Trying to book a hotel room but they've gone quiet on me... WWYD?

[GreyHeron]

A very unique and individual boutique Hotel in the North East. Beautiful looking rooms, loads of great reviews. But I've been trying to book a room with them for days and I'm just baffled - I can't get through to anyone anymore!

On Monday I phoned up with a few questions about the rooms, and the person I spoke to was too busy to talk and asked me to email instead which I did. Just normal questions. No-one responded so I called again later in the day. Spoke to someone again, found out some of the information I wanted (although some of it was quite confusing and I got a very strange reaction to what I thought was a very ordinary question). But I got the prices, which I was told were valid for the next 24 hours so I said I'd talk to my OH and call back within that time scale.

We decided to go for it and I called back the next morning to make the booking. Got the answerphone so left a message to say we wanted such and such a room on the dates I'd already mentioned and could someone call me to confirm. Waited, no-one called. Tried again a few hours later, left another message. Still nothing. More calls yesterday and throughout today, answerphone every time. The message just says they're 'on the other line' and to leave details so someone can call back. I've sent another email today too but no response.

Now I know I could just sack it off and look for another place but there's nothing that we could afford that comes close to this one in terms of look, style, quirkiness, uniqueness. I just love the look of it and it's for a special occasion so I don't want to give up! And it's possible that the room has been reserved for us. But the thing is, their website has a booking portal and the dates we asked for have now gone. So is that for us? Or has someone else got in there and automatically booked while I was faffing about trying to talk to someone?

I'm such a novice at this - I've never booked anything more than a basic B&B, once, a few years ago. But surely this can't be normal? Maybe they had an emergency but as they're running a busy hotel, wouldn't they have someone to take care of things while they were unavailable? I'm getting a bit obsessed with it all, probably because this is not something we've done before. Any ideas anyone?

If the staffing is so bad on reception, OP, what on earth would it be like in the hotel?

It's not Alnwick Lodge is it? Because they are nuts and the website is nothing like the reality.

They sound crap. I would find a place that actually wants to take your booking. Why don't you look at some specialist booking sites like Secret Escapes etc. You would get lots of different options to compare.

Thanks for your replies. It's not Alnwick Lodge, no. I've honestly spent days looking for places (when I should be getting on with my distance learning course!) and there's nothing that comes close. I will check out the site you mentioned though bluesky. Their trip advisor reviews are really very good considering what people can be like in those reviews. The few bad ones though do seem to about booking problems. I'm hesitating to name the place in case they somehow get to see this and blacklist me (persecution complex, moi?)!

The question I asked on the phone that elicited a strange reaction was - are the mattresses on the soft or the firm side? Because I suffer from a bad back and soft mattresses can cause me considerable discomfort. There was a LONG silence. Then a rather frosty response along the lines that none of the guests had ever complained and that the mattresses were very good quality. I mean, was it a weird question? So that''s partly why I'm being paranoid. That she thinks I've insulted her mattresses and therefore refuses to speak to me!