The Wild Pheasant Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Great Britain

I booked this hotel as a get away for myself and my daughter. The idea of a spa hotel was very appealing for us. On arrival we were charged the full amount for our stay which I thought was strange since they had my card details. We weren't told where any of the facilities were so we had to enquire at reception. It would've been helpful to have details in the room if they weren't given at reception. The room was a twin and very basic. Teabags, coffee and sugar were in a white plastic bag that had been flung on the counter top. There were Covid restrictions in place at the time but putting it in a 'plastic' bag was very strange and pretty tacky. For the price of the room it was really not acceptable, could've been cleaner. Breakfast was horrific. I tried the vegetarian offering and that was just as bad. The eggs were solid and there was no taste to anything. Not only were the hot offerings tasteless but the toast was only toasted on one side. When i asked for it to be toasted on both sides I was told it wasn't possible as that's how the toaster worked (?) Tea and coffee were offered round each table from large pots. These pots were left on a table between offerings so there was no heat to the drinks. The coffee was undrinkable so I asked for a pot of stronger coffee. It seemed to be a difficult request and had to go through 3 staff before it appeared. Slightly better, at least it was hot. The head waiter shouted across the restaurant at the staff working throughout our meal. Very unprofessional and very annoying. A leisurely relaxing breakfast it was not! On the last day we decided to have bacon rolls. I mean how can that go wrong? The bacon had a very strange taste and had a thick strip of fat hanging off it. The waitress put the roll down and said, there's no butter on it, didn't know if you'd like any ( why not ask?) The rolls went into the bin, truly inedible... We stayed in the restaurant for dinner one night and the meal was delicious. However, when we asked for the wine list we were told there isn't one yet. The waiter tried to remember all the wines and ran back and forward to the bar to check what they had. There were no prices given. Surely there could've been a sheet printed off which would cover until the wine list became available. Very poor service. We went into the bar to have a glass of wine after dinner. We chose two large glasses of red. Sadly when we sat at the table and took a mouthful we discovered the bottle was off/corked. My daughter took the glasses back to the bar but there were no staff to be found anywhere. In the end she went through the back of the bar and shouted. She could hear talking but had to go further to find the bar staff standing chatting. They changed the wine for us but that was after about a 10 minute wait (no exaggeration). It's not as if we were the only people in the bar, there were at least a further 4-5 tables. We asked at reception if we could please have an ice bucket for our room with 2 glasses. The head waiter was at reception when we asked so the receptionist asked us to follow him and he'd get us one. He entered the dining room and we waited by the entrance. After a bit of a wait my daughter went to see where he was. To her amazement he was sitting eating his meal! Another waiter asked if he could help us and kindly got the ice bucket. Shocking! I have to say the spa was fantastic, the girls that gave us our treatments were very professional and super friendly. I wouldn't normally take to writing a negative review about any place but I tried to speak directly to the hotel and even wrote a letter to the manager. There wasn't even so much as a 'thank you for your feedback'. I was completely ignored. Even on the website I wrote to the customer service dept of Everbrite hotels and got absolutely no response from them either. I've waited to see if anything came back before taking to google to review. I think it's important to warn any unsuspecting guest how awful this place really is. It was a super...

Check-in was easy, the receptionist was very helpful. The hour in the spa was fantastic.

Things went a bit pear shaped at breakfast. We'd been forced to accept a time slot for 09:45 'because the hotel is full and we need to manage the kitchen", not an issue and seemed quite reasonable.

We arrived on time and "unfortunately we don't have a table for you just yet". No worries, we helped ourselves to an orange juice and sat in the bar area. Ten minutes later, we were shown to our table. I went to get a coffee and the machine wasn't working. Another guest came and had a fiddle with it and we concluded it was out of coffee beans. I went and put a slice of toast through the toaster, got some honey and returned to our table. The boss (my better half) had a bowl of fruit with some natural yoghurt. She mentioned that there wasn't any 'pastries" and a member of staff went to refill the tray. I noticed the boss had finished her OJ so I offered to get her a refill and myself a coffee.

