The Gateway Hotel

Great location, spotlessly clean. Beautiful bedroom, very comfortable beds. We ate supper in the bar and it was delicious and perfectly cooked. Great range of beers, and drinks. Dog friendly.. next time I’ll bring mine!

Nothing about the hotel as it was fantastic. My only complaint would be the staff member at breakfast seemed frustrated when we said there were no eggs as not on the menu and because there was no chef, which was fine. There was only a small amount of cooked bacon out,and it was dry. Another couple mentioned it and she made more for them,which would have been nice if we had known as we would have enjoyed some fresh bacon and sausages too. My husband asked for more coffee and she sighed as she walked away,But all staff, especially the night before were lovely, smiling and helpful.

The hotel is furnished very nicely. The staff were helpful when the kitchen was slow. It was handy to be able to take our dog. The shampoo/toiletries were very nice, as were the biscuits, tea, and coffee provided in the room. . Breakfast was a little basic. There were no croissants or similar, only white and brown bread but they accommodated us asking for extra hot food. The cooked breakfast was very nice. We loved the decor in our room and it was nice to have two windows. It is a busy road so you do need the windows closed, it would be good to get air con in the future. The front garden is very big, and lots of parking. A good suntrap! it could do with more than two sets of tables and chairs on it.

The menu was very small for dinner, only 6 to 7 options but the food was very nice. The restaurant fan was right outside the window of our bedroom so it was very noisy. The bathroom in the family room is tiny. Just a shower room actually, with hardly room to turn around. Fine for a one night stay though.

The room was really lovely and my dogs were given a warm welcome.

The breakfast was lovely but they had run out of eggs, never had a full English without eggs! Also at the time of booking we paid in full, there was no mention of paying for the dogs until we got to the hotel and she told me there was a balance on my account for £10 for the dogs. However when I went to pay the next day there was a different girl who said there was nothing on my account to pay which I found slightly odd. However we paid this. So to be fair by the time we paid for the room and breakfast and the dogs it came to £180. Think we could have had a better location, something more central for that price. However overall we did enjoy our break.

We didn't have breakfast.

The smoke alarm went off at 7.00 am, everyone in their rooms went out to car park in their pyjamas. There were no staff on site, to check everyone was out and safe. Some guests tried to call the out of hours number, on contact details, this was not answered. The guests were waiting outside for 30 minutes before a fire engine came. The firemen were quite alarmed, that no staff were on site. When staff came to work at 8.00am, they apologised,for the inconvenience, but it did spoil our stay.

The hotel is in a traditional beautiful local style house, located in a convenient place, just outside the town of Kendal, 20 minutes drive from Windermere, parking spaces are sufficient, the decoration inside is very pretty, the landscape surrounding is idyllic and picturesque, with good restaurant and bar inside, and the pricing is rather reasonable.

None.

The ladies in the reception/ restaurant were exceptionally helpful and friendly. Liked the little touches like the tea/coffee and the shampoos/ soaps etc smelt amazing. The kettle and hairdryers were actually full sized, which meant you don’t have to wait forever to dry your hair or heat up some water which is seriously lacking in a lot of places. Eat in the restaurant, the food was yummy. Plus visit the farm shop opposite for some take home goodies. The decorations are quirky but homely.

Fantastic hotel, beautifully decorated, with excellent staff. Food was delicious (we ate there nearly every night of our stay!). They were able to find us a small fan which helped with the heat a great deal. Lovely views. Parking was adequate.

It's not air conditioned (which is very normal for the UK!) which is fine, but our initial room was pretty close. The window was locked into a small opening only. That was only one room, everything was otherwise very comfortable. And as noted above, they were able to source us a small fan that helped immensely.

Dinner was excellent, the food was beyond expectations even though we have eaten here in the past. Highly recommended for lunch or dinner, but booking is advised. Portion size was good, without being too big. Extremely dog friendly, which is the reason we booked here. The staff clearly like dogs and were happy for them to be in all public rooms.

Our rooms were on the second floor up a steep stairway, which elderly or unfit humans and smaller dogs will struggle with. It also made carrying cases up there a task of fairly epic proportions, given the carpark is also down a flight of stairs. Being attic rooms, the rooms were quite small and lacked headroom - but I don't feel these shortcomings were reflected in the price. There was no electric car charging facility. All hotels should have at least two or three EV chargers available for guests to use. Paid for chargers are fine, I'm not looking for a freebie - just the convenience of charging in the evening / overnight without having to drive into Kendal to find a charger.

location is superb as the name implies Gateway to the Lakes Lovely big room comfortable bed A huge bathroom with bath and shower cubicle separate Dog friendly amazing views plenty of parking nice gardens Good food and excellent friendly staff

My only tiny issue was I couldn’t reach the soap as none by the bathIt was fixed to the wall in the shower and the sink but nothing by the bath

Excellent location if you're driving easy access to all main roads for the lakes. Lovely rooms with beautiful decor and good attention to detail, I was very impressed as I feel I didn't pay a lot for 3 days in the lakes. The staff were very attentive, very welcoming and nothing seemed like too much trouble. The breakfast was lovely and I was really impressed with the amount of vegetarian options, although I would have like more vegetarian options in the evening meal the Vegetable Thai curry was delicious.

I was surprised their were only two vegetarian options for the evening menu when the breakfast menu had around 5. A plant based burger or a vegetarian pie ect would have gone down perfectly, saying that the Thai curry I did have was lovely but the lack of options stopped us from dining there again.