Review of Stoke Place- Part of the Cairn Collection 4*

My wife and I married here in August 2008 and returned for the first time in December 2012. We had a quiet one night stay in an executive room which included a la carte dinner in the evening and breakfast in the morning. Upon arrival, despite a little bit of refurb here and there, the hotel was just as we remembered it. We dropped our case in the room and headed straight to the bar for a few drinks, then we had a wander around to be nosey and look at the rooms we used for our wedding ceremony and reception. The bar is on the expensive side but the bartender knocked up some of the best cocktails we'd had. After freshening up back in our room (the bathroom was quite big but the bath and shower themselves are a bit of a tight squeeze) it was back downstairs to enjoy the best a la carte meal i've ever had — the food was amazing and the service was brilliant. Then it was back to the bar for more cocktails… in total with evening drinks, table wine during dinner and post-dinner drinks in the bar, we notched up a £120 drinks bill, but throughout the night the drinks and service was great and i've not complaints about value for money. In the morning we made pigs of ourselves by ticking nearly every box on the room service breakfast, which was brought to our room within the requested time slot, in keeping with the rest of our stay the breakfast was lovely. We was a bit disappointed not to have a garden view but then we didn't specifically request that, so I can't complain. The only negative points were as follows: two of our towels were dirty and seemed to have make-up on them, but I made a call to reception and within minutes fresh towels were delivered. There was a large gap at the bottom of our door leading to the hallway outside, which meant we weren't very well insulated against noise. The gap was caused by the uneven floor which is part of the buildings character — however the gap at one end was a couple of inches big and the room would have benefited from a draught excluder being provided to block the light and noise from the hallway. The pros far outweight the cons though and it'd take quite a few more negatives before I wouldn't be blown away by this hotel. We'll be back…