Elmers Court Hotel & Resort — Hotel in New Forest

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Elmers Court is advertised as a hotel with 'luxury accommodation' and 'indulgent spa'.

To put it simply, it is none of these things, far from it in fact.

We arrived after 4 hour drive from Suffolk expecting all of the above. We checked into our room at 15:30 and noticed the following:

Dusty wardrobes and surfaces Dated furniture Extractor fan so loud that you couldn't hear us speaking

We were then shocked to see another guest attempt to enter our room - Commenting that they were also in '20A' - turns out the were in '20B' - Not a great start.

We then went to relax with a walk around the gardens and then sit down for a drink at the bar. We purchased two very overpriced ciders and sat outside, noticing other members of staff (in uniform) typing away on laptops, relaxing and immersive? I think not.

We put all that aside to relax in the 'indulgent spa', after all, the bedroom was just for sleeping, the bar was optional - we were mainly here for the spa.

THIS IS NOT A SPA. In any stretch of the imagination. We arrived at the leisure reception to walk through to the changing room noticing the spa was more reminiscent of a working mens club rather than the 'indulgent spa' we had been promised.

Entering the changing rooms I observed the following:

Broken lockers Towels strewn accross the benches Dirty showers Rancid smell

This felt more like a school changing room. Despite this, we still changed and went to the pool.

Expecting at least, loungers for 'relaxation' and 'spa' facilities. None of this. This was a public swimming pool to put it politely, with a couple of plastic chairs from the 1990's, thats even if you could get to them after navigating round the ruler sized pool edge. The pool is tiny and not as the advertised 'sizeable swimming pool'.

We expected 'relaxation' but were greated to around 10 children whacking eachother with foam noodles, screaming at the top of there lungs. I don't hate kids, but when you're told quotes such as 'a perfect place to invest in your body and mind' you expect the Shangri-La, not the 'kidz' club.

We didnt even venture near the so called 'thermal facilities' which is a joke to be called as such - a sauna that resembled a hot cupboard. The treatment rooms looked like a dentist theatre and the outdoor pool, full of leaves and again, screaming children.

This was my partners birthday and after spending my hard earned money to treat her, this was a huge disappointment. We do not get to go away often and complaining is not my thing! But this was one of the worst experiences, we were gutted.

I spoke to Mohammed (reception manager? It wasn't clear what his role was). He was very polite and offered another room but admitted he could not change the spa. The sole reason we were here was for the spa, so we made the decision to leave. I honestly would not make this decision if we didn't have to but in all honestly the place was awful.

I explained to Mohammed that we would like a refund as we had only been at the hotel for 2 hours and had only just paid on arrival. Though the hotel was quick to take my money, Mohammed explained to me that he could not refund as he did not have the authority.

I sent a complaint on 24/08 to the details provided by Mohammed and they are either fake details or they've completely ignored me or they can't even be bothered to reply - I am now following up with...

It's a perfect location, particularly for ferry travel to the Isle of Wight. It also looks very grand from the outside. Unfortunately that's where the positives end. We booked a standard double room for the weekend and arrived at 4.30pm believing check-in was at 3pm so we hadn't rushed (I'm glad we didn't). Our first impression was being told by the receptionist, quite curtly, 'wait a minute' because they were doing something important on the computer. We were then advised check-in wasn't until 5pm for a Manor House room. Why? It's a small room with a small bathroom! Fortunately for us the room had been 'cleaned' and was ready. Sadly the room is very dated and cold. We had an outside patio seating area overlooking the car park and with large patio doors you'd expect the radiator to work in the room, but it didn't. We only found this out late when we returned on the Sunday to a freezing cold room. By that time we were too exhausted to ask for support and just wanted to sleep ... we'll get to that later. Spiders and cobwebs adorn the corridor like leftover Halloween decorations and have taken residence in the room. The carpet has clearly seen better days and the small double wardrobe doesn't close properly unless you provide gentle persuasion with your foot to the bottom as both doors are warped. The radiator didn't work in the sleeping area, the shower (amazing water pressure and the only saving grace of our weekend) didn't get hot enough, the shower curtain should be in the tray but it blocks the plug so you have to risk it and drench the bathroom mat, but sadly the most frustrating thing was the bed was extremely uncomfortable. We could feel and count all the springs and there was one missing. (We know because we counted them twice). The bed is two singles pushed together do there's a definite join felt, I'm not sure why hotels do that?? My wife had no choice but to bring large cushions she had in the car to create a barrier between her and the mattress in an attempt to sleep. In the morning we woke to what sounded like an angle grinder being operated but it turned out to be the room upstairs running a tap or something similar. Maybe they were trying to get rid of some of the unwelcome creepy crawlies we found also in our bathroom (right next to the toilet cistern and your head when you sat, any cleaning would have ensured it's demise so I shall leave it at that). Unfortunately the staff on reception at checkout didn't seem too worried about this at all. The self catering buildings looked lovely from the outside. I suspect they've invested money in those and as a consequence the normal hotels rooms have been allowed to run down. The building itself is beautiful, the grounds are lush and the views incredible. It's such a shame we had such a disappointing visit. As my old teacher would say, 'You need to do better, pull your...

We had a two night stay while visiting Paultons Park and despite some worrying reviews we decided to take the chance with our booking. Our first impressions were originally OKAY, we at least had pleasant welcome. From there it all went downhill… the room felt very dated and the facilities could certainly do with some freshening up and maintenance, the restaurant even had coffee stains on walls and doors etc which looked like they’d been there a while. I’ll also mention on that point, that despite asking for breakfast for 8am, on our second morning they did not have us down on the booking and we were made to feel a nuisance to the morning staff. The walk-through from the car park to the rooms are also used by the staff as a smoking area, and on a few occasions passing through it felt like what could only be described as a university campus.

However all that that aside my main frustration comes from the fact that when leaving for an evening meal, whilst leaving the room and heading out the door my foot suddenly collapsed through the balcony causing me to lose my footing but regain balance by holding onto the railing in front of me. I instantly faced ankle pain and the following day suffered with sharp knee pain also. It also meant that my wife had to drive us to the meal and the full journey home due to pain and discomfort.

The hotel were quick to send out a maintenance person who also explained to us that the balconies were not fit for purpose and this was a problem that they were already aware of. No point whatsoever during our stay did we get anything as much as an apology, the hotel completely ignored the situation, other than fixing the broken beam.

As a family, we are not the sort of people who like to complain and always willing to accept some issues cannot be helped. This could arguably be one of them. However, on checkout when my wife brought up the situation and expressed her disappointment that we had not even had as much as an apology, what seamed to be the team leader (head staff) simply did not care or show any remorse at all. The only response we had on the matter was “did you fill out an accident form” to which we obviously responded “no” as we had no prior communication whatsoever so we didn’t even have that conversation.

We will certainly never return to this hotel or recommend it to anyone, the hotels complete and utter disregard or lack of care for their guests shows complete incompetence and therefore for others safety and health. I could never recommend them.

I am still suffering from the injury pain of my stay today and I am disgusted that a simple “sorry” is not within...