Netley Hall Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

Just Not Good Enough!

On leaving we commented, "How sad, that hotel could be amazing". Bluntly, that sums up Netley Hall perfectly.

On arrival an imposing automated gate entrance and sweeping driveway up to a beautiful country mansion bode well, unspoilt views across countryside to distant mountains, and a gravel driveway to a grand entrance. Surely a five stay stay awaits you.

Alas NO. The check-in desk is wedged into the doorway using a less than welcoming dark oak chest high piece of furniture, the room key is a small square of numbered metal. The atrium is spectacular with sweeping staircase, is well lit and has amazing views, but the carpets are dirty, the chairs have seen better days, and a number of the features listed in the communal areas (a snooker table for example) simply don't exist anymore.

The room (14 in our case) was spacious with a generous bathroom, this is no Travelodge. Its pleasing on the eye, tastefully decorated, and has modern fixtures to balance the traditional features. But the eye can easily be deceived, and pretty soon you discover a window that can't be opened due to a wasps nest on the window ledge, a ultra modern shower cubicle that doesn't function properly, and a room without any wifi signal (and a really weak phone signal too!). On reporting these issues we were told that they were being dealt with or that a wifi router reboot would fix the problem, but both ourselves and the staff responding knew deep in our hearts that these were problems that would never be resolved at Netley Hall.

A walk around the grounds told the same story of amazing potential and dreadful underachievement. A spectacular lake made perfectly for fishing or boating (or just to be visually appealing for the casual walker) was left to go fallow, unkempt, and unwelcoming. A modern tennis court with broken netting covered in mould and leaves, a clubhouse now used only for storage of old equipment. An equestrian centre adjacent to the property crying out to offer riding lessons or pony treking around the ample estate were left mostly empty and decaying. For the more adventurous a paintballing area amongst the woodland, perfect for teambuilding days, but left to become overgrown and underutilised. A simple story of opportunity lost.

But this hotel could be amazing. Apparently there is a pool and hot tub, but this is only available to one room out of the 20!!. Just 5% of guests ever get to see it or experience it. Why is this facility not open to all? Where is my massage therapist? My spa day? My afternoon tea? It just beggars belief that this facility is not being valued and maximised by the hotel, so many hotels would love to have these facilities and upselling opportunities at hand, and yet Netley Hall lets them go to waste.

There was nothing wrong with the stay overall. It was pleasant and comfortable with a decent evening meal and standard breakfast (nothing 5 star about either, but good enough). But there was nothing about Netley Hall that ever made us glad that we could tell everyone that we had been there, or that would encourage us to come back, and that's just very sad. This could be one of the most amazing hotels in the area (if not the country) if someone would just seize the opportunity, get innovative, pay attention to the detail by staying on top of the minor problems, and deliver a 5 star experience...

Please be aware that wi-fi/internet provision is so weak as to make calls or search impossible so effectively here is no wi-fi/internet. I rang the telephone number given and left a message, but there was no reply.|We stayed in a 2 bedroom 'cottage'. It was warm and clean BUT whoever decided that this is luxury accommodation has never experienced luxury. Even a Premier Inn would have been more comfortable albeit without the extra bedroom. Firstly, neither bedroom has a window! If I were there for any length of time I'd find this difficult. As there were 2 bedrooms, we had a choice. A double bed, not large and very soft for us so we went to the other bedroom, 2 metal camp type beds, but adequate for a decent rest though they moved about the room every time either of us moved and made a scraping noise loud enough to wake my partner. There was no chair in either bedroom and no bedside lights in the twin bedroom. The en-suite was clean but smelled strongly of drains. My partner tried to find someone in the estates office several times but there was never anyone around. The smell disappeared sometime after we opened doors and windows.|The kitchen has only the bare minimum of utensils, anyone staying more than a couple of nights may need to bring pans, kitchen roll, kitchen towels etc.|The sofas in the living room were very old and we found them quite uncomfortable, one being very low and the other leaning too far back. For anyone interested in watching tv, you can only get the bare minimum of terrestrial channels.|Finally, but certainly not unimportantly, there was a dead rat on one of the paths. Again, we tried to report it to estate the office.|Rats, dead or alive are not a good look for a place like this though they may be symptomatic of the management of the Hall, certainly I got the overall impression that they are trying to do things on the cheap. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but don't then claim the luxury tag and use it to flog mediocre at best...

Our first trip to Netley Hall we stayed in the main house. A beautiful room. But that is where the beauty stopped. The bed was uncomfortable, the room got to a temperature of 35 degrees which was clearly a common issue as there was a nearly useless air conditioning unit in the wardrobe. The receptionist in the morning was very apologetic and offered us a 25% refund and complimentary breakfast. Well after 2 weeks we had to go through booking.com to obtain said discount as they didn't want to pay it. On our second visit to Netley Hall we booked one of their 'cottages' hoping for a better standard. Surprise but this was not the case. On a arrival there were no clear instructions for ANYTHING. Again the bed was extremely uncomfortable, then one of us tried to have a bath in the absence of a shower, the 'jacuzzi' bath when turned on produced lots of horrible substances from the jets which clearly hadn't been cleaned since time began. At around 11pm our noisy neighbours returned. This noise went on to gone 2am, at which point we decided enough was enough and packed up and drove 2.5hrs home. With no instructions available in the property as to who to get hold of, we decided we would follow this up the next day with management.

After speaking with Joe the General Manager he very quickly made it clear he would not be reimbursing us in anyway. And that we should of contacted the main hotel for them to move us rooms. Well that wasn't possible as even when we arrived at 3pm there was not a member of staff in site. Several emails were exchanged before Joe just decided to not bother responding or at any point take on board our feedback.

Don't be taken in by the pretty grounds and idillic setting, it really is a DIRTY, TIRED AND UNCOMFORTABLE...