be full afterwards if you turn up on an empty stomach, because you won’t be. We were glad we’d had a large lunch earlier that day.

After our food we returned to the cellar bar. We were enjoying working our way through the drinks menu when we were informed that we’d have to leave shortly as the area was being made exclusively available for the wedding guests. That was fine - we’d had the same option at our wedding - but we were surprised to learn that there was nowhere else for us to go. None of the other bars were being made available to staying guests and no-one other than wedding guests were allowed to remain in the cellar bar. So our options were to either go to the lounge (which had no bar) or go to our room. It felt like they were really missing a trick there.

The next morning we went downstairs for breakfast and this was when things really went downhill.

The breakfast is a buffet where you can help yourself. At least in theory! But for various reasons this turned out not to be the case.

First there was no white bread for toast - only brown - and there was only filtered coffee.

Then there were no plates. After asking for plates we found out there were no eggs, no sausages and no beans so we had to ask for those to be topped up. Then there were no glasses for juice, and no juice either.

While stopping and asking staff for these to be refreshed we overheard other guests complaining that they’d been waiting half an hour for their toast, and others had been waiting for their tea and coffee.

Our tea and coffee thankfully arrived in good time, but without milk which we then had to go and chase up. The toast arrived looking more like charcoal than bread so I decided to leave that entirely while my wife, who was more determined than I, decided to salvage what she could by cutting and scraping off the worst of it.

While eating our breakfast we were aware of other customers also having to request that the buffet be re-supplied, that the juices be topped up and that more dishes be supplied. It seemed that none of the staff seemed to know what they were doing and were acting entirely reactively rather than proactively - but all the while with a very care-free attitude like poor service that affected every guest like this was normal. And no apologies for anything.

After finishing my breakfast I decided to get a couple more sausages as they were very tasty. Unfortunately they’d run out yet again and this time refused to fetch any more because it was deemed too late. So back I went to the table without any extra sausages.

As we were finishing up, a staff member did came over to issue a very half-arsed apology for the service that morning and asked if we wanted anything else, but by that point we were ready to get out of there.

When we were ejected from the cellar to make way for wedding guests, left with nowhere else to go but our room, it felt like non-wedding customers were very much secondary citizens and almost an inconvenience for the place. The next day though, those same wedding guests found themselves in the same boat as everyone else with the almost incompetent supply of breakfast.

There are plenty of nice venues around that will also provide a good service for the £255 that Peckforton charged for dinner, bed and breakfast this weekend - while also catering more for customers who are not there for a wedding - so next year I think we’ll be going somewhere else for our anniversary.

Very good. Had my wedding here and it was so good.

Peckforton Castle was the worst hotel I have ever stayed in and the customer service was the worst I have ever experienced. The whole thing was a disaster and completely ruined my birthday. The building itself is beautiful and the food was not amazing but fine, unfortunately everything else was cheap and tacky. My comments:

- Birds of prey chained down by the legs greeted us at the entrance. They were all squawking in distress trying to fly away and being pulled back by the 5 or 6 inch chains which bolted them to the pirches.
- At check in we were given directions to our room, I am not sure whether you have ever tried finding room 503 in an unknown medieval castle lugging around 3 bags, it does not set a good precedence for the rest of the trip! Two separate members of staff walked past us and pointed us towards corridors after we asked where to go.
- After a long drive we decided to get afternoon tea (£42). The food was fine, however the setting was more like a weatherspoons pub than a secret escapes hotel!
- The whole interior of the hotel was of similar standard, the corridors reminded us of an Alton Towers ride with tacky decor, photos of famous people and cheap suits of armour dotted around the place.
- I wanted a bath before dinner, it took us no less than 2 hours to fill the bath. The first attempt, we ran the hot water and when full realised it was completely cold. We called reception who said it was a tank so we should wait for it to warm up, we waited for an hour and got a few litres of luke warm water every ten minutes or so, eventually worried that we would miss dinner we tried to fill it up bit by bit using the kettle! I bathed in a tepid puddle! So much for a luxury hotel, they could not even provide hot water!
- On arriving to our room after dinner there was thumping music from a wedding party on the same corridor as our room. It was around 10pm and we wanted an early night so we could make the most of the final day of the trip the following morning. The music was unbearable, we called reception twice about the noise. On the first occasion they promised it would finish at 12! Two hours away! On the second occasion we asked to move rooms and were told that due to the number of complaints they had already filled the rooms which would be unaffected by the noise! We decided to put the TV on to try and drown out the sound, the small cheap TV did not work. It was stuck on ITV 3 and pressing any other button switched the TV off. You can imagine how impressed we were!
- The wedding music stopped for all of 5 minutes at 12am when the wedding party moved to the wine cellar, the noise was not as loud however our walls were still thumping away with the base travelling up through the chimney. We were told that the manager would speak to us about the problems the following morning, this never happened.

The manager is completely unprofessional, take a look at his responses to the hundreds of complaints on Trip Advisor to see the standard of customer service he offers. I emailed him on returning and got the following response, essentially calling me a liar:

With regards the hot water in room 503, I have had my maintenance team check this today, following your email and all seems in order. I myself stayed in room 503 the night before you stayed and experienced no such problems with the hot water or filling time for the bath. Therefore I am at a loss as to explain why you would have experienced such a problem, but please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The wedding party was taking place in the Great Hall which is some 3 floors below the bedroom you were staying in. We do allocate any guests, who are not with the wedding party, as far away as possible from the evening reception and we consider the rooms in the 500’s to be a suitable distance. I can also see that the night porter and duty manager looked into the noise complaints that you raised on that evening, but reported not being able to hear any noise disturbance from the wedding party, once outside your room.