Cambridge Belfry Hotel & Spa — Hotel in South Cambridgeshire

I went for a spa day, which included a lunch. The hotel itself is lovely (so it seems walking through). I ordered breakfast and a coffee at their bar area which was pretty delayed. I could see they were short staffed, the lady was trying her upmost best which I really appreciate. I noticed a manger in the background who chose not to assist with serving it could’ve taken her 5/10 mins. It doesn’t look good to leave customers waiting for over 10 mins knowing your staff are adhering to other customers (I’m referring to the short blonde lady). After breakfast we headed to the spa , welcomed by a warming gentlemen (wrist was in a sleeve). Very polite, welcoming and cheerful. I wish to extend my thank you to you as I thought you were super! Upon arrival , we completed forms and all looked very positive. He shown us the facilities which looked okay from A distance. I went into the changing rooms and that is where I became extremely disappointed. Many things were wrong , main issue is that it’s all so broken / old and needs a refresh. There’s one changing room with a door which wouldn’t even close. In that area there’s mould on the floor and ceiling which makes you feel sick! The lockers - half the doors and insides were dirty and wouldn’t shut properly. The benches were worn out. One toilet working which didn’t look appealing at all. The shower doors were lockless or faulty. Some had no place to put your towel. The shower heads were tatty and rusty. 7.The shampoo compartments had nothing in them. Towels and robes - towels were stained and very dated. Robes were broken and again old and tatty.

Moving on, walking in to the actual facility area where you’d find a non working jacuzzi and an average sized pool nothing special at all. There were 4 sun lounges - not sure how that would facilitate many individuals arriving for a spa day. There’s a relaxation room with additional 3/4 sun lounges which is separate to where the pool Is. Nothing special just a secluded room just seems like you’re out the way and paying to lay on a sun lounger and stare at a wall. During lunch service, staff were polite well mannered. Food was fantastic that also goes for breakfast. I cannot fault anything with the food. Though I would like to add that due to slow service we forgot to have our dessert that came with lunch, we didn’t realise until after but nobody came back to take our plates. The problem here I found was that unlike other spas you had to travel across the hotel to a bar / restaurant area in your robe to enjoy lunch or afternoon tea. I felt a bit out of place and uncomfortable , seating areas were taken by other people so having to sit on high chairs in a robe isn’t the most comfortable. It’s also very awkward passing all those that may be attending the hotel whilst there’s a conference or in meetings. The spa area should consider it’s only dining space to facilitate they food offering.

Treatments at the spa centre were fab - ladies were super! Did exactly what I expected.

All in all I Personally felt like that it didn’t seem like a relaxing place unless you were getting treatments, it’s more so a quick swim/ dip in the pool Option for those staying at the hotel.

I’m very surprised as Belfry is a big name but didn’t match anywhere near what Sutton Coldfield or Nottingham offer. I found that it offered very poor facilities that need major attention.

On top of that , another issue that I found was the school rush that occurred - one 2 one swimming classes. It’s Already a small swimming pool but was half closed off from 3:45pm for kids , not exactly a spa retreat when you have children taking over changing spaces. They also charge outside Monday - Thursday not sure why when they don’t factor this in.

There’s nothing special about this place. It’s Just a pool with sun lounges. Very small space. I hope the hotel management staff review this as I feel there’s some very constructive feedback. I won’t be recommending this place to anybody or come back until...

On the whole, it's very disappointing. Firstly, it's quite rare that I don't leave either a 4 or 5 star review, so im not a picky person. I'm very easily pleased. Secondly, based solely on how polite and courteous the staff were, this would be a 5 star review

Spa It's very difficult to call it a spa, I'd say more of a leisure centre. The jacuzzi pool was full of foam. It just gave the impression that it was dirty. The pool was full of kids being encouraged to jump in and splash around by staff. It's not very relaxing if you want to just sit by the pool. We tried the relaxation room, which had soothing music playing, but it must have been a scratched cd or something as the music just kept skipping and jumping, which was very irritating. I counted 7 lougers by the pool and 8 in the relaxation room. We were lucky to get one by the pool, but for a spa hotel as big as this, you would expect a bigger, better 'spa'.

Rooms Very spacious, clean, and well presented. The beds aren't very comfy. It's 2 twin beds/mattresses pushed together, so if you want a cuddle, one of you will be laid where they join. I stayed at a premier Inn recently, which managed to have a full sized mattress. Lots of things in the room didn't work. Shaving mirror light, main bathroom mirror light, and something labelled the foot light all didn't work. It felt like it was just a lack of attention to detail. Nice big TV.

