Top 10 Old Toll Gate Hotels

This is the 5th time we've stayed at Cottage Lodge, and it won't be our last. The location is such that once parked (in your own, labelled parking space) you can walk from the door to all the local cafes/pubs/restaurants, but it's also possible to walk into the forest and local nature reserve too. A short drive will take you into Lyndhurst (or it's walkable, mostly avoiding the roads). The rooms are all individually named, so you know exactly which room you're going to be staying in - we've only stayed in two, but I'm sure they're all lovely! Rooms are clean, beds are comfy, locally produced tea/coffee and toiletries, fan and heater (neither were needed, but always good to have them!) and a safe. By far the best thing about this hotel is the staff/customer service. Friendly but not 'stuffy'. I let slip that it was my birthday during our stay, and this resulted in our parking space being labelled with Happy Birthday, some birthday bunting appearing in the room, and every single member of staff wishing me Happy Birthday. Hot breakfasts are cooked to order (pre-order the cereal/juice/hot drinks etc the day before) and the small team are very efficient in serving. There is an onsite restaurant ”White Tails” for dinner, operated as a separate business - booking in advance highly advisable, not open every day, but definitely worth going to - the food is great! For us, there are no negatives to staying at Cottage Lodge. Thoroughly recommend.

When you spend multiple thousands of pounds on your wedding day, you would expect hotel staff to do their upmost to make the day as special as possible. What you do not expect is kitchen staff to completely ignore the list of severe allergies that has been given to them, and then once they have handed out allergen filled food to those affected become rude and defensive to those affected, the bride and groom and family members. The night before my now wife and her bridesmaids had a room booked for all to stay in, when they arrived the room was too small for them all, was so dirty that one bridesmaid hung her dress and it immediately got marked. They were moved to a different room and told there would be no charge. They then ordered room service, which was overpriced and the portion sizes were abysmal. The mistakes made by kitchen staff led my brother (the best man) to a state of near anaphylaxis, meaning he was stuck in a room vomiting and shivering in bed, struggling to catch his breath for the rest of the day. While me and other family members were trying to find out what my brother had consumed to lead to this reaction one member of staff (Mark) confronting my brother who was at the time, hunched over and vomiting, and telling him what was happening was not the fault of the hotel, and there was no chance of contamination in the kitchen. While Mark was trying to cover the hotels arse to the person that they had, for all intents and purposes, poisoned. The ”food and beverage manager” (George) was telling concerned family members and wedding guests that he could not disclose what had been given to my brother (effectively breaking Natasha's law), despite us explaining to him that if we had to rush to the hospital they would need to know what had been consumed. He also told me and my new wife that we had signed disclaimers stating it was not the fault of the hotel if this kind of incident occurred. Eventually, I managed to convince him to bring me the packaging of the Ice Cream my brother had consumed, although he confidently declared it was ”dairy free” the label read dairy ice cream, once I pointed this out he exclaimed ”oh sh1t” and hid the ice cream lid behind his back telling me and other family members ”no proof, no proof”. We still have video evidence of this section occurring, if we require it. And while my sister was trying to explain we needed the ”proof” for if my brother had to go to the hospital, Mark walked over to us at which point George held up a hand and told us to ”shush”. Mark then told George to let us take a photo, which he did, and we did. At which point we were offered a small amount of money behind the bar as a ”good will gesture”, to which I had replied that at a minimum the goodwill gesture would need to be an open bar. For the rest of the wedding George was still continuing to work despite our requests to remove him from our event due to his rudeness to our guests. My brother was unable to leave the hotel room unti