The machine was being refilled so I tried to get a black coffee and it wouldn't dispense because "it won't vend while I'm refilling it". I got the OJ and tried again as the staff member had completed refilling duties. What came out was very watery so I tried again - same thing. Mentioned it to a member of staff and she had a play with the machine while I went and got myself a pot of honey. As I returned to my seat I was informed, by the employee that "I've done you a coffee". I went to the machine and saw several cups of murky hot water and decided discretion was the better part of valour and returned to the boss. I should mention that we had both ordered Eggs Benedict and the boss wanted her hollandaise sauce on the side. I'm not fussy where my hollandaise goes. The boss ate her fruit and yoghurt, I ate my toast and honey. We drank our OJ and reflecting on what a great day we had white water rafting. We're been chatting for roughly 30+ mins when it suddenly dawned on us that our Eggs Benedict were noticeable by their absence. The boss enquired politely and about 10 mins after that, two portions of Eggs Benedict appeared along with an apology that there weren't any pastries because they had run out. Not a major issue my eggs Benedict looked very tasty as did the portion allocated to the boss unfortunately the hollandaise sauce wasn't on the side but liberally coating the whole portion. The server did offer to take it away and provide what was ordered but the boss was hungry and we were by now definitely in brunch territory and neither of us wanted to wait another hour.

As it turned out the eggs were cold and had been poached to the point of the yolks being hard boiled. The bacon was luke warm and I think the hollandaise may have come out of a bottle. Frankly we were so hungry we'd have eaten the proverbial "scabby horse" (well I would have, but the boss has standards).

In summary we actually had a pleasant stay and the spa is well worth a visit, but brekky was a bit disorganized/shambolic but please don't let our breakfast experience put you off.

The gardens are beautifully maintained and the bar is well stocked and open late.

Oh I should also say that having left the coffee machine for about an hour I did manage to get a couple of quite acceptable espressos out of it.

We would/will stay there again when we visit a nearby outdoors centre as we're going try...

I stayed just one night recently, during the week, so the hotel wasn't very busy. The building itself looks lovely and whoever had it converted/adjusted, had had a really good design idea.

Let's go through it all

✅ Therapist named Natalie. She's probably the only one who saved my stay. I went for a spa package and really enjoyed the massage and quick facial. Natalie is probably one of the few therapists in a hotel setting who knows anatomy and knows how to manipulate a muscle to release tension. She should be paid more. ❌ The treatment room was dated, the bed has seen better days and I think the hotel has to start washing the towels differently because all those I've used were like a sand paper. Same with bathrobes.

✅ The thermal spa zone was nice and toasty, the water temperature was a bit in a high side but still ok.

❌ I had to pay additional fee for entry to Spa despite the fact it clearly states that it's included for one hour with your booking. Towels were extra as well. I would have said something but didn't want to stress out a lovely receptionist Niahm. The steam room wasn't on, but I thought maybe it's due to the late hour. The next day it was still off so I guess I was wrong. The floor at the pool wasn't safe and had quite a lot of dust under the chairs. The jets were ok for a tickling experience, not a jet massage. Foamy water gave me a rash and breakouts on my face. If the hotel owners would like to improve the whole spa experience please get in touch - there is a lot of potential being wasted.

✅ Hotel rooms were ok, I presume there's only this much you can do. Not sure if the building is listed, but judging by the level of finish it is. ❌ The bathroom was apaling - especially the toilet paper hung on the other side of the room. Tiling was tired and poorly done. No hair dryer in the room.

✅ Restaurant and bar area look nice. Beverage prices are adequate.

❌ Service staff are on autopilot and it's even hard for them to smile. Everything that comes out of their mouth is trained, no emotion there. The food, for its price was of minimal quantities. The quality of produce was poor as well. I think you've got a lot of local markets, get good ingredients from them and then you can charge the worth. The breakfast was a laugh really, for £15 it looked like a sampling plate. This is not a Michelin restaurant, don't pretend it is. Spa lunch was a laugh, not worth sitting down for.

5.✅ The garden looked very nice and tidy. I saw a lady looking after it and she deserves recognition. No down sides here. I enjoy Japanese inspired gardens a lot, as I have my own, so round of applause for the gardeners.

Summary:

✅ Spa treatment, garden ❌ Rooms, service,...