The Gainsborough Bath Spa — Hotel in Bath

As an avid fan and frequent visitor of Bath, the city, I had been looking forward to staying at the Gainsborough for a while but could never justify the expense. This year, the opportunity finally came in the form of a Jane Austen-related tour that uses the hotel as its base. Cue: excitement and expectation.||Alas, as a previous guest of other SLH properties, I found disappointment in quite a few matters:||1. The entrance to the hotel has eight steps up to its lobby. I have a hidden mobility issue and was wheeling a medium-sized suitcase (in a slight drizzle, as is characteristic of England). I could have made it a few steps up or down with my suitcase, but not eight potentially slippery ones. There was no staff member at the door who acknowledged me or stepped forward to help me. A fellow guest (!), the kindest gentleman, actually took it upon himself to carry my suitcase right up to the concierge (despite my insistence that he leave it at the top of the steps). I am indebted to that guest.||* The person who did my check-in gave me the keycard to my room so simply—WITHOUT a card envelope or my room number indicated anywhere, and spoke the room number out loud. Do not do that to solo female travellers. *||2. The acoustic insulation of my guest room was simply… awful. I had the unfortunate lot of having a room that overlooked the service bay and the lane leading up to the Black Fox, a popular pub. At night, despite my room being on Floor 2, there was all sorts of rowdiness happening until 12; and, on game nights, 2AM. In the morning, the sound of heavy vehicles would startle me awake because it sounded like someone was trying to break into my room. DO. NOT. RECOMMEND.||I should have asked for a change of room but I was also very busy with the tour and too exhausted by the end of the day to deal with it. That is on me.||3. Hotel guests only have use of the spring pools from 7-9 in the morning and 7-9 in the evening. If a guest wanted to use the pools outside these hours, there would be a £70 fee—or, you can book a spa treatment.||Look. Look here. I am already paying £300/night to stay at this hotel and its access to the spring waters of Aquae Sulis is exactly why most people would choose to stay at the Gainsborough. This restriction is insulting. If the hotel is concerned about the noise and crowd levels, may I suggest a daily booking system where a certain number of slots is released to guests and they can choose the time they prefer to bath as long as there is space? I’m sure the hotel management can come up with a better way to suit their needs and make guests happy/happier.||Those three (four?) main pain points aside, other gripes would include:|- There is one particular senior member of the front-facing staff who seems particularly impatient—and particularly unhappy when dealing with audiovisual issues in the Chapel. I consider this man senior enough to reflect on his behaviour and identify himself without me having to name him. Please do not march in and then slam the door upon departure from a room full of women.|- The signage to the toilets at the lobby is incorrect. No, I do not accept the snark of “That’s why we’re here!” from the reception as a fix.|- The guest rooms are dark. I corroborated this with other guests on the tour. Please add lamps/lights. None of us could read or do any knitting etc., except when we were on our beds; and none of us actually wanted to do needlework in bed. There were a few times I had to use the torch from my mobile phone to read things off the “desk”!||Now, of course the hotel delights in other ways:||The staff of a hotel is very much what sets it apart from and above of others and, for the most part, everyone I met was lovely. The front-facing staff of the spa were exceptionally warm and welcoming; and housekeeping was extremely considerate. I would like to highlight the kind young man who replenishes the in-room beverages. Again, due to my hidden disability, I couldn’t open the bottled water provided and he would always take time to open a few for me whenever we meet. Unfortunately, he moved like a hurricane (I say that with endearment) and I never got to ask his name.||The other person I would like to highlight is Joseph (I hope I remembered his name correctly) who I met in situations surrounding F&B, drinks in the Chapel or dining in the function room/restaurant. Joseph is worth a whole star on his own! He lights up the room with his enthusiasm and remembers drink preferences with such consideration; his presence alone goes such a way in making a place feel welcoming. No task is too big or small for him. Oh, and he has such a gorgeous smile. Please pass on my highest compliments to him!||Another enjoyment was the food at the restaurant. I appreciated the quality of every breakfast but that which holds my heart is the delicious orange-chocolate cake we had on our first evening. If only the latter were a menu item! I thought about it all through my stay.||It is likely that I will be back at the Gainsborough next year, only because I would like to repeat my attendance with the same tour company. Otherwise, Bath has so many more fine B&Bs to stay at. Oh, and I must make sure I do not accept a room along that offensive side of...

I had a poor experience at the spa they might be racist. I did not stay in the rooms there, just went for a spa experience. Detailed review below.

I was traveling to Bath from the USA and wanted to go to spa with the hot springs. We booked our massage months in advance and clearly stated in the email that we were not staying there and only wanted a massage and to spend the day at the pools. We get there early only to find that they booked the spa wrong. They upped charged us about 50 pounds for not staying there, even though we had clearly communicated that beforehand. While they were talking to the manager and trying to sort out whatever their mistake was, they set our complementary drinks literally on the other side of the counter so that we could just see them. It was a particularly hot day in September and this place does not have AC so while we were waiting for them to not apologize, we were just staring parched at the water. We finally got the paperwork sorted and originally had picked a time a couple hours after we got there for a massage, but they informed us that there was an opening that we could do it right afterwards. They also informed us that since the charge was more, we got afternoon tea with it. But we were told that we could only do the tea at 1 PM, with our massages ending at noon, because it was fully booked except for that time.

