Luton Hoo Hotel, Golf & Spa — Hotel in Great Britain

My experience at this supposedly 5 star hotel and spa which i paid alot of money for was atrocious. I booked a 2 night break with my 5 month old daughter and my husband to celebrate his 30th birthday. Upon arrival, I saw a notice up at reception saying the spa was closed from 30th April to 2nd May (the duration of my break there). Noone had bothered to inform me of this prior to me going there. I asked the reception staff if this was true and they said yes it's closed and apologised and informed me that the sauna and steam room were open and they had an alternate pool at another part of the hotel. Not ideal but I decided to just continue with my break and not make a fuss. When we got to our room (which was a very nice room and extremely big, one of the biggest we have stayed in in UK, bathroom could have been cleaner but we move), another member of staff informed us that the sauna and steam room aren't actually open and just the alternate pool is at the separate location of the hotel. Again, I was pretty angry but while trying to host a birthday break for my husband and looking after my 5 month old, I felt pretty hopeless in knowing what to do at this time. I decided to write an email to guest services at the hotel. I never actually received a response to this email. The next morning for breakfast, while having the buffet breakfast, I went to get my beans (labelled vegan, great for me as I am a vegan), I saw that the spoon for the beans had been used for the scrambled eggs which were in the same container just separated by the 2 dishes. Because of them being so close to each other, guests had used the same spoon for both and there were scrambled eggs floating in the beans (not so great for me as a vegan, but so glad I didn't have any allergies). When I told the breakfast staff, their response was "oh ok". They changed the spoon and left the beans as they were. When going to get some fruit, the fruit which was cut up and on a board, was next to slices of meat where the same tong was being used for both. I was not comfortable eating the fruit there. The staff at the breakfast seemed very hostile and rude. Having said that, we had a lovely lady for our second day breakfast and I wish I had got her name. On the same afternoon of the terrible breakfast experience, we decided to go and use the alternate pool at the hours they told us it would be available for children's swimming. As we drove there, we were stopped by a team of people who said the alternate pool was closed at they were filming there. At this point we went back to mansion house and asked to speak to the manager. Christoph came to speak to me and I explained all my frustrations. Although I felt Christoph tried to help, all he could really offer me was some spa products, 10% off as credit to use at the hotel itself and said I could come back and use the spa another time. We don't live near so not ideal and also still doesn't take away the fact that it ruined our whole experience of being there for my husband's birthday. There wasn't much of a solution for the breakfast issues to be honest which I found quite bizarre in this day and age. I had booked a hotel and spa break for my husband's birthday but we were not able to use the spa and there was no communication on this whatsoever and there was complete miscommunication even once I had got there, on the matter. I only realized during checkout that the 10% off as credit was to be used at the hotel itself and it wasn't a refund. There was £20 remaining for which they offered spa products again, some pastries or some water. They only had one type of eggless pastry available and were struggling to actually find me anything that could make up that credit, it was a little embarrassing actually. I have never had such an experience at a 5 star hotel and a renowned one too. It was very very disappointing and I felt quite hopeless. The grounds at this hotel are amazing and the size of the rooms are amazing but it needs a revamp, the staff need to be trained to actually give the customer service the...

