Horwood House Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

THIS IS A LONG BUT HONEST REVIEW OF MY 2-DAY STAY. I DO NOT NEED ANY SORT OF COMPENSATION BUT HOPE THE HOTEL TAKE NOTICE AND MAKE CHANGES.|I thought I would treat myself to country house hotel stay for some R&R. The website gives that impression, especially the video which I now know does not show all of the buildings in the complex. I booked directly with the hotel as I wanted a mixed type of package stay. I was offered a 2-night summer break with dinner, bed and breakfast and use of spa and pool etc. I had to book spa treatments separately. I did not receive a confirmation email about the stay but after 3 phone calls finally received it. The Spa confirmed by email immediately. I had to pre-pay the Spa.|On arrival I was surprised to see hundreds of cars in the very large car park. It soon became evident that this hotel depends on corporate business and seminars. I left my bags at reception, as I had a Spa treatment booked prior to the 3pm checking in time. After my appointment I returned to reception. |The booking in team obviously have to be efficient but for me it felt I was 'processed' and handed a map of the hotel... which in fact I found quite useless. I also had to pre-pay for my room. During my time I encountered several guests, who like me, had got lost in the maze of corridors and stairs. Yes there were signs but the placement of them were confusing too! I managed to find a lift, thanks to the pleasant gentleman (from housekeeping?) who helped me with my bags, after reception finally realised I needed help. My room number 131 was adequate and on the ground floor next to a fire escape and was probably the furthest room away from anything. The pillows were small and hard.|Another time I met a guest, who was leaving, who said he had only just found the lift after his 5-day stay!|I had pre-booked dinner but thought I would have a cocktail beforehand. The bar is in the restaurant with a small area outside with 3(?) tables so I ordered my drink and said I would sit in this small lounge area. My drink arrived but the glass was too full and my drink had spilt over the tray so when it was placed on the table it left a sticky mess on the table and when I picked up the glass that was sticky too. I had to go back into the bar to ask for a napkin. |I then booked in for dinner and the restaurant manager was very friendly and apologised about my cocktail. Apparently the bar manager was not there that day and the bar staff had trouble mixing cocktails. He compensated me by offering a glass of wine.|The food was nice and as I sat on a banquette the people next to me started a conversation which I found acceptable. However on leaving I was chased by the waitress as 'I had not paid' so I returned to explain that I had asked reception on arrival if any extras went on to my room account and was told that was correct. Obviously not! |The next day I had breakfast in a different restaurant. All self service with the usual choices you would find in any 3/4 star hotel. The quality was not good, especially the baked beans. Perhaps a different kitchen to the evening one?|I decided to use the swimming pool. Only one changing room and I think 2 showers and 2 toilets which were all same sex facilities within the pool. I believe there were more changing facilities within the Spa area. I had to return to the Spa as my locker did not work properly plus it became apparent that this is where you obtained a towel. Small but adequate pool with sauna and steam room. I am not a confident swimmer so when I noticed an attendant I asked for a noodle which was no problem.|In the afternoon my massage and facial were performed by the same person with no problems.|Unfortunately my plans of taking a walk around the grounds were somewhat curtailed by a thunderstorm. Just my luck!|At dinner I used my one free drink ticket for a glass of Prosecco and sat in the small room overhearing other guests saying that it was too small for a lounge. Dinner was fine. The waitress and I had a joke about the previous night as I said I would not do a runner this time!|The first night I did not sleep well but the second night, probably because of my massages I fell into a deep sleep. Unfortunately unruly loud guests woke me banging on doors.|Again breakfast exactly the same, not good.|On check out I asked if I owed anything, which I knew I didn't, and was told I was fine to leave. Never asked if I had had a good stay.|The best thing about this hotel... my shower was one of the best I have ever had in a hotel. Hot and great pressure. Pity the walk-in shower was open at the side of the door which means water pools on the floor, hence the bottom of the door is starting to rot.|Will I return? ...

