The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa

This was a very odd experience and we are deliberating about staying here again. We have stayed at countless top hotels worldwide and this could have rated amongst them. The hotel was spotless and luxurious. Our bedroom was beautifully appointed. Our one night relaxing stay was marred however by the attitude of the staff - with the exception of the receptionist who was excellent. We had to ask several times until eventually we were served with coffee in the main room. We had placed our original order over half an hour beforehand and had to remind the staff several times before our simple arrived! Our gloomy young waitress looked down her nose at us on arrival and seemed almost irritated to serve us at all! Very unprofessional! Later we repaired to the bar. This was another bizarre experience. On our arrival there was no sign of any member of staff for a long time despite our making several circuits of the interior to find someone. Eventually, into the building through a side entrance stormed a somewhat sheepish bartender who had been smoking outside - judging by the aroma and was shaken by our presence. We sought a drink and a dessert and asked if we could use the adjoining restaurant as the musac in the bar was loud and inappropriate for the venues ambience. The bartender seemed irritated by our request and told us that we had to stay in the bar and denied us access to the restaurant despite its lack of diners! Getting nowhere with him, we approached a waitress in the restaurant who repeated the same mantra! We had no choice but to use the bar despite our wishes We began to wonder whether the staff or the customer was the hotels priority. We consumed our drinks, ate the cookie and left feeling that we were unwelcome guests. A further irritant was that upon arrival, and before setting foot in the Hotel, the car valet approached us and explained that as we had booked via a third party (in our case, Booking.