Ringwood Hall Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Chesterfield

We booked to come to here for my friends birthday. We were able to book in the day before and were told it was very busy. My friend booked in for a treatment and I decided at the time to just book the spa day. Upon arrival the building and grounds are beautiful, however, we first entered the hotel, the spa entrance is separate and this isnt clear. At the spa reception we were greeted by two staff, one lady was a therapist, she asked how wed like to start our session we said we would get changed, then grab our welcome prosecco and then be shown around. The lockers are annoying! They dont open or close and require you to keep putting in the code until it decides to work. We purchased the option to include robes and towels and was a nice perk to have flipflops included. The day included a really lovely large 200ml glass of prosecco. Being shown around, the facilities are much smaller than they appear on the photos. Be mindful when booking. We arrived at 10.30am - in the spa at 11am and it was not busy at all, which we were grateful for given the size, but also was told it was almost fully booked? The spa is beautifully done though, no maintenance issues and very clean. We had cream tea booked for 12pm. This is in a separate building, we had to walk across the court yard and go round to the front near the hotel. We were still a little damp in our robes from the spa and requested some fresh robes to eat our cream tea, we hung about at reception (where another lady was also stood waiting to speak to the receptionist, but she sat on the phone having a casual conversation making no attempt to hurry along despite 3 guests waiting for her), to then be told it was £5 for a new robe. The website says robes included and its really not acceptable where there is zero mention of this anywhere!! I also popped back over to reception whilst we were waiting for our cream tea to be served, and asked if there was space for me to have a treatment. They confirmed yes. I asked if i could upgrade my spa package (which also clearly says on the website it can be upgraded) to be told by the receptionist it would be full price. These small details should be made very clear on your website! My friend had a back massage and the therapist was really happy to change her prebooked shoulder,neck,scalp massage on the day. During our cream tea, we both really enjoyed the prosecco we had on arrival and asked if this was the same prosecco that was on the menu for a bottle. We were told yes, but when it arrived, tasted very dry and not the same. When we went back to the spa, we asked about this and was told they had brought Canti from a local shop as they had ran out. This was annoying, we recommend the Canti over what is on your menu its much nicer but also feel staff should communicate with each other and ended up leaving the rest of the bottle wed purchased. The crockery was also dirty and had to hunt on other tables for a clean mug. We were told there were testers of products around the spa, and my friend was shown into the relaxation rooms after her massage where i met her. There are no testers they are all empty! In here we bumped into a couple who had sat down for lunch at the same time we had cream tea. We asked how their food was, to which they were very disgruntled. Theyd paid for a 2 course meal and had upgraded to add a dessert. They said they had placed the order but that it took so long to come, they canceled it. They said there were only a couple members of staff and they seemed to be very overwhelmed, im glad we were booked at the earliest slot for our cream tea as we only had scones and theses took 20 minutes to arrive. We left just before 2.30 with noone to say goodbye, slightly glad if I'm honest. In summary, I paid £60 my friend paid £85. The facilities are clean and of a high standard, however, very small. Its a compact spa, with substandard service. It was an okay visit but I wouldnt return and found there are far too many other spas near I would recommend a twilight session at eden hall / ragdale...

I think I could happily say this is the worst experience booking, sleeping, and dining that I have ever had. So much so that I had to make a Trip Adviser account to let the people know of my experience from hell!

Let's start with why I was there...

I was to attend my best friends wedding in mid-August where I was the best man. I booked at the start of July and used the wedding code (which I thought would grant a discount, but it does not).

I like to ring my bookings a week in advance just to confirm everything, luckily I did because whoever booked me in originally had booked me in for mid-July (even though I gave them the wedding code, so even if I got the date wrong, [which I know I didn't because I booked Casa Hotel for the night previous to the Ringwood Hall booking, just before I called Ringwood, and Casa got the dates right], they should have double checked the dates!)

So after the receptionist 'umming and ahring' wondering if they had a room available for me, my partner and our little girl, they said they managed to get us booked in, with a 'free upgrade'. Which was more like a downgrade. I'll get to that later...

So the booking got sorted, we got there the day, and I must say, the venue is gorgeous, 10/10 for a beautifully rustic wedding venue; we were enamoured by the beauty of the place.

We walked into the reception, there was a bit of a queue, but nothing too bad and was greeted with a smile by the receptionist, she was willing to help, which was great, however, the second receptionist who was too busy glanced at us, made eye contact, and blanked us, which I thought was a bit rude considering she made eye contact with us, probably just nitpicking because of the awful experience but it's these little things that matter.

