South Lodge — Hotel in Horsham

For the price, you’d expect everything to be perfect — unfortunately, that wasn’t the case during our stay.

We really appreciated the venue itself. The room was lovely, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a pregnancy pillow already available, which was a thoughtful touch. That said, a few of the light switches weren’t working, though the staff did come and fix them while we were out for dinner. We’d assume complementary snacks to be refill when staying more than one night - it wasn’t the case.

The Pass restaurant was excellent — from the service to the quality of the food, everything was spot on. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the other dining options.

At Camellia, the £90 set menu felt quite steep, especially with several dishes carrying an extra charge on top. The food was okay, but definitely didn’t live up to the price tag. One staff member, who I assume was the head waiter, came across as a bit rude when we asked about adjusting the menu for dietary requirements — questioning the reason and deciding for us what was suitable to eat, which felt uncomfortable and unnecessary.

We also had brunch at Botanical, but by 11am they had already run out of a few items. We were told we should have come earlier if we wanted pastries — which felt odd, considering we booked specifically for brunch, not breakfast, and attended during normal service hours. Food itself was not great and very greasy.

The spa snack bar was also closed for a while with no explanation, which was disappointing.

On top of that, a discretionary service charge was added to everything — including spa treatments — which felt quite excessive given how expensive everything already was.

As someone else mentioned in a previous review, the fire alarm went off during our stay at around 2am. No staff showed up to guide guests or give any information. Eventually, people just started going back to their rooms once the alarm stopped, but no one confirmed whether it was actually safe to do so. There was no follow-up, no apology, and no gesture to make up for what ended up being a very disrupted night.

A real shame, as the facilities are genuinely good and the place has everything it needs to offer a fantastic experience — but there were just too many issues for it to feel worth the price.

Follow-up to the hotel’s response: To be clear, I fully understand the importance of fire alarms. The issue isn’t that the alarm went off—it’s that no staff appeared to guide or inform guests during what could have been an emergency. People were left outside or in hallways at 2am with no direction, and eventually returned to their rooms without knowing if it was actually safe.

Saying the alarm was “there to save lives” misses the point entirely. If this had been a real emergency, the complete lack of staff response or communication would have put guests at serious risk. Fire alarms alone don’t save lives—clear procedures and trained staff do. None of that was evident that night.

This isn’t only about compensation—it’s about a failure of basic emergency protocol and duty of care. I hope management takes this seriously and addresses it for future...

The first thing to mention is the staff, every single member we encountered was absolutely wonderful, and truly made the stay the best they possibly could.

Our room was quite old style, not tatty, all in good condition and very clean, but just didn't quite hit the mark. Very overpriced suite and for little benefit. What I actually wanted was the room I booked, with earlier access to the spa (which I was willing to pay for) but apparently it's not option unless you have a suite...

So we checked in early and headed over to the spa for an afternoon relaxing in the sun. It was very busy, but there were a couple of beds on the upper terrace, it felt like we were on holiday, so beautiful, so peaceful.

We took a mud treatment together, which was self guided but in an automated pod that went through different phases to wash, steam, rainfall shower - not convinced it was work £110 but it was a nice thing to do as a couple and that made it worth it.

The bartender at the Watershed (lakeside snack/bar) was very friendly and welcoming, a good host and a shame it was his last day there.

We opted to remain outside for the afternoon and didn't try any of the indoor facilities as the weather was so beautiful. There's a small pond/lake for gentle swimming and a nice hydrotherapy pool on the terrace (around 37C).

Returning to reception we were shown to our suite where our bags were waiting for us. The bathroom was quite lovely and very clean. With a large open multijet shower and a feature bath complete with TV. Unfortunately, the fire alarm went off whilst enjoying a bath, twice so rinsed off in the shower once it was over!

Dinner... Hmmm... The menu at Camellia was unimpressive so we returned to the bar area to eat. The food took quite a while to come and was pretty disappointing. Shop bought pitta bread, anaemic ciabatta, oily garlic bread and tasteless tabouleh, thoroughly underwhelming (the service charge was removed when I mentioned it at check out, new chef, will feedback to the head chef etc).

We took breakfast in Botanica at the spa, which was immense (we both said that we wished we had eaten there for dinner the night before). I had patatas bravas with olive bread and a fried egg, it was so tasty, my wife had salmon, poached egg and muffin. We also both had an apricot, granola and coconut yogurt bowl, which was amazing. Along with plenty of coffee and juices, all included in the "spa escape" package.

We returned to the spa for a while, took a swim in the indoor pool (a bit chilly, but kept you moving!) and made use of the different steam chambers until we returned to the terrace after our massages. The massage was very good, not what we expected (bamboo massage sort of suggested that we might be gently stroked with some bamboo shoots), instead, it was a hot, thick piece of bamboo, used like a rolling pin to detangle the knots in our backs, shoulders and necks, finished with a lovely facial and scalp massage!

Room - disappointing Food - unsatisfactory Spa - EPIC

It has, however, put me off trying other resorts...

I booked a night away as a belated birthday present for my fiancé. We were so lucky with the weather. ||We arrived just before 12pm, parked up & went to Botanica first as I’d booked us in for lunch. ||We chose a table at the front of the balcony which unfortunately for us got very hot as the minimal cloud there parted while we were eating so we did kick ourselves for not sitting in the shade!|We shared whitebait, chicken Caesar salad, olives & tomato focaccia which was all delicious. I had two Aperol Spritzes & my fiancé had a glass of rose sparkling wine. An excellent start to our stay!||We went to the spa & got changed. My fiancé went into the steam rooms & I swam in the indoor pool. I noticed that there were sunbeds available by the outdoor pool/natural pond so we moved outside.||We spent a lovely afternoon relaxing & reading. A couple of delicious Pimms were enjoyed too!||We checked into our room at around 5pm. We were shown up to the “Earl of Athlone” - a stunning room with gorgeous views of the grounds & a free standing bath in the room. Lovely selection of snacks & fresh milk. ||I had a shower but couldn’t get any hot water to come out. My fiancé called down & a maintenance man came up very quickly but by the time he had the situation had resolved itself - I’d probably decided to have a shower when everyone else had! We ordered (via the iPad) a latte & a glass of sparking wine from room service - these came very quickly. The latte arrived with fresh shortbread & cookies. ||We went down to the bar for a pre-dinner drink. The service was very good & it was such a delight when we were asked to take our table for dinner at Camelia as I hadn’t “checked in” for our table anywhere. It’s the extra touches like that that really make the difference. ||Dinner was superb. I had the dressed crab, the lamb then the blood orange soufflé. My fiancé had the black pudding, the lamb then the rhubarb tart. We agreed it was one of the best meals we’d had in a very long time. Service was excellent without being over solicitous. We had a post dinner drink at the bar then went to bed. ||We both slept well & I made use of the bath in the morning.||Breakfast at Camelia in the morning was again delicious. I had the Eggs Royale & my fiancé had the Eggs Benedict. The toast & pastries were delicious too. ||We had a very friendly check out & passed on our comments about all the delicious food we’d had. All staff we came into contact with were excellent.||I asked my fiancé if we’d come back for our first year anniversary (we get married in two weeks) but he did say there was lots of other places to try. But I’d definitely like to think we’d return being only 45 minutes from home. ||The only slight negatives I could comment on was the shower head needs descaling as half the holes didn’t have any water coming out of them. Couldn’t find a setting on the iPad to “sleep” the screen at night so had to lay it face down. ||Overall well done...