Not sure if it was a case of not living up to the hype or reputation, or me simply setting my expectations too high, but either way, our stay and overall experience fell flat. At £300+ a night, we arrived on the 4th June after a long drive all excited especially as when you turn into the stunning grounds and see the mansion for the first time. Parked the car where a very smart gentleman came up to the car, not to give me a 5 star hotel greeting and welcome and ask if we needed assistance with bags, but to ask me to move my car half a meter to the left. I wouldn’t have made this an issue but after walking back from dinner, there was a car parked next to us at an angle and definitely not to the same regimented standards we had to abide to. Check in was great and very efficient. The lady at reception was very pleasant and professional and probably the nicest person we encountered during our stay. Dinner at The Brasserie was fine and service was decent. After dinner we went to pick up the bags from the car to take to our room, I had one suit case, a ruck sack and a shopping bag, my wife had a smaller suitcase, ruck sack and toddler, went to ask the same very smartly dressed gentleman how to get to our room and the directions he gave were excellent, but an offer to assist my wife with her bags would have been a nice gesture. Room 111 was a great size and the bed very comfortable. Loved the view of the garden too but certainly felt dated and on the worn out side of things. Whilst I appreciate maintaining the look and feel of the mansion and keeping it line with an 18th Century building, does not necessarily mean everything in the room needed to feel like it was from the 18th Century. The other thing I was surprised with was the lack of complimentary water especially at the price being charged, even just a jug of water on the table with a couple of glasses would have been nice. I should have taken a picture but usually when I see a brown dry smudge on the handle to flush the toilet, taking a photo isn’t really high on the agenda and at 8pm, just easier to clean and forget. Breakfast was lovely and enjoyed my latte, our son loved the pancakes with eggs and bacon and we spent the whole day out exploring and visiting friends. Sunday breakfast was an interesting affair and I’ll put it down to the restaurant being busy. But small things like saying no lattes were available, even offered to pay for one, but something to do with them being from the lounge, I think the waitress eventually realised how minor the request was and very kindly brought me one, it was delicious I might add, but noticeable different from the one I was served in a tea cup the day before. Had my yoghurt and was only when it was noticed I picked up a tea spoon to eat it, I was then offered a spoon “if I like” - avocado toast and egg was very tasty and thoroughly enjoyed that, but it was such a shame that there were empty dishes and glasses on trays, high chairs not put away, and the way when a table was being laid the bread plates were flicked across like cards from a dealer. All these small details which you just would not expect from a 5 star establishment which boasts about hosting James I and Winston Churchill. Spa treatment was non existent and even though I believe they tried to call me at exactly my wife’s appointment time to let me know her session was cancelled, didn’t pick up as I was driving, my wife was left to wait 20mins at the Spa Reception after checking in for her to go and ask the receptionist about her cancelled appointment. They very kindly booked her for the next day at a time not convenient for us but I’ve heard good things about the Spa. Wasn’t all bad though, loved exploring the grounds and turns out Luton Hoo is an excellent location to go Pokémon hunting, my son left a Dragonite at the Pokémon Gym there which seems to be doing very well and enjoying its stay. All in all, disappointed, and hence spending this amount of time...

Another lovely stay with incredible staff and spa Sharelle the massage therapist is one of the best we've ever had and the golf course was beautiful as well as challenging.

A grand elegant mansion and country club with deceptively spacious en suite rooms set in over 1500 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds. There are 3 main buildings, The Mansion, The Country Club and Warren Weir (mainly for events and conferences) Firstly the Mansion is grand and a beautiful old building with many original period features and elegant dining rooms. The bedrooms are huge with most being twice the size of a hotel room in London. They are the equivalent in space of a small studio apartment. The beds alone are worth the price, the mattresses are one of the highest premium brands I've seen in a hotel and extremely comfortable. Just a few hours of sleep made us feel as if we had slept for a day! The style is old elegant country manor and absolutely pristine and clean. They are not modern but the décor was immaculate and was sparkling clean and daily cleaning was offered but we chose not to have that service during our stay.

Every morsel of food we had during our stay was delicious - from room service breakfasts to opulent dining at Wernhers. We could not fault the food (and had been concerned after reading some other reviews) but needn't have worried as they completely surpassed expectations. The chefs and their teams delivered perfect food every time, from a posher version of fish and chips to Chateaubriand at Wernhers, everything was delicious. Our indulgence was room service breakfasts the we enjoyed on our patio made to perfection with well baked pastries and an amazing selection of vegetation and non vegetarian options. The food at Adam's brasserie was incredible, great fresh produce and flavours, every dish was amazing. Try the stall or the spring roasted chicken which was outstanding!

There are tennis courts and you can borrow rackets and balls from the spa. You can also sign out bikes to explore the estate.

The swimming pool is beautiful with the largest jacuzzi with power rain spout and very spacious surrounds. You should book your 1.5 hour session daily in advance of possible as per COVID limited numbers are allowed at one time. Definitely book in for a treatment, the therapists are very experienced and felt thoroughly pampered afterwards.

The only let down or con to our stay was the dated tech, which was a source of frustration for us. The TVs were loaded with ancient software that doesn't work, inhibited use of Chromecast and PlayStation, which meant our planned Staycation of evening binges of Netflix were kaiboshed leaving us only with some Freeview channels, which was surprising for a hotel of this class. This coupled with intermittent and dreadful WiFi in parts of the hotel forced a digital detox for us and other guests. Difficult when we had to jump on and do some unexpected work so would have been good to have the choice. If this is important to you, let the team know beforehand so they can try and allocate you an appropriate room. If this element had been corrected, we would have scored the hotel 6 out of 5, as everything else was great.

The staff were in the whole excellent, having to deal with inpatient guests who were not familiar with COVID restrictions. From the extremely friendly Ebony at Adam's brasserie, amazing Craig, the Duty and also Golf Manager, Becky the therapist at the Spa, Dee on spa reception, Joynul, Laura, Lydia in Werners and lounges and the team that drove the cabs to and from the different buildings, everyone really went over and beyond to accommodate us and others despite having to deal with multiple complexities that COVID circumstances have brought us.

We are already looking forward to our next hopefully tech ready stay and thank you to the team who really made the difference to making our...