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I booked for my wife and 3 of her friends to get away for a weekend, what was intended as a birthday present and a nice place to relax after an extremely tough year ended up being somewhat of a disaster.
I will break it down into sections so you can see where they really failed and what was actually ok. This review is even sympathetic to the current covid situation. You might even want to grab a drink and a snack as it is a long one.
THE BAD
We were a group of 4 individuals, at dinner we all sat down to the same meal (read below in Food section it is shocking), anyway three of us were served on a white plate with silver cutlery, while the fourth person was served on a red plate with chopsticks, we didn't ask for this it just happened. We did however ask ourselves why and then asked the restaurant why. By this time the owner (Joy) was there to deal with seemingly many complaints from the different groups.
When question Joy told us that this happened because all the plates and cutlery were in the dishwasher? This is unacceptable and can easily cause offence, whats worse is that even after complaining this was not fixed and no resolution was offered. I'm sure you can all read between the lines.
Joy, this is wholly unacceptable and there is no excuse for this in 2021, in fact I encourage you to reach out if you don't understand why this could be seen as offensive and is absolutely unacceptable.
This is an area that was an absolute disaster, firstly anything we asked for on the menu was unavailable.
Dinner - Everybody was told we would be sitting down for dinner at 7pm, this was fixed and everybody was sat together in a dining area, this included my wifes party and every other party staying at the retreat. It was then everybody (when I say everybody that included my wifes group of 4 and at least 12 others) were told that because nobody had pre ordered food that the only option was paella with no other menu options.
This was questioned by several groups who were told that this was company policy when food was not pre ordered. The big issue here is that none of this was made clear when booking.
Plenty of arguments, complaints and requests to speak to the manager later one gent managed to wrangle a cheese sandwich and a second menu option of a Thai curry was offered up.
My wife spent the whole time hungry at a £237.50 per person per night retreat, if I could give minus stars for the food I would. What was served up was bland and tasteless.
Snacks - You are given the impression that you can order snacks off of a snack menu, you cant, every time anybody in the group tried it was unavailable with some excuse along with why, excuses varied...
This is where you would hope that Glass House Retreat (GHR) would really pull out the stops, wrong, Karen on reception was anything but a delight and to be frank I'm surprised GHR accept this given the "relaxing retreat" marketing, at one point she actually put here hand up to a member of the group and declared that she would no longer speak to them, this is absolutely disgraceful behavior for somebody working in hospitality, GHR you should be ashamed.
Back to the delightful Karen, she made it absolutely clear that she couldn't care less when in response to a complaint, of which I'm sure she had many, she responded, and I quote "all I can say to that is I'm only here for another week" before walking off.
THE GOOD
The venue and grounds - I wont go to much into it but the place is nice, sadly in this instance totally overshadowed by everything you read above.
Michael - Now we are still not entirely sure what Michaels job is we think perhaps he teaches classes, we are unsure be he was the only staff member who actually genuinely seemed to care. Michael, thank you.
In conclusion I just don't think this business is ready to open in just yet, certainly not at the advertised price, It wasn't worth it and frankly anything short of a full refund given the experience just wouldn't be enough. I can only...
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I was really excited to return to the Glass House Retreat, having spent a really relaxing and rejuvenating time there 2 years ago, unfortunately the changes made since my last stay really impacted my stay in a negative way.||To be fair to Glass House, the facilities are good: nice guest rooms, great pool, sauna/steam room, hot tub and grounds. The spa is excellent and everyone raved about the quality of the treatments received. Its also really good value for money, as a resident guest, all meals are included in your stay and you accumulate spa credits for each night stayed to offset against treatments. Its also located just outside London so is an easy journey to escape the hustle of like for a few days.||Since my last stay, Glass House has now changed their menu to offer meat and fish dishes as well. I understand their desire to cater to a wider audience/attract other guests but it was a shame that this change also meant the menu was no longer healthy or what would be expected of a retreat. Beef burgers, parma ham, pork chops were now all on the menu which was a real surprise. I understand adding non-vegan items but to add meats that are widely classified as unhealthy was a real surprise. It also meant there were limited choices for vegans/vegetarians - reducing the number of starter options - whilst the soups were all vegan (not an ideal choice in the height of summer) there were now limited cold starters. For main dishes, many of them (including things like the nicoise salad and buddha bowl) contained fish. It was a shame these dishes couldn't have been presented with vegan options such as tofu as well as the fish option.