The Barn Hotel & Spa — Hotel in South Kesteven

This is a difficult one to review as there's a real mix of positive and not so positive things 🤔 We booked the £119 overnight spa day with afternoon tea for 2 package.

The afternoon tea was good - well presented, fresh and tasty. It was small (4/5 finger sandwiches each) and only one hot drink each. But, as a small meal for 2 girls busy chatting and more interested in enjoying each other's company, it was nice. It came with a glass of Prosecco each too, which was nice. Service wasn't good - there was no one around. There was a wedding, so it was all hands on deck, I guess. No one said they