De Vere Belton Woods Hotel

I'm going to try and not sound too bitter at De Vere and I don't want to sound like a "complainer" but this is my fair assessment of our xmas 3 day break.
We were told that we get a complimentary drink on christmas eve arrival, this didn't happen, but no problem with that. We checked into our room which was fine, we had been here before so we knew what the rooms were like. The reason why we had chosen De Vere was the suppose christmas experience, and the reassurance from them of the dietary needs my partner needs, not through choice, but on medical grounds. My partner has Celiacs (she can't eat anything with gluten, wheat amongst other ingredients) and also Diabetes, so we did the responsible thing by organising this 6 weeks in advanced, and explained to them our requirements. We asked them to be completely honest if they could not accommodate this, and we would have respected this as food at christmas plays a big part in the whole experience.
But the person dealing with our specific requirements, completely reassured us and said we aren’t the only people with Celiacs and where told in no uncertain terms, not to worry as their chiefs are told about this and would make gluten free food for people who require this.
Christmas eve evening when we arrived at the stantons restaurant, they didn't even know who we were, and were told they weren’t aware of this. So my partner had very limited food, she couldn’t have the meats on offer because this was glazed with sources, which is fine if you don’t' have Celiacs, but you can have severe medical problems if you eat this and if you are celiac. So my partner could hardly eat anything on the christmas eve buffet menu, she was given steak which was awful, and the vegetables given to her without the sources which was so hard, it was not edible. (no exaggeration)
Because this all seemed alarming, we asked if this was what it was going to be like for our entire christmas break?? We were promised a selection of gluten free deserts, there was one which was dime bar cake. We asked if she was getting a christmas pudding like we asked... the reply was, there's rice pudding... now correct me if I am wrong, but who eats rice pudding for christmas, especially when she was promised she will be having christmas pudding and not to mention the dime bar cake was sky high in sugar content. We were also told that there were no other gluten free food, and all the shops are closed because of christmas. We were completely horrified.
Thankfully, because of our continuous pressure on the staff / management, they agreed to make a gluten free pudding, which we were thankful to the assistant manager and chef who did this for us.
The next morning which was christmas morning, my partner could hardly have any breakfast. We were told that there were gluten free bread rolls, there were none. We waited all morning for a couple of slices of gluten free sliced bread. There were no gluten free sausage, which is basic standards... this was getting quite upsetting because there was hardly anything for my partner... she had a choice of eggs and mushrooms, from the whole host of food choices.... not what you would expect from a 4* hotel.
To our astonishment, we were sat next to another couple, who we heard were making similar points to the waiter about exactly the same thing. Ironically, they were in the same boat and were also staggered about the fact they were lied to also. We actually felt sorry for the waiter because there were very little he could do, and we appreaiced he was working christmas, but we could hardly contain our anger. My partner was offered coco pops... we are not children!
Now to the Christmas lunch in which we paid £60 each for. Diabolical. End of. The only good thing about this was the piano player which was entertaining. The food was not value for money, but we thanked the chef who made my partner the xmas pudding last min... but, it did look very sparse and made her sugar level sky high yet again, leaving her feeling ill afterwards, so she couldn't use any of the hotels facilities, such as the health club etc.
Christmas dinner was the same as christmas evening meal. My partner had 1 mince pie for dessert. Myself who isn’t celiac had to wait for my partners separate food to arrive which was 45 mins, everyone had their evening meal, by the time I went for my buffet food they had run out so I was left with hardly anything because they had run out and couldn't prepare anymore. The other celicas couple were left waiting to eat too, and the poor couple who are now our friends had 1 mince pie between them... this was a complete disgrace.
I could go on and on but I’m sure you get the picture. I am in no way a complainer, but this completely ruined our christmas, the only good thing to come out of this is that we made good friends with the other couple!
I would however like to say a big thank you to the assistant manager in the restaurant, and one of the chefs, who at least tried to help us and appreciated how bad this had been.
We have complained about this, the duty manager seemed care free, initially he said... they will hold an investigation, which wasn’t good enough. After 2 hours of tiresome and unwanted attention, in complaining to him, we got a food discount, but that wasn’t the point, this ruined our christmas, so a discount on the food was a tiny consolation and price to pay, but you can't turn back the christmas bad experience.
Sorry if this sounds more like a rant than a review, but people do need to know how bad De vere Belton woods are, this cost us over £600 for this break and had a depressing christmas, I would stronging urge to think very carefully if you are to consider having a xmas break with De Vere.
Needless to say, although we were told that someone at De Vere would get in touch, they haven't.
thank you for reading.
*** I have a letter waiting for them, and gave them the benefit of doubt because they said that they would get in touch, if they don't get in touch by next week, I will also copy and paste the letter on here, to give you a full and more in-depth idea of how had they have been ***