Lovely hotel but won't be going back

We have stayed here twice. This was my husband's cycling training holiday and they couldn't have been more helpful looking after his bike, unlocking the door for him in the mornings and one of the staff gave him useful tips on where to ride. We were B&B but ate dinner at the hotel 5 nights and spent every night in the bar. We really liked all the restaurants apart from the Oriental but that is because I don't like prawns etc. The Italian has a lovely atmosphere. The third time we ate there, a couple next to us completely ruined our evening. They started moaning to us that they hadn't been offered any bread. Well, we hadn't been given any the night before but we just asked for it! Also said they had to wait ages for their dinner. It is cooked to order and they spent 1.5 hours in the restaurant in total so they hardly waited ages. What really annoyed us though, apart from their constant moaning to us, was that they then got loads of free wine and when their bill came, she said of course you won't pay for any wine. It's always the ones who complain who get freebies. We weren't looking for freebies but it was particularly annoying when they ruined our evening. The restaurants were very busy and you had to book in first thing in the morning to get in. The vegetarian restaurant opposite the hotel had fantastic food. The welcome cocktails party is ok, we talked to other nice residents, but didn't see any staff apart from the waiters. The evening entertainment is perfectly alright. I don't know what some people expect, judging from other comments. Very comfy lounge bar. The weather wasn't great most of the week, cloudy and not that warm, but it was the same in the south, as we drove down there one day. The north is much nicer. Obviously, this is an expensive hotel. Lovely setting and it is easy to walk down into the town or behind the hotel. We love the position. What we didn't like was what happened when we checked out. On arrival, the reception staff were lovely and even had our details from when we stayed before (7 years ago). Checking out, there were two men I hadn't seen before. He gave us our bill and then immediately made a phone call (?!!). We just looked at him and he did put the phone down. Then another bloke came out of the back office eating. Glanced down at our bill and then went, oh are you one of the..... I interuppted him with no. There was a whole planeload of people from the south staying one night who couldn't get their flight home because of snow at Manchester airport. We really felt like saying, as we were so annoyed by then, would we have a massive bill like this if we had only stayed one night? They took our payment and then started talking to each other. We took four steps, turned round and said very sarcastically, well, goodbye then. I don't think we have ever stayed anywhere before when someone hasn't said, thank you for staying with us/goodbye etc. The bloke outside the door ignored us as well. Apart from this, all the staff are very friendly.