Well perhaps we should have known. All the 5 star reviews, and then any bad reviews get belligerently argued back by the owner! Its such a shame, as it could be good, but this is a tired, somewhat dilapidated hotel, with an owner stuck in 1992. The rooms are average. They are not particularly clean - there were dust and cobwebs behind our bed (as other reviewers have pointed out). The decor felt dated. Strange things like the fact that in order to have the reading lights on over the bed you had to click the switch by the door, and that whilst 1 wall light had a nice warm bulb in it, the other 3 had awful harsh bright white, which made the dated back and white decor even more stark. Then there's the fact that our room and 2 others had full glass windows at the front and looked out over the small carpark just yards away, so in November when we went, either you had to draw the curtains at 3 pm as it got dark, or else you were on full and permanent display. Then there was the smell. DRAINS! They obviously had a problem. Our room smelt every time we went back to it. The first time we mentioned it someone gave us some room spray and flushed the toilet a couple of times. The next day it was worse, and the owner did something with the 'system' having wandered around our room a couple of times. The 'spa' stank too, but what was worse was that it was generally filthy. The pool was cold - absolutely not the stated temperature. The sauna is a tiny wooden telephone box situation right by the door to the outside in the pool area. You literally sit in this fetid little box looking at a filthy rug where people walk in from the outside. Its disgusting. We spent 10 minutes in the pool area and went back to our room. The bedrooms are right on trend compared with the dining area. Its a totally a**osphere zone, with green wiped own chairs and plasticky tables, faux brick wallpaper and piped music playing my Dad car music from the 1970s and 1980s. The 'amuse bouche' and between course 'palate cleansing' sorbet were pathetic attempts at being sophisticated because they were so poorly done. And anyway for the price choices such as 'winter vegetable soup' and 'chicken fricassee' again took me back to 1990s again. Oh and you can't get a decent coffee either as they got rid of the cappuccino machine a few years ago. Oh and you have to book everything in advance and turn up bang on time otherwise you're in trouble - for meals and for the endless regulations about using the pool - which was, as I say, dirty and empty. What was so miserable about all this was that in the background we knew there was a miserable owner and his many many rules and regulations. There was a little hut - the reception area' that was plastered with rules as well as passive aggressive signs about how the customer was always right until they left and complained - well here I am! Or about how their 'children's policy' - 'we realise the little ones have their sell by date ... if your child become