Food I'm going to try and be as fair as possible with this. My meal was lovely, the fish and chips were nice but I wouldn't say it was anything better than a normal pub meal. My partner had a seafood starter and the chicken risotto main. Unfortunately, she has spent most of the night in the bathroom with food poisoning, and she's not usually a person who suffers from this. It's not how we imagined spending our anniversary away. The dining experience wasn't great either. We had to order her drink 3 different times and by the time it arrived at the table she had finished her main course. I ordered a pint of Guinness, and to be honest, I very nearly didn't bother drinking it. It came in a beer glass and wasnt poured from a guinness pump so was full of gas bubbles, I wouldn't recommend Guinness drinkers to order this here. Cocktails weren't available which was disappointing. Again, attention to detail was missing for the prices charged, which are eye watering. Our mains were brought out before our starters had been cleared from the table, so it felt rushed. It was about £80-90 for our meal excluding drinks, and we paid that in a London steak restaurant recently. I'm sorry to say this was closer to a wetherspoons' dining experience.

Grounds The grounds around the lake are beautiful, and I would imagine that during the summer, it would be gorgeous to just sit and watch the world go by. It was nice to just stand by the lake and watch the carp. Again, though, I'd have to say there was no attention to detail. There was a tennis court which looked overgrown and abandoned (not that I'd have played).

As I've previously mentioned, the staff were very polite, and I feel awful for them having to leave a poor review. The reception staff were very accommodating. Unfortunately, for the prices that are charged, this wasn't enough. If you want a spa day, I'd recommend either Wyboston lakes near St Neots or Bannatynes in Bury St Edmunds. If you need to book a hotel in Cambourne, then I'd book the Holiday Inn and eat at the Monkton Arms.

The 1 star is no reflection on the staff. I can't stress that enough. The place just has a feel that the owners slap a big price tag on everything yet don't want to address the little things. Outside furniture is dated and tired looking, which isn't an issue in a pub beer garden, but it's advertised as a spa.

Update - whilst checking out we raised about my partner feeling unwell and were very well looked after by staff. We did have that part of the bill taken off which was unexpected but nice.the staff are a credit...

Sadly, I am writing a review that reflects poorly on this location. I was visiting my girlfriend in early August. She booked a penthouse suite with the Belfry. Sadly our stay was a flop at best. Our check in time was 3pm and we arrived at 4pm. When we arrived the staff was asking if the room was ready yet even though we arrived an hour after check in.

Our check in time was 3pm. We arrived at 4pm and the front desk was asking each other if the Butler penthouse was ready. Which is odd considering we arrived an hour after the fact.

When we arrived to the room, we initially thought, “wow this looks amazing.”

The room at first glance it looked great.

We saw the air con unit on the ceiling and we turned it on in order to cool the room on such a warm day. We were going out for dinner to hopefully return to a nice cool room to relax for evening.

Upon arrival after dinner we came back to the room and it felt like a sauna. The air con was blowing out hot air despite the cool setting we had it to prior to leaving. The remote stopped working and the panel on the actual air con was broken. Panel was non responsive to anything we tried. It kept blowing warm air. We then opened all the windows to try to create a cross wind to cool the place.

We gave this scenario our best level of patience. However, not only the AC was inoperable we discovered several large spiders lurking about, who my partner, has severe arachnophobia. After dealing with the spiders I started searching the room and found the corners in the ceiling had cob webs!

With the room feeling like a sauna and spiders and cob webs, we simply could not enjoy the romantic evening my wonderful partner planned.

I was ready to check ourselves in at the holiday inn express across the way but Sarah insisted we stick out because of the money spent.

Decent amount of money spent on a penthouse suite that more like a dingy, humid, space.

The fact that decent amount of money was spent for a penthouse suite that was advertised to be an amazing experience was thwarted due to basic and expected amenities. I don’t understand, the Cambridge Belfry, a symbol of class and history. The hotel markets and sells an experience. Sadly we didn’t get an ounce of it yet we paid the money for it. When we brought our issues to the desk they said they could only do a 10 percent discount off the bill. Unfortunately, I didn't feel this was adequate enough. If the state of the room we experienced is the standard I would hope hotel would be transparent enough so the expectations reflect the actual product of the room.

I would like to think that the owners of this hotel would like to stand by their product and correct this. I wish I could have wrote an email saying how wonderful this experience was but sadly that’s not the case. Please reach out with any other questions or concerns about this.

After our stay I emailed the customer relations team about our experience. Their GM, Jade Dixon, sent me a response saying that we didn't know how to operate an AC unit properly because they "investigated" and found it working properly. I assure it was not. Its not a complicated system and to be insulted as such is ridiculous.

She went on explaining that spiders get in to the buildings but my point was that there were cob webs in the ceiling, under the bed was filled with rubbish and crumbs of all sorts. It just wasn't what we expected for a penthouse suite. You should expect, clean rooms, working AC, no cob webs, etc. All we got was a ten percent discount and a "until next time". Utterly piss poor response and management of such a supposed...