Forest Park Country Hotel & Inn, Brockenhurst, New Forest, Hampshire

Our experience with Forest Park Hotel can only be described as upsetting. We did not receive acceptable service and their claims of being a dog friendly hotel were false. Having stayed at the hotel previously and seeing that it was still dog friendly, we had booked a room for three of us at the hotel via Trip.com. We advised them in the special requests section that we would also be travelling with our 18-year-old terrier and were happy for an extra charge being made for him. Due to his age, he suffers from arthritis so is very slow and is a very calm dog. We were told that we could check into the hotel after 2:30 pm and arrived about 3:00 pm. When we arrived at the hotel, we were advised that they knew nothing about us having a dog with us and that they had no spaces in their dog friendly rooms. I queried this as we had confirmation of my special request which I emailed to them. I was told that Trip.com had not advised them, which I found later to be untrue. The hotel staff then said that had we turned up earlier (we were within half an hour of check-in time) they may have been able to offer us something but basically, they could not accommodate us. At no time at this stage did they offer us any alternatives, in fact they made it quite clear that they had no room. So, I asked for a refund, and we were left sitting in the bar area waiting for it to be processed. The attitude of the staff had been quite upsetting considering I had not got cross with them but had accepted their excuses and was searching for another hotel in the area. At this late stage the General Manager decided to offer us some alternatives... *We could have a room, but we would have to lock the dog in the bathroom! He would not be allowed in the main room, and we should not allow him to jump on the furniture. Now this was a very old dog that quite obviously could not jump even if he tried! This suggestion made my blood run cold as it was far from dog friendly. *We could have a single dog friendly room and a double non-dog friendly room. Now, this would have been acceptable had we been offered it earlier on, but we had already been in contact with several other hotels and I was upset with the way we had been treated. The hotel staff had obviously been too preoccupied with informing us that we could not stay with them rather than look for alternatives (SERVICE?). In the end the General Manager said that Trip.com would ring us shortly confirming the cancellation and refund. Rather than hang around wasting time we went on to find another hotel and kept the phone open waiting for the call - which never came. On returning from our holiday no refund was in the bank account so I contacted Trip.com to find out when our money would be returned. They had no record of any such request but took the details, contacted Forest Park directly for me and sorted the refund out for me. I could not fault the service from Trip.com. Whilst speaking to Trip.com, I queried why the hotel had not been advised of our special request, only to be told that they would have been advised in the special request section. So, to recap, the hotel service was non-existent, and they could not even admit their error in overlooking the fact that we had a dog with us. The facilities and food we did not get to experience but in my head, I am wondering why would a 'dog friendly' hotel request that you lock your dog in the bathroom?