Harbour Hotels
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Rothay Garden Grasmere
Some positive’s but one big negative unfortunately. As a regular visitor to Grasmere for 20 years or more I have genuinely sampled every hotel and guest house in the village and immediate surrounding area. Historically I have been to the Rothay Garden on three previous occasions but only when the hotel was under different ownership so this was the first visit under the Harbour Hotels banner. My main complaint here would have to be the fact that upon check in a £10 per night charge was levied against me for the use of the hotel car park! And why was this?…apparently, because I arranged my visit via a third party booking company, in my case Expedia. What difference should that make you may ask….well, because Expedia inevitably take a commission for their involvement Harbour Hotels feel entitled to recover some of that lost margin by charging the customer for on-site parking. Conversely, customers who book their stay directly with the hotel have no parking charge levied upon them. So in other words, this is a punitive charge, a sort of punishment for customers who quite innocently use a third party booking company, and maybe (God forbid) have got a slightly discounted hotel rate in the process. As a retired RAF officer I happen to use the Defence Discount Service Scheme which can indeed attract a small discount via Expedia. My conclusion then. If Harbour Hotels feel so hard done too having to pay a margin of their profit to third party booking companies like Expedia I would suggest they de-register themselves from those particular websites and attract their guests via other means. One thing is for sure, on principle alone, the Rothay Garden is most definitely off my list of accommodation options for future visits to Grasmere.