We were only here for two nights over a weekend and stayed in an upgraded ‘Stable King’ room. As a latent monarchist ‘stable’ is just how I like my kings to be. The converted stable block centres around a very pleasant courtyard overhung with a thatched roof and our room , 308, had dual aspect windows with one side courtyard and one side car park (which was a bit meh I grant you ) but makes for a delightfully well aired room particularly as the bathroom windows also open. With radiators on both sides of the room I guess it would be plenty warm enough in winter and if one hung a bag of ice behind the supplied fan the lack of aircon would be no biggie during a hot spell.||Room and bathroom were both spotless and of decent size with instant hot water on tap making up for the somewhat retro shower over bath arrangement instead of a stand alone walk-in wet room. A second grab rail for the bath would have helped ingress and exit but it was a nice bathroom.||Plenty of in room storage and a desk with a decent lamp meant that if we had been there for a week it would have been no hardship but for the major bugbear of restricted access through the door & past the desk when carrying any sort of baggage. I think the door is hung on the wrong side and if it opened in towards the desk things would be much better. ||The room is not at all well soundproofed from our neighbours beyond the bedhead – it would be so easy to put auto or marine grade soundproofing sheets on that wall to ameliorate the noise. And at the same time maybe provide a little dimming and independent controls for the two bedside lights.||The big big plus of the Stable King upgrade is that the rooms are literally thirty seconds away from reception and on the flat. An absolute breeze and a bonus in a large hotel. Well worth it for us. ||Speaking of reception on arrival the staff were a little "off-ish" as if reading from a script but they may well have had a long day. A fellow guest (no connection) was overheard getting fairly short shrift when complaining about an unclean room. We were told that the restaurant was not busy that Friday night but that Saturday was looking busy. Helpful information but when an hour later we duly phoned reception to be told that no tables were available that Friday night before 8:45. Walking down to the restaurant itself to chat to the staff there bought that time forward a full hour. What gives? Check out when we left was brilliantly streamlined, personable and cheerful.||Turning to the restaurant, Harry’s Bar, we had a fabulous evening. It’s big, maybe 140 covers with some tables being turned over multiple times times and I would describe the food as gastro pub. Our bill was £110 for cocktails and nibbles, burger,fries and beer followed by puds and coffee. Food good but staff just superlative and it was a joy watching them work the room at speed but without intrusion or noise. They had eyes all over the place and one would often see them in different roles from the tables to the bar to the entrance. We’ve both had considerable experience in the hospitality industry and watching the operation here was just magic. Retiring to the comfy chairs with coffees took our meal experience to well over two hours.If one had to criticise the tables are a little close together for privacy but the atmosphere was great.||Breakfast however was a different kettle of fish. No fault of the staff who were fine, cut above even. Or of choice of food which was extensive and served in a large airy room sadly bathed in god-awful discordant plink-plink-plink jazz muzak but the flavour profile of the cooked ingredients was bland in the extreme despite looking good. Twinings English Breakfast tea bags were either “catering quality” or something is up with the water; two out of three of the pastries were doughy with little or no lamination. Beats a Premier Inn breakfast into a cocked hat but that’s, presumably, not the market. | |So, given the overall feeling of spaciousness about the place, the beautiful and extensive grounds,ease of parking, good staff and a decent restaurant we’d certainly consider staying here again. A solid four would be mean, maybe even a deserved...

Please avoid this hotel if you are pregnant, they have no consideration for us! Also the Spa is filthy and quality does not match the price.

-Rooms They allocated us a standard room that was about a 20 minute+ walk from reception where there were a flight of stairs to get to and no lift access, they knew beforehand about my pregnancy and the receptionist could clearly see my huge bump but they gladly let me and my husband walk all that distance to the room.

When we tried to request a closer room the receptionist said it wasn’t ideal as there was a Nigerian wedding going on and so the noise would be loud until late. So unfortunately we had to pay to upgrade our room to a deluxe room that was accessible via a lift for people like me who can’t climb multilple flights of stairs.

Rooms are very dirty and full of cobwebs and smears.

Dinner The service was horrible, we had to wait over an hour for our food and the service was very disorganised. They messed up our order and forgot to give us our dessert TWICE! The Butter Chicken main which was very bland and lacked flavour. The Vegan chocolate mousse was horrible and it was very overpriced for the quality. We ended up eating takeaway as the food was horrible.

H Spa The spa staff are friendly and approachable which is nice. The spa facilities needs a lot more cleaning. The steam room floor was full of debry and dirt. The shower floors in the spa area were also filthy and dirty and full of debry as if someone had been wearing muddy shoes and going into the shower and steam room areas with them on. The pool also had a lot of dirt/debry floating around in it so these need to be cleaned more.

I had a pregnancy massage at H Spa which is £100 and I also had the same treatment done a few months ago. Both treatments were completely different to each other. In February I had a lovely lady who performed the massage excellently and also provided me with a hot tea afterwards, I can’t remember her name but she looked Malaysian/Oriental and was an amazing therapist. During my stay in May I had a therapist named Hannah who had very cold hands and missed out on massaging many areas and also performed the massage in a different routine to what I had before and spent most of the treatment blowing her nose, think she may have been ill which is crazy as pregnant women are very vulnerable to catching germs. She also gave me a cold drink afterwards when the weather was absolutely freezing as opposed to my previous time when I was asked what drink I would like and was given hot tea, she also had no warmth to her and was not friendly. The experience was horrible and an absolute waste of £100.

Breakfast The staff at breakfast are all amazing and deserve 5 stars, they are all so friendly and attentive. Malshani is one of the hosts and even on previous stays she was friendly and approachable and attentive as she could see I am pregnant. She made sure to ask the chef to make well done eggs for me (I can't have undercooked meat/eggs due to the risk to the baby) and even helped me to take my breakfast to my room, she made the breakfast experience amazing for me.

Receiptionist The receptionists lack warmth and they don’t smile at all which I find odd, they come across very robotic, they are like this to other guests. The one with the black straight across the forhead fringe that always sits on the left hand side of the reception desk is extremely rude and overcharged us for breakfast and was arrogant and rude and denied the refund even though it’s her mistake. I decided to not fight for the refund any further after a week of back and forth as it was just not worth the stress to me and my baby.

Overall I would not recommend staying at this hotel as it is dirty, inconsistent and the receptionist are very rude and inconsiderate especially to pregnant women. The only good part about the hotel is the breakfast and the staff that make it a good experience. I have wasted £100’s of my money staying here. Also if pregnant do not book any spa treatments as it’s just...