Holbrook Manor & Spa — Hotel in Great Britain

UPDATE 5: Had to call them again, finally got through to the GM who after belittling my complaint and claiming to know nothing. I am told my refund will be processed, time will tell

UPDATE: 4 days and no reply from the hotel. I ended up having to phone to get a status update. GM would not take my call.

UPDATE: 3 days and not a reply from this hotel. Absolutely unprofessional conduct

My recent visit to Holbrook Manor and Spa was an absolute disgrace. What was supposed to be a relaxing spa afternoon for my wife and me turned into a stress-filled ordeal due to sheer incompetence, terrible customer service, and a lack of basic hospitality standards.

Before arriving, we called to upgrade our booking from just a massage to their “Afternoon Retreat.” The so-called “manager” promised to call us back to confirm—but of course, they never did. We followed up the next day, only to be told that the previous person must have “forgotten.” It was at this point that I started to wonder whether this place was run by actual professionals or just a group of disinterested amateurs.

Upon arrival, we were informed we needed a £1 coin for the lockers. Now, you’d think a supposedly premium spa would have basic customer convenience in mind and keep a few coins at the front desk. But no—the “manager” instead sent me on a ridiculous scavenger hunt to the café (which had none), and then all the way back to my car. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t have one.

At this point, I was already irritated by how poorly this place was run. But what happened next was even worse.

After returning from my pointless trip to the car, I decided that enough was enough. The entire guest experience was already ruined, so I requested a full cancellation and refund.

Instead of handling this with professionalism, the “manager” panicked and started scrambling to get pound coins from other guests! Imagine that—rather than having spare change at the front desk, they were begging other paying customers to solve their own operational failures.

I politely declined and explained that their lack of preparation had already ruined the entire experience. But instead of just processing the refund, the “manager” proceeded to argue with me in the lobby for nearly ten minutes—all while leaving other guests waiting. They even had the nerve to lecture me about how they “inform members” about the £1 coin requirement. My response?

“I AM NOT A MEMBER.”

To top it all off, the lobby itself was dirty and poorly maintained. Before leaving, I actually had to tell the “manager” to grab a broom and clean it. If a spa can’t even be bothered to keep its entrance presentable, what does that say about the cleanliness of the facilities?

After the ridiculous back-and-forth, I was given a handwritten note stating that management would “review” my refund request. I had to force them to rewrite it to explicitly state that a refund would actually be issued.

As of now, I’m still waiting for a real manager to contact me to process the refund. If they fail to do so, I’ll simply take their pathetic handwritten note to my bank and initiate a chargeback.

Holbrook Manor and Spa pretends to be a luxury retreat, but in reality, it’s a disorganized, unprofessional, and filthy mess. The staff are clueless, the service is a disaster, and they can’t even provide basic customer conveniences without turning it into an ordeal.

If you value your time, money, and sanity—do yourself a favor and stay...

Not quite sure where to begin. Please read before thinking about going here. We decided to leave half way through the day as it was that bad.

Lockers take coins for the spa which we did not realise. As per previous reviews there was a wild goose-chase to hunt some coins down... Insane.

Guests were complaining about the fire alarm going off in the night and they admitted that they had a lot of annoyed guests.

The pool was cold and flooring filthy. There is even holes in the ceiling!

2 male maintenance people walked into the women's changing room and left door open whilst I was naked getting changed.

The steam room has been painted in white paint presumably to hide something, which is flaking off everywhere. It was genuinely disgusting. It wasnt just the paint, the floor was black and covered in lumps of tissue.

There is mould absolutely everywhere you look.

Manager Hasan is an absolute liar. He promised a refund, then when trying to process, said he didn't have the pin number. He then tried to negotiate on the refund and wanted us to just leave details. Hasan then did his best to hide and walk around other routes whilst pretending to do things. What a coward. He even mentioned we should leave a review before we'd even thought about it. Great idea, well here it is.

They were being soo shady that I started to record the conversation. To which the receptionist told me it's illegal. Urmm no it's not for personal use and wanted me to prove it. Obviously this just shows how they are trying to hide things.

I then as per previous reviews, requested a note saying about offering a refund and they refused to write a note! Obviously as a result of the previous review.

Staff are genuinely unhappy with Hasan and we felt sooo sorry for them having to put up with his behaviour. Appalling. You should be ashamed of yourself Hasan and the state of the place.

Thanks to the previous reviews we held out for a 'partial refund' whilst we were there. It took the best part of an hour. Miraculously the supervisor pin was entered with ease on agreeing to partial refund. They do have it so don't be fobbed off.

I then asked for a note to just say that I did not accept the partial refund as closure of the incident. Again refused. So I wrote one myself and held it up in the reception to photograph before leaving half way through the day to have a shower at home. Now to claim the rest back...

When planning such an important day, you will always worry that something will go wrong, or you’ll forget something or any number of things just won’t be as you’d hoped. Holbrook Manor, and Helena in particular, went above and beyond to help with any queries we had, to ensure our day went as smoothly as possible, and to ensure we had the most perfect day. That most definitely happened. Little touches like room service on the morning of for my bridal party, keeping canapés back for my husband and I to make sure we got some, being really flexible with my last minute changes of details/guests, they made sure we were happy with every detail and we are so grateful to them, they really are amazing at what they do. We had a band and a DJ, and we thought it would be a bit messy and fiddly for everyone to work together but Helena suggested where they could each set up to work best and didn’t have any problems with helping us with any of the details, even though we basically wanted help with everything - I mean, I’ve never planned a wedding before! All of the staff we always so friendly and helpful and always did everything they could to accommodate. We woke the morning after the wedding both with the same “great, back to reality, we’ve got to go and sort out the whole of downstairs!” But to our delight, Holbrook staff had already packed everything up for us, with great care, ready to just take out to our car. The staff acted and dressed impeccably, the chef was outstanding - we had so many compliments on the food and the venue was gorgeous - even in February we got the most stunning outdoor pictures. I really wanted, but didn’t expect, outdoor photos as I just love the exterior of the venue and we were incredibly lucky to have a perfectly dry winters day for our photos! It’s a stunning backdrop, whatever the season. The interior, again, is beautiful. Fresh and crisp with some authentic character remaining - which allowed for a lovely range of photos. We are both over the moon and have such fond memories of our day, we cannot thank you all enough. Our only regret is that we were so busy having an amazing evening that we forgot to have some of the evening food we had heard so much about! Apparently it was delicious! Thank you all so much! We would come again if it wouldn’t be bonkers to! Maybe one day we will renew...