Sea Marge Hotel

I was not staying at the hotel but I had booked a table for myself and 3 friends for dinner. When we arrived there was no booking taken in my name even though I'd seen the staff write it in at the time. Thankfully there was a vacant table. The bar were low on certain drinks and on certain requests the service was slow. I would suggest this is down to staff training and efficient stock taking. This is a shame because the hotel is in a superb position on the coast and is an attractive place to stay or dine in any season. The staff were polite and helpful and the food was fine, if a little overpriced. The hotel was clean and tidy. Advice to Mackenzie owners: pay your waiting staff, chef and Mangers at a reasonable rate, good initial induction and training, instigate practical ways of working to ensure tasks are met and not overlooked or forgotten, give competent Managers the a ability to resolve complaints at ground level otherwise other hotels will beat you to the bookings.

We booked for dinner a couple of hours before arriving and yet they couldn’t find the booking. Luckily, and disturbingly for them, the restaurant was very quiet. The lighting was very bright, spoiling the atmosphere, albeit the decor was fairly opulent apart from the oddly modern choice of replacement table tops. We ordered a bottle of wine and were surprised to have our bottle just left, without an offer to open and pour, not what we would expect in this level of establishment. The food, however, was very good albeit the gap between starter and main was far too short. The only exception was the Eton mess dessert which didn’t contain the advertised strawberries and virtually no meringue but this was refunded. The prices are reasonable but we were left unsure what this restaurant is trying to be, possibly the result of being a chain and losing its way?

Family of 4 stay in 1 of the lodges. The hot tub didn’t work for the majority of our 5 day stay. Disappointing but as a reasonable person, I’m willing to accept is one of those things. However, as a key component of our accommodation, I also reasonably expected a fair rebate to the cost paid. This was all accepted and acknowledged by the hotel manager but she said it would need to be dealt with by the ‘Operations Team’ and I would receive a call from them. This call never occurred so after a few days I emailed and received a bland response that my feedback was important and I would receive a response within 14 days. Seemed a long time but I patiently waited but got no reply. Several emails and phone calls later and 5 weeks since our stay, complete radio silence. My communications have been reasonable and polite throughout but I have been treated with complete contempt (the hotel manager has been professional and understanding and clearly embarrassed by the hierarchy above). If I have paid for something material which isn’t provided without any compensation, so far as I’m concerned that is theft. Therefore my warning to anyone staying at the Sea Marge is hope you don’t have any issues that require senior management involvement because you can expect the same poor treatment and to be completely ignored. Also, I would suggest if told that the so called Operations Team will be in touch in due course, insist on the matter being resolved there and then as you will receive the same radio silence. Fair to say we would never stay again or at any other Mackenzie Hotel!