Bath Mill Lodge Retreat — Hotel in Great Britain

We have just returned from an excellent four night stay at Bath Mill Lodge. In order to make things easier I will take each aspect of our stay separately:

Location: The lodges are set in beautiful tranquil surroundings. We had lodge number 35 which was ideally located adjacent to the main reception area which, after a day of walking around Bath, was excellent for older people. A stream ran along the side of the lodge and gave a very pleasant atmosphere when we sat on the terrace.

Accommodation: The lodge was spacious and very impressive, exactly as illustrated in the web site photographs. The decor was tasteful and suited to every taste, the kitchen was well equipped and the bedding and general cleanliness was immaculate.

Staff: All the staff I spoke to were courteous and very helpful. We needed to get into Bath each day and it was suggested that we use a taxi which, for four of us, was not a lot more expensive than the ‘Park and Ride’ and a great deal more convenient.

Food: The restaurant served a varied menu on which there is something for most people’s taste. I had the sea bass which was delicious. We did go out to other places but only because it is nice to have a change each evening. The receptionist recommended The Globe which is close by and again the menu was excellent.

Out and about: We had only three full days so our time was limited. As it is only half an hour away by car we had arranged to meet a friend in Bristol where we visited the S.S. Great Britain and it was an excellent day out. There are four separate areas included within the one entrance fee; an exhibition about the history of the ship, the ship itself and also the Brunel museum. Life on the ship is authentically illustrated with realistic life size wax figures of passengers and crew either in their cabins or going about their daily routine. The atmosphere the display creates really does give an excellent insight into what it was like to spend ten weeks sailing from England to Melbourne in such cramped conditions, especially for the crew. The next day we visited the Roman Baths which again was very interesting and had a very civilised and lovely tea in the Jane Austen Tea Rooms. The Abbey is well worth a visit as well. It is a beautiful building and free to enter, although they do ask for donations, which is fair enough when you consider that it recently cost us £55 for three pensioners, one adult and one child to visit Canterbury Cathedral which is by no means beautiful!!!! On our final day we purchased tickets for the open top bus. It was nice but if your feet are ok I do suggest you walk as the places of interest are quite close together and, at £15 each, the open top bus is extremely expensive and, in my opinion, way overpriced.

So, our trip was short but we did manage to pack quite a lot in. There is still a lot to see in the area though and we will return one day and stay again at...

In 2023, my wife and I and a couple of dear friends stayed in the prestigious "Newton Brook Elegance Lodge". The stay was so memorable, we booked again on 17th June 2024. This was an early booking and was for another 3 days stay on Friday 25th April 2025 (almost a year later) to share with my son and his partner to celebrate my Birthday. All parties had at this point booked time off work to attend.||We all looked forward to this eagerly, until my wife was contacted by Hoseasons on Wednesday 23rd April at 4:00pm telling us the Lodge was no longer available, apparently due to a burst water pipe. We were told no other Lodges were available and were offered a refund. This refund represented a highly discounted rate as we had booked so far ahead and would not have covered booking a similar accommodation with such short notice within the holiday season.||My wife then decided to contact "Bath Mill Lodge Retreat" directly (which is operated by 'Darwin Escapes'). Apparently, the fault with our lodge had been identified a week earlier, yet nobody had contacted us. The receptionist said there was no accommodation available and it was a shame because there had been 2 one-bedroom lodges available that had been booked that morning. These could have been an alternative for us; however, they were not offered. Why we were not offered these is anyone's guess, maybe because it was not an economical option for Darwin Escapes? Who knows.||Anyhow, we relayed our discoveries back to Hoseasons, who denied knowing about the fault with our lodge and said they had only been aware of it just before they contacted us.||So, to summarize, we booked nearly a year in advance for this lodge, it developed a fault a week before our intended arrival, nobody offered us any alternative or told us about the situation until the end of the day 2 days before, leaving us with a single day to book another lodge elsewhere.||Hoseasons did refund us in full, plus some additional compensation, however when I finally managed to book a replacement accommodation (in Axminister of all places), I was left out of pocket to the sum of £100.||Shame on you "Darwin Escapes" for putting your customers at the bottom of your list of priorities. We're also not impressed with "Hoseasons" either as we're not entirely sure they weren't aware about this issue earlier; a more generous refund would also have been appropriate given the fact the Lodge was pre-booked nearly a year in advance and sufficient funds should have been provided to at least allow us to book similar premium...

I stayed here 5 years ago and it was absolutely perfect stayed in the smaller lodge the Norland they gave a glass of prosecco on arrival, keys came in a little tin which was a nice touch, slippers in the room ready, the place was absolutely spotless the bathroom was huge with a big walk in shower... I stayed here this weekend for our 10 year anniversary as we loved it so much last time.. this time round we stayed in the pemberly lodge it didn't have any nice touches at all this time, was slightly disappointed when we arrived into the lodge as the sofas looked very worn and didnt have any of the nice finishing touches, the lodge was a great size but wasnt as clean as last time, the shower heads need a good scrub! Apon arrival we were told the main front door barrel wasnt working so was told not to use that door and use the patio which was fine but that was also dodgy, we had a table booked for dinner at 7.30pm and was about to leave to get a taxi but found the door couldnt lock so as we ran in the rain to reception we were told that it should be able to lock so my partner ran back down to try it again and no luck.. we were told by the lady she will get hold of someone to help sort it but we were in a rush at this point, not really sure why the door hadn't been sorted prior to people staying in the lodge as it doesn't take long to change a barrell in a door / not sure why it wasn't pre locked so it was certain it could lock before letting people stay in the lodge, when we asked what was the option if the door couldnt lock we were told we would be moved to a sister site which was in chedar and somewhere else?! I booked bath for the reason we wanted to visit bath not chedar gorge and if I didn't drive how the hell would I be able to? If this is the case they should be a lodge free for emergencys...she did not apologise or anything or seem sympathetic at all towards the situation, at no point was she trying to let us know they will do anything they can to sort it or reasure us... It was quite upsetting for us as we had such a good experience the first time this time really let us down. Luckily we managed to lock the door thank god as if we had to move to sister site I would of of been very annoyed and asked for a refund, as that's all they had to offer which wouldn't of been good enough as I had things pre booked in bath city centre.The location of bath mill lodge is fantastic and seeing deers out of the lodge window in the mornings was lovely, it's around 15min bus to the city centre. Uber in the evening...