Knockagh Lodge Hotel (Fawlty Towers) - Avoid at all costs!

redped

Has anyone eaten in it recently, and if so what was it like? We stopped going last year - the food was occasionally good, but most times just average.

The thing that bugged me was always the staff - if they'd been trained to be more customer-friendly then it would have helped a lot, e.g. the sight of one of the barmen usually walking around with his shirt half tucked in, and looking as if he'd just fallen out of bed. Or my all-time classic - when someone asked for a meal to be slightly changed, e.g. when they were ordering they asked for it to come with mushrooms instead of chips ... the reply was "sorry, there's no button on our screen for that" :doh: Compare that with PaPa Browns in Carrick, where any requests for changes are always met with a "no problem" reply.

These things aren't rocket science, but surely the owners are aware of them? For me Knockagh Lodge has always been a case of nice location, good view, but let down by the quality of the food and the staff - neither of which are difficult or expensive to fix.

A.L.D.A

Tasha70 wrote: »

Apparently the Knockagh Lodge is in administration and is due to close in November. A lot of people have been mentioning that it has been run into the ground and ever since building the hotel they haven't been able to finance it.

If true that would explain a lot. To expand a business and then find that turnover is not meeting expectations must be hard place to be.

You see the symptoms of business in distress everywhere, stock levels low, things unfinished as there is not the finance to finish etc.

I have had a few lunches in the Knockagh and they were fine.

Great location, and I hope someone makes a go of it. There are few enough places to eat and stay around Carrick. What I often wonder is how they got Planning Permission for that extension. (A few trees would help blend it into the landscape.

chunter

If they need a new website, I'm available....

happy_gardener

Sounds like a case for the 'HOTEL INSPECTOR'...you know that TV programme....but then the Hotel would want to improve themselves....

MissFlip

BillyW wrote: »

was here on saturday for a meal, service - terrible (very slow at being meeted n greeted to our seats and it was roughly 8 - 10mins before being asked for a drink, let alone our order!),,, food - I had steak / chips and my wife had chicken curry (my steak was cooked wrong to my disgust & my wife had felt poorly until yesterday afternoon since eating her meal!!)

terrible experience, service & food. wouldn't recommend it at all!

billy

Sorry to bump an old thread but I was glad to stumble across this post. My partner and I stayed for New Years and I too, as did your poor wife by the sounds of it, became very poorly and spent the whole night being violently sick. The whole night was awful, on complaining to the management we got the most arrogant response I have ever read in my life. My OH has posted it on Tripadvisor, if you or anyone else who's had a dreadful experience at this hotel would like to read it (I can't post links as I'm a newbie) the manager also seems to have taken to writing his own reviews.
I hope your wife wasn't ill for too long. I was feeling very ill indeed for the best part of a week.

wacko911

I feel for these places after seeing what trip advisor does for business. People just love giving bad reviews online but no one really bothers when it's good/average.

Saying that maybe some places should go under, but when you read some of the complaints on TA they are clearly not deserved.

markwilsonfooter

I ordered bread with my meal and the bread was blue molded.

Management just laughed.

It has been reported to the council.

Update soon.

The place needs to be closed down.

MissFlip

markwilsonfooter wrote: »

I ordered bread with my meal and the bread was blue molded.

Management just laughed.

It has been reported to the council.

Update soon.

The place needs to be closed down.

Please do update when possible.
This is our email complaint and the response we got off the manager, I hope you have better luck.

"Hello,

I'm writing to complain about the dreadful 'package' I paid £120 for this New Years Eve:
Firstly, noone informed me that the room was a disabled room. If I had known this we would have gone elsewhere from the start and saved ourselves one of the worst experiences we've had in many years. The room was lovely, apart from the fact we had to get on our hands and knees to get ready in the bathroom mirror.
The blonde lady dealing with dinner guests in the restaurant was extremely rude and shoved us in the corner like naughty children in spite of the fact the restaurant was practically empty and we were kept waiting for half an hour past our booked time, but that was just the start of the problems at dinner. The food was, for the most part, utterly disgusting. Even the chips were totally undercooked and inedible. When we asked for lemonade to try and take the taste of the food away what arrived was clearly watered down and tasted vaguely of bleach. It was totally undrinkable so we gave up and asked for a jug of water.
When this water arrived even THIS was vile, it tasted as though someone had got it from the nearest toilet! We hoped that the 'entertainment' for the evening would go some way to making up for the awful experience at dinner, yet when we got into the bar we were informed tickets weren't needed, in spite of us paying an extra £10 for them, and that the so-called entertainment consisted of nothing more than a remarkably rubbish disco, you didn't even have a dancefloor, let alone a DJ! After having our ears assaulted for half an hour we gave up and headed back to our room, where shortly after 11pm my partner developed food poisoning from what had passed for dinner and spent the entire time until 2am being sick. She is still suffering the after effects today!
She totally missed the bells at midnight and was and still is very ill and upset. The whole evening was a total nightmare and we would appreciate at least a partial refund and acknowledgment of our complaints."

