Fermain Valley Hotel

Booking said ‘garden view room’ but ended up above the restaurant entrance, facing a fairly busy road and pub. No air-con so had to have the windows open so not much sleep the first night.

Music turned on at 7am in the restaurant which we could hear in our room. For the price I would expect a fridge in the room.

No Aircon in bedrooms.
Loud music from breakfast area.
Lack of attention to detail.
Poor breakfast buffet management.

Service at breakfast was sometimes a little slow but I think that is because they cook everything to order - it was always worth the wait and there was an extensive breakfast menu to choose from.

Top floor of bedroom block is too warm.

The lighting was a bit poor in the tree house, and some additional cleaning of the external areas would have enhanced the property.
Facilities initially advertised, I.e. spa and shuttle were no longer available

The only downside was the room. We stayed in Room 38 which was tastefully decorated and large. However Rooms 38 - 42 are located in the eaves, and during our stay — which coincided with an unprecedented heatwave — the temperature inside reached 34.8°C, even with two fans running constantly. The sun shines directly on the roof on the afternoon onwards and the heat does not dissipate in the evening, even when it was much cooler outside, which made sleeping very difficult. We were told that only 4 bedrooms have aircon in the entire hotel.

Special mention to Catya on Reception who moved heaven and earth to transfer our room (if only for 3 nights). This room was noticeably cooler by 6 degrees.

Der erste Stock ist etwas hellhörig. Die Musik aus dem Restaurant ist von 7 Uhr morgens bis ca. 22 Uhr durch den Bass wahrnehmbar. Es empfiehlt sich eher ein Zimmer im 2. OG. Die Steckdosen könnten moderner sein und sollten Lademöglichkeiten für USB-A bzw. USB-C bieten. Die Bedienung des TV mit der Sky-Box war manchmal etwas mühselig, da die Geräte nicht ganz so reagieren wie in der Anleitung beschrieben.

The service at breakfast and evening meal was poor - nearly embarrassing, so many complaints from customers - you would expect your table to be set at a 4 star hotel! It was very much do it yourself!

The menu had no options for dinner.
The breakfast staff were quite slow with taking orders and delivery..
Our room had no A/C just a small fan and it was soo hot to even sleep.

Nothing

The decor, although lovely in most areas, could do with a refresh, and air conditioning would be a blessing.

When we checked in the lady said the pool was not working. Fair enough but we heard from other guests that they could use the facilities of their sister hotel nearby and we were not told. Also the receptionist did not tell us anything about the area for example how we could walk down to the bay and also where we could join the cliff path that took us into town. We also heard from another guest on the last night of our stay that they had a shuttle bus that guests could use. When you are new to a location it would have been helpful for the receptionist to give you some helpful info but that was sadly lacking.

Location of our room, it was also very tired, the window sill had all the paint peeling off.

Limited facilities (a swimming pool that wasn't open but nothing else); if the weather was poor there was nothing in the hotel to do except return to your room and read.

It would have been nice to have been informed the pool was out of action we were quite disappointed although they did arrange transport to their sister hotel for us to use their pool .