Set back in the outskirts of Sheffield, the Rutland Hotel has found fame through its enormous pie offerings and has enhanced its reputation with a beautiful façade. It also boasts a well designed website that promotes an image of a luxury hotel worthy of a special occasion. Sadly, for Charlotte and I, this impression didn’t bear out in reality; we found a hotel that felt tired, tatty, and in desperate need of a revamp.

From the outside, the Rutland looks wonderful and has an attractive garden area that makes the hotel appear set back and private despite its location on a main road. The gardens appear well tended and even the reception looks swanky and inviting. I would even venture that the bar area looks good, with a roomy and light feel to it from the outside, but this positive impression is just not reflected inside the hotel.

What lies within…

Having been greeted nicely (the staff here do seem to be one of the hotel’s biggest assets), we were informed that our room was a short walk away from the reception area. In reality this meant that we had to navigate a fair few flights of steps (although strangely we were still on the same level when we arrived at our room!) and in the process we came face to face with the real side of the Rutland: one that is tired and desperately needs a facelift.

With the carpets looking tatty, outdated and quite in your face, the actual corridor decorations were also rather unimpressive given that this is a hotel that markets itself as a luxury destination. As an added bonus to this, the lights in the corridor seem to stay on all night, meaning that our room had a rather irritating amount of light creeping under the door all night. All in all, this wasn’t terrible – it was just that it should and could have been so much better.

In terms of the room itself, the décor and furnishings were okay – especially as we went for the cheapest room type. I would even go so far as to say that the wi-fi was excellent, although I have a sneaky feeling that this was because the hotel was rather empty. Our bed was clean, the bathroom acceptable and the only massive gripe I have is that I had to re-hang a fair amount of the curtains that had been left damaged by the hotel. Again though, despite the positives, the fact is that for £100 a night, you just expect a little more.

We did decide to venture into the bar for a drink before heading out for dinner but the tatty and tired furnishings and décor continued here. After quickly finishing our drinks and having a quick game of cards, we fled quickly before we were overcome by the terribly outdated and cold atmosphere that the bar offered. As well as this, the cost of drinks was fairly extortionate, even for a hotel, with a small non-alcoholic beer and a lemonade with lime cordial coming in with little change from a fiver.

To end on a positive, they do have a fair amount of free parking and the location does allow you to get into Sheffield without too much fuss. Despite this, until it receives a revamp, they really need to consider how they market themselves and if they offer the service and quality that allows them to charge significantly more than the likes of a Premier Inn.