So we went to our massages early, which were pretty uneventful. I really would have liked air conditioning as again it was hot and then you go under a hot blanket and they put warm lotion on you. Although I didn’t really feel rushed, they were pretty efficient to move us on after the massages to the bath area. We got a super short and very rushed tour of their bathhouse pools, and then they sat us in the very sunny spot with warm tea and a macaroon. Imagine it’s sweating-weather outside and then being confined to a glass room filled with warm baths, and then being handed a hot cup of tea. I had a specifically ask for cold water when the employees themselves seem to be sweating as they served it to me, so I feel like there was no regard for thinking of the comfort of the guests.

At about 12:30 we wanted to spend more time in the pool and went to see if we could push our reservation for tea later. The woman who seem to be the manager sternly told us that because it was fully booked we could not miss the reservation or we would forfeit the entire tea experience, and there was nothing she could do about it. So we literally race to get dressed and take a shower from pool and are running upstairs to make the reservation with sipping wet hair. I kid you not we walk into the restaurant, and there was no one in there, except the waitress. We were sat and confirmed with the staff that we were in the right place. We told them that they told us that it was fully booked and we couldn’t push the reservation, but the whole staff seem to be confused at this as there was obviously no one else in the restaurant. We had tea, which was a pretty decent selection of sandwiches and scones, but not anything outstanding. By the time we were ending the meal, there had been only one other party who had joined us in the restaurant as a guest, so we were understandably annoyed as to what the rush was about.

When talking to the guest services about our experience they seem to be unsympathetic and slightly rude to us. I didn’t see them doing this to other guests, in fact at the end while we were telling him about our experience, there was a woman who checked in and had the same situation as we did before, with her not staying there as a guest and only being there for the spa, and she had no problem getting served her drink and being escorted in way more quickly than we were. It makes me want to suggest that that my mother and I were the only non-white guests that we saw there. Our experience was not outstanding compared to the almost $300 charge per person.

Overall, I think it’s not worth it for the price, especially since we had such a poor experience with the service. And people of...

We stayed for three nights as a couple over bank holiday weekend and came by train on Fri night (short walk from the station).||||We visit Bath on regular basis to use thermal springs and were always staying at DoubleTree. Now that this hotel allows you to use and collect HH points too we decided to give it a try. It is double the money versus the other one but when we factored in that access to hot springs is within the hotel lift ride, soft drinks in a room are replenished daily and impeccable five star standard is so evident - then the gap is much smaller and in my opinion well worth covering.||||Check in was one of the most informative ones we have experienced for years performed by an experienced English gentleman. To our complete surprise we were granted Hilton benefits and welcome bottle of red wine with a handwritten note. Classic FM radio was on - we loved it and never switched the TV on.||||We stayed on the 4th floor in the attic room. It was deluxe room which had a sofa on the bottom of the bed as well as armchair in the corner. Personally I don’t like sitting on the bed with my clothes so I always appreciate proper day sitting areas in hotel rooms. Windows (sash) opened just a bit from the bottom. Aircon works.||||Bed was tall and really comfortable with great quality bedding. It did not have any dusty bed covers and decorative cushions which I hate as they are not hygienic addition so I did not have to remove it and could enjoy pristine duvets. On the third night we had turn down service with extra Elemis sleep spray left on the duvet. ||||At first I wished we were allocated one of the grander bedrooms at lower floors but upon reflection we were glad we were there as it was really quiet at night and there was a nice view over the skyline and the cathedral. It was spacious enough to move around and open the luggage. I would say we wished there was more storage space for clothes. ||||Bathroom was with bathtub/ shower combination and Elemis toiletries as well as waffle pattern bathrobes and slippers. There was hot towel rail - handy for drying swimming costumes.||||Spa times for hotel guests are 8-10 am and 7-9 pm which worked for us. I don’t see the point in midday spa use. My only criticism is that dry sauna is not hot enough, unless you pour water on the coals constantly - it is just not doing anything and door needs fixing as there is a gap. Steam room works well. Some people commented it is busy during hotel use hours but we found people displaying courtesy to others so it flowed nicely. I found temperature of the springs to be warmer than in the public space across the road which I appreciated. Facilities are probably the cleanest I have seen anywhere. You even have makeup remover at your disposal! Normally I rush to the room to shower after spa use to avoid shared facilities but here was so clean with everything at hand with Elemis bottles and plenty of towels - that I was more than happy to use it there and then. All these thoughtful details to make you at ease and relaxed.||||I had a 50 min massage which was very expensive at £185 but well worth it - special thanks to Zach. ||||Again it is a luxury hotel with a price tag but having stayed in other hotels of that category before on business/ private trips - this one actually delivers and is truly customer centric in a way that is thoughtful and discreet.||||Location wise - everything is on your door step!||||We are already planning another visit. Great way to destress. Thank you to all the staff who are working hard to make guests stay memorable and comfortable....