Before the pandemic, the Dart Marina Hotel included a beautiful looking spa. In fact, in the booking confirmation I got from reservations in March 2021 for a 4-night stay in September, the signature included: Dart Marina Hotel Reservations Dart Marina Hotel & Spa For my elderly parents, myself and my wife, as individual hotel rooms were fully booked, instead I booked a two- bedroom apartment for four nights. At the time of booking [March 2021] I was advised that the Spa was currently closed because of Covid restrictions, but it was expected to open when lockdown ended and normality returned. My confirmation email also stated that I would be able to book dinner in the River Restaurant. At the time of booking, Apartment guests were able to pay to take breakfast and dinner in the hotel. On September 6th, three weeks before our stay, I received an email entitled, “Time to start planning your stay,” and advised for the first time: Apartment guests no longer have access to the hotel for breakfast or dinner. The Spa will remain closed until further notice. Now then, Covid has made us all a little more accepting of situations changing, and these usually come with an apology and talk of complying with government restrictions. There were no government restrictions on restaurants in September 2021, and most Spa’s, including at David Lloyd clubs where I am a member, had reopened safely and successfully. My booking, and the confirmation that reservations in the hotel’s River Restaurant would be part of facilities open only to hotel and apartment guests along with those using the hotel’s own harbour, was not now being honoured, nor was there any offer of compensation to mitigate the reduced experience and inconvenience of having to find alternative restaurants in Dartmouth each night. We did not cook at any time in the apartment, as that was not the purpose of our break. You also need to know that the hotel only offers the choice of 2 two-bedroom apartments on its website, so it’s not like there will be an influx of dozens of additional diners to overpopulate the restaurant. Like so many Brits, initially I just accepted the situation. Also, the challenge of finding somewhere else at short notice that would be suitable for my almost 90-year-old parents was not one I wanted to take on either. The apartment itself was brilliant - mind you, it was over £1500 for four nights self-catering, so it should have been - but there was another clear discrepancy between what the website stated, and what we experienced: The website states: A PEACEFUL HOTEL EXCLUSIVE TO RESIDENTS ON THE BANKS OF THE RIVER DART THE ATMOSPHERE IS UNHURRIED, LAID-BACK AND RESTORATIVE There is a hotel corridor that leads directly to the apartments which, we abruptly discovered on our first morning, also neighbour the hotel’s staff and delivery entrance. Yes, the local vans delivering fresh fish, greengrocery, and general supplies start arriving directly beneath our bedroom windows from 6.30am every morning. Every morning, starting always at 6.30, goods being taken off vans, doors being shut, and the occasional exchanges of conversations defy the very essence of peaceful, laid-back and restorative…. And whilst the hotel’s manager insisted in an email response to my experiences that he would talk to the head chef about deliveries coming so early, it’s unlikely that companies are going to change their delivery routes and times. And even if they did, that is no benefit to, or remedy of, our collective poor experience. After our departure and I received the “We look forward to welcoming you back to the Dart Marina in the near future” message in an email, that’s when I thought that nobody had checked on us during our stay and that the hotel’s management should hear about my experience of not getting what I paid for and the early involuntary wake-up times caused by the location of the service entrance. The hotel thanked me for my constructive feedback, and have hinted that they might put it right next time by offering ‘to make sure that we are looked after.” Unless there is some positive gesture of more than just future goodwill for “this time’’, there won’t be a “next time.” In which case, when anyone asks me about my holiday this year or our latest trip to Dartmouth, guess what they are going to learn about the Dart Marina Hotel with no Spa and a noisy service entrance at 6.30am. I would prefer not to have written this blog as those poor experiences also affected the wider family - who all now have their own poor experiences story to retell - but ‘next time’ just doesn’t cut it.