||The next big change was the cafe bar which was a real surprise and distraction. The cafe now presented a range of cakes, cookies, crisps and snacks on display to tempt residents and chip away at your willpower! The cafe now also serves wine and beer which many guests took advantage of and made our detox stay really challenging to have to watch them. The menu board also enticed with a range of coffees for purchase too.||As I said before, I understand the need to attract a wider range of guests but the way these incredibly unhealthy items are presented on show does not support the guests coming on retreat and trying to make sensible, healthy choices. I'm sure there is a way to cater for both audiences without making it so visible?||The Glass House also appeared to be very understaffed and this really showed in the experience we had there. There was definitely a lack of wellness staff but also, the attitude and demeanour of this team really didn't align with their role in supporting guest wellness. Staff turned up late for many of the classes we attended but also always left on time, leaving you feeling you had a partial workout - this happened to us twice with the weights class. Classes were also poorly planned with one member of the team proudly announcing that she would be repeating the class she had already done earlier in the week for attendees (rather than planning a new/different routine). I attended a Core class with 1 other person but the instructor was more interested in completing his core workout himself rather than checking our posture and if we were completing the moves correctly. The wellness team also took little interest in client wellbeing, never asking questions about how we were doing, if we were getting what we needed but instead happily talking about themselves! None of these really fitted with the wellness support you expect from a retreat.||Whilst I did enjoy the convenience of the Glass House and did my best to make use of all the opportunities open to resident guests there I don't feel I would consider returning again due to the change in menu and the wide availability of alcohol, coffee and unhealthy snacks. It was too much hard work having to test my willpower each day to resist these treats and I would rather find somewhere else that is more invested in a healthy/detox...
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This summer has been unusually busy with two close family friends getting married then my son in August too, lovely events but a lot to plan so when I was invited to try a taster of a new Menopause Retreat that launches later this autumn, I jumped at the chance! The stunning modern glass building looks elegant and clean but inside the textures and colours of the furniture and decor are warm and inviting as are the staff! I went with a friend who is also going through a busy stressful time working full time as a salon owner and we were both looking forward to a wind-down with some delicious vegan food I'd heard lots of good reports about. On arrival and after checking in with the help spa reception team we were taken for our Wellness Consultation with a lovely lady called Dot who explained a little more about the special Retreat we were about to experience and also gave us great tips for our stay as well as taking our measurements, just for the record! Meals are served in the beautiful light and airy bar/restaurant with spa waitress service, all the food is plant-based but so tasty and presented so well, it's just like eating gourmet food in a top restaurant and pleasantly filling too. Once we had enjoyed a delicious fruit tea, we both went for a wonderful Sensory Sleep Body Massage: an hour of blissed out massage using sleep inducing essential oils that had a real calming effect, I left the room feeling totally relaxed and ready for sleep! We then enjoyed an interesting Sleep Workshop, a thoughtful question and answer session that helped analyse what were the triggers for poor quality sleep during menopause and what could be easily done to help rectify them using simple tricks before bedtime. Feeling even more chilled, we joined Dot again for an hour's long Pilates session in a beautiful wood cabin style studio with living wall art with views of the garden including the fabulous plunge-style cold water pool and outside jacuzzi. After dinner, a three course delight which included my favourite meal of the trip, a lightly whipped chia pudding, we joined other guests for an interesting Grounding workshop, learning how to reconnect with the earth by walking barefoot to help ease stress and tension. Lights out was around 9.30 and we returned to our delightful room with two king size beds and spacious bathroom, two minutes later we were sound asleep! Day two started with a light but satisfying breakfast of banana waffle pancakes and fruit tea, we then enjoyed the inside pool, Himalayan sauna which has a lovely calming effect and steam, all the spa areas are tastefully decorated and never seem over crowded. Part of the Menopause Retreat is learning how skin can change and the Stem Cell Facial using a range of essential oils and massage techniques designed to rehydrate and stimulate collagen as well give skin back it's glow really worked it's magic. The full Menopause Retreat takes place over four days but we were lucky enough to be able to try the revolutionary Pelvio chair treatment before we left: a new advanced treatment that simulates kegel muscle squeezing exercise around 12,000 over the 28 minute treatment which is pain free and works to improve stress in continence as well as tighten the pelvic floor area. The full retreat experience also incudes a cryotherapy treatment and some interesting speakers all qualitied to help advise around eating, sleeping, coping with stress and skin changes throughout the menopause and we found all the staff both engaging, holistic in their approach and best of all friendly. We left feeling uplifted, detoxed and newly nourished. We would both definitely recommend and will be visiting...
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