To Simon Aucott
In Response to your email and review on Tripadvisor:
Our receptionist Debbie took your booking when you called in and informed you that the only room we had available was our disabled room which had a large shower but no bath. The mirror which you referred to as requiring you to get on your hands and knees to see into actually stands at 5ft 7.5 inches from the ground to the top of the mirror and the mirror above the dressing table is at the same height as the rest of our rooms.
On your arrival to The Livery restaurant you were greeted and seated on our sofa area where your order was taken before being shown to your table, this is the standard procedure in our restaurant. You were given your bottle of wine and bottle of lemonade and were given a different menu to the one that was included in your New Years Eve package as it didn't suit you. Your order consisted of fishcake and cheesy garlic bread for starter and for your mains a sirloin steak for yourself and a plate of chips for your partner. The Chips were not an after thought contrary to your comments. Having spoken to the waitress who served you, she assured me that the garlic bread was not burnt as you stated and we had no complaints from any other customers who had the fishcakes. The waitress mentioned that when she was clearing your mains that the only thing left on your plate was a small piece of fat from the Sirloin and the said 'inedible' and 'raw' chips were still being eaten by yourself from your partners plate.
With regard to your drinks, all our soft drinks are bought from a reputable company who supply most of Ireland. The waiter opened the bottle and took it straight to your table. The water was tap water supplied by NI water, surely they know what they are doing.
Tickets were required for the entertainment in the bar for those just coming into the entertainment at £5 each, the £10 you mentioned was for a bottle of wine you received on arrival. The dinner package for £50 didn't include a bottle of wine. With regard to your comments on the entertainment, I find it hard to believe that you did not notice the DJ and his equipment in the corner of the bar, namely Stuart Harper from Harper entertainments who provided an all request line up until 1am which was extremely well received by all our guests with most up dancing throughout the night.
Your statement claiming you suffered from food poisoning is hard to believe as it takes 12hours for the effects of food poisoning to show. I have checked with Environmental health and they have no record of this or any notification from your doctor. Can you send me your doctors details so we can contact them to confirm this diagnosis without this confirmation your allegations are slanderous and I will be passing it over to my solicitor.

I would be grateful if you could forward the information as soon as possible.

James Wilson
(Manager)

So he has basically called us both liars which I am not too happy about, especially as HE is the one making stuff up. Such as the tickets for the so-called entertainment (which did not exist, there was no DJ, no dancefloor, no anything unless they turned up after 11pm when I was already upstairs being violently ill) on their website they advised that the £10 was to cover the cost of the entertainment, the wine was included in the so-called dinner package. I wish I had a screenshot to prove that but at the time I didn't know it would all turn into such a disaster.

Also about informing us that it was a disabled room, this was NOT the case and I imagine the receptionist is insisting she told us so as to cover her own back. We were told the room has a shower, not a bath. Apparently this somehow equates to informing us that it was a disabled room.

On Tripadvisor I left a review consisting of the points in the original complaint letter which I have currently taken down so I can redo it and add links to the sites he's leaving reviews for himself on. Funnily enough the day the response to our complaints was sent a review also appeared on Tripadvisor from someone who allegedly stayed the same night as us, ten minutes in fact after we received the email did the new review appear.
The poster (oddly, they've only ever reviewed Knockagh Lodge and joined very recently indeed...) somehow miraculously knew that we had booked in 2 days before New Years, funny that, as my review never mentioned when we had booked the 'package'. The manager, as I said, has been accused on several review sites of writing his own reviews, but 'whoever' this reviewer was has rather shot himself in the foot this time by telling us he knew when we'd booked the room.

I could turn this into a massive rant, but I think most people will know to avoid this place due to all the previous bad reviews, let alone ours.

On a good note the young staff in the restaurant were great and the views lovely. I know it's not in quite the same area but for anyone looking for a nice place to eat we went for a post-engagement lunch (yes, we got engaged on NYE, during the 2 minutes I managed to stop being sick and make it out of the bathroom) to Halfway House Inn at Ballycarry and it was an absolute delight after the ghastliness of the Lodge.

I'm in two minds whether to pursue the matter further or let it drop, life is too short to make a huge fuss over things, but on the other hand the appalling customer service has really irked both my OH and I.

We'd be happy with an apology for the evening and how our complaint has been dealt with, but I can't see that ever happening. I pity anyone who dinner here let alone a big event. Just the worst service I've ever come across (my family has run a successful hotel for 30 years so I flatter myself that I do know something about how to handle complaints). Just...argh!

Apologies for the length of the post, I'm just really annoyed at present. Not only was our NYE ruined but it was also the night we got engaged and it's all left such a nasty taste in my mouth I can't tell you. (almost as nasty a taste as the awful food )

/rant.

avoniel

You havent addressed his points regarding food poisioning. I understoo that it does take over 12 hours before food will cause poisioning.

saverbuyer

avoniel wrote: »

You havent addressed his points regarding food poisioning. I understoo that it does take over 12 hours before food will cause poisioning.

Not actually true as it depends on the bacteria count, type and the individual but it can take as little as 30 minutes to cause poisoning.