Woodbury Park — Hotel in East Devon

Unfortunately experienced a disappointing two night stay, and it saddens me to be writing this. We stayed previously and experienced quite a dreadful weekend, not the fault of the hotel last time, but due to inconsiderate, drunken guests. We had three rooms over three nights and we hoped this time would be a more pleasant experience.

This time I booked a standard room via a third party website. There was no option for breakfast, they instead suggest I contact direct.

I emailed to let them know it’s a birthday weekend surprise for my partner. The lady I spoke to suggest that I pay extra to upgrade to a deluxe room, with a view of the golf course. She also said she would add the breakfast for both days (extra charge), and she would pop some dressing gowns in the room.

On arrival it seemed to me that we did not get the deluxe room, despite paying the upgrade. We did not have a view of the golf course, we had a rather disappointing view - busy car park! The room was small, not deluxe. The toilet didn’t flush, we ended up using the disabled restaurant toilet to save embarrassment! We had to clean mould off around the bath/shower area before use. No dressing gowns were provided as the lady had mentioned. Our previous stay was a standard room, quite honestly that was far nicer and cleaner than the “deluxe room” I paid extra for this time. I felt a bit cheated.

I popped down to Aura spa to book my partner in for a birthday treatment. The lady said she had no availability for three days. Utterly dissatisfied to book a weekend in a spa hotel when no treatments are available.

On arrival, I was told dinner was fully booked, however the restaurant was empty, lights were off. We were directed to the golf club. We ordered two moving mountains vegan burgers. What we got was a cheap and dry vegetable burger. I spoke to the chef who informed me they cooked the wrong meal, we had to wait again for our food. By this time it was around 9pm and far too late to enjoy our meal. Money wasted.

Friday morning we arrived for breakfast. Not one table was clean, all had dirty plates on them. It feels very understaffed. Vegan options were disappointing, we ordered one porridge with oat milk, and one vegan cooked breakfast. The waitress told my partner to help himself to the hot buffet and she would bring his vegan sausages. I awaited my porridge. My partner helped himself to hash browns and beans, and by the time his sausages arrived 10 minutes later, his plate was cleared and the sausages unfortunately went to waste. My porridge then arrived, after my partner had finished his breakfast. It was cold, thick and inedible. I left it. We went into Exeter for breakfast. We did not have our (paid for) breakfast on Saturday morning. At £16 per person, per day, I was understandably upset.

The sauna/pool facilities are not 4 star. The changing rooms are filthy, so is the sauna/steam room area. The steam room did not seem to be functioning correctly, many people thought it was out of action. With no staff around the pool/health suite area, there was no one to speak to. We were here for a few hours and no one came in to clean, wipe the floors. This is incredibly unsafe. We decided not to use the changing rooms.

On Saturday morning, the facilities are even worse! … muddy trainers and hair all over the floors. It’s busy with no room to get to lockers or change. No one was around to clean the disgusting floors throughout both the changing rooms or pool area.

Friday night and Saturday morning we had neighbours with loud music and very loud voices. Absolutely everything can be heard through the walls. We did not sleep well at all on Friday night. We were disturbed Saturday morning by the cleaning crew next door, the young girl had her music playing whilst housekeeping.

The most disappointing hotel experience. Woodbury does not feel like a 4 star hotel. I feel I was convinced into paying more money, for absolutely nothing, and what they charged me for my stay I don’t feel was fulfilled at all.

EDIT! A week later and no response...

Checked in here tonight and not being the one to usually complain I feel I should share this bad experience.

Checked in and was given room 101 (a bad sign right?!) which is almost directly next to the main reception. After finally getting into the room (the key wasn't coded right) I realised how noisy the room was going to be.

After speaking to reception I was assured there were no more rooms left and that this was the only option. I offered to pay for an upgrade if it enabled a room swap but was told that no more rooms were available. OK, Room 101 it is then.

So not long after decided to walk down to the restaurant for dinner. On the way out of the door met another chap clearly on his way to check in....upon asking him he confirmed yes he had yet to check in at reception. Mmmmmm? No more rooms left to offer eh?

Anyway down to the restaurant whereby I was told no tables were available despite at least 3 being clearly empty. The reason for walking down there was to see a bigger menu than the room service one (which is similar to the one offered in the bar). Due to me being refused a table in the main restaurant I was offered to take a seat in the bar area. So basically I had to order from the same menu I was trying to avoid. I wish to point out here that throughout my stay in the bar area the 3 tables mentioned previously remained empty. Again....Mmmmmm no tables to offer....I sense a pattern here!

OK so one final stop at reception so query if there was a dress code in the restaurant due to me not being offered an empty table. Not so by all accounts and people go down in "jeans and a t shirt" all the time. So the next question was why wasn't I offered the other guys room who checked in after me? "The rooms are allocated upon booking and they can't be changed". REALLY?! I'm sorry but UN-allocate a room and RE-allocate to someone who has politely (and even offered to PAY) for another one.

To be fair the lady on reception was very apologetic but at no point has anyone offered to try and put this right in any way....a goodwill breakfast or couple of drinks would have avoided this review I'm sure (I'm easy to please usually).

If anyone at Woodbury Park is reading this then I'd appreciate a...

This review applies solely to the golf course, I have not used the hotel or spa.

In summary, in case you would rather not read on.. Non existent customer service, argumentative and all around poor attitudes to feedback on golf course basics. The crazy thing is, if they cared to listen, I was keen to emphasise my enjoyment of the course and my desire to uphold their standards.

Full disclosure, we teed off ahead of our tee time, and the marshall asked us to restart at the first. I can't disagree that was wrong on our part, I held my hands up and apologised.

However, I would rather stick my golf clubs up my rear end than play there again. Poor standards, pitch marks, unranked bunkers and worse of all, criminally slow play. I have played a few times and the standards have been progressively slipping across the board.

After starting at a good pace, it took 60 minutes to complete 3 holes and when arriving at the 10th tee, there was a backup of 4 groups, waiting in the half way hut for the backlog to clear.

I informed the pro shop in a clear way, with facts about timings, at spoken volume with no swearing. They immediately took issue and became argumentative, appearing to take it it as a personal slight.

I play, with my colleagues under a corporate membership, they stated "it was complimentary and that we were lucky to be there". It is not free, it is paid for and if you don't like the terms of the agreement please think twice about joining the scheme, as you cannot hold it against paying customers, who also eat in the bar during every visit.

I queried the marshalling and members standards. Not raking bunkers, not repairing pitch marks, laughing and joking with people waiting to play behind, no consideration for fellow players. It's a social sport, but course eticate states you should keep up the speed of play so as not to hold up others.

Not everyone there was a member, neither was I. However, I treat a golf course with respect, always conscious of those around me and upholding course standards.

Myself, along with many others walked off fed up and I will not...