I would like to say the ceremony was marvellous. Oliver, who works at Ringwood, was amazing, such an incredible guy, and I have all the time in the world for him! I made sure everything wedding went smoothly, which it did, and I was on hand for any help. At the wedding bar, most of the staff just seemed they didn't want to be there, so my only guess is management doesn't know how to manage people properly because if staff aren't enjoying their work, it's usually down to the management being of poor character. I would make a notable mention of a guy called Clifton (I think it was). When he served me and others, he always had a smile.

Now we get onto the 'upgraded room', the Devonshire Suite... It was about 392 nautical miles away from the main venue, across the terrain of gravel tsunami... the walk when sober was a challenge for my partner in heels, let alone when we were slightly inebriated. Sadly, we could hear the room upstairs walking about, which we were non too fond of.

The suite itself had a nice rustic feel, a bit plain in places but not terrible. It has basic coffee and tea-making facilities. All in all, it wasn't as good as Casa Hotel (and Casa was cheaper). What I can say was great about the Devonshire Suite is that the bathroom was nice, and the bath was massive. There was a cupboard that was full of absolute clutter as well, which was a bit of an off-put of the room.

As it turns out, our little girl hates spiders as she had a little scream when there was a FAT cellar spider on the roof, which Oliver and another lovely member of staff came to the rescue with. So thank you for that, haha.

Lastly, breakfast, which was the final nail in the coffin... when making the less than a quarter-mile trip for breakfast we got there, and there was only 1 person down from our party of 3 for breakfast, at this point I was angry and I made a fuss, and the lady at the entrance let us in. We weren't given a menu and weren't told if there were any breakfast items we could order. The breakfast area was really small and felt like an old-school dinner breakfast.

It was honestly the worst experience of our hotel staying lives, comparing Ringwood with Casa; I don't know how Ringwood got 4 stars. It honestly felt like an over-expensive 2-star bed...

A joke from the get go. We stayed here before in April last year and had a lovely time great food great suite and a fantastic spar day so when we managed to get a 3 day respite break for our daughter we thought it would be the perfect place to go and relax over new year….. boy was we wrong

When we arrived we tried to book a table in the restaurant as we had been told we could book when we got there the young lass on reception went into the office to the manager who informed her the restaurant was closed to residents so off to Pizza Hut we went

When we arrived at the room 142 we were greeted with rips in the blinds torn and stained wallpaper and pillow I could only describe as paving slabs no life in them flat and very uncomfortable and stained. We tried to use the to which was like something from the 80’s it was as dated as the decor in the room the remote didn’t work and the picture was fuzzy and unwatchable feeling a bit deflated i decided to have a nice relaxing bubble bath seeing as there was a small bath in the corner of the room with jets in (when I say small when I sat in it it brought childhood memories back of being washed in the kitchen sink) the jets did not work and was informed the following morning when complaining about the room that they were for decoration purposes only ….. a bit like the non existent WiFi that they offer

We were moved to another room the next day having to hang around until the cleaners who can’t clean finished with the room. The room was better but still not that clean a thick build up of dirt in the crease of the bath panel was my favourite.

The next morning we decided to try breakfast it was the only thing I wasn’t happy with when we came before but hearing it was plated and not a buffet filled me with hope… that was short lived I ordered a sausage sandwich which came out half cooked and at around 15 degrees in warmth my partner ordered a full English which tasted like it had been prepared in the attic it was freezing cold we left unsatisfied

Went to dinner that night waited 30 minutes to get just the drinks on the table let alone any food and we were one of 6 tables in the restaurant absolute joke

We booked for the spar in person for the following day when we arrived for our slot we were given towels and robes and sent on our way it seemed a bit strange that the last time we got a tour but this time they couldn’t get us away quick enough and walking into the main spar area we knew why …. It was filthy the water was murky and only 1 of the 5 jets were working and no heating in the dirty mud pool when we mentioned it we were told sorry yeah they broke yesterday so there’s no heating in the pool. There as a thick line of dirt just above the water level no music just a drone of a fan going constantly

When we mentioned our disappointment to who we can only assume was the manager she told us we were supposed to have received a call and they couldn’t get an engineer out the previous day so at the time of booking and entering the spar on the day they were aware of the disgusting and inadequate facilities.

Decided to go for a drink and a bit of lunch cos they couldn’t screw up and ham and cheese toasty right?…. Wrong came our cold and not even slightly melted when I asked for it to be melted took another 15 minutes and tasted like it had be placed in something sweet

Whenever we asked to speak to the manager he was hiding away either that or he is the only General Manager that gets to work 9am-1pm of a day no wonder. The place has turned into an overpriced travel lodge when the manager doesn’t even care

We were given a refund for 50% of the first night but considering the bad experience and us being there for 3 nights it was an insult it’s such a shame as this used to be a...