The management of the Embleton Spa Hotel, at Embleton in the English Lake District, have the most extraordinary way of dealing with their customers. Last October my wife made reservation for a short break and specifically asked for email confirmation of the booking. This confirmation was never given and the upshot was that a confusion led to our being a couple of hundred quid out-of-pocket. The merit of this dispute isn’t my subject: rather the way that the hotel handled the subsequent complaint.

My wife phoned the hotel twice to lodge her complaint and was twice promised a return call from the manager. As with the originally promised booking confirmation, the promise wasn’t kept. We then wrote to the hotel on three occasions. The hotel did not reply to any of the letters.

On one occasion the manager called and said that the matter had been placed in external hands. This meant a solicitor. He telephoned. He was full of bluster and badly briefed, and promised to check with his client again and call again. That promise wasn’t kept either.

This is a hotel that is too sloppily managed to confirm bookings and reply to phone calls and letters. It responds to complaints by ignoring them and then putting a solicitor on the case.

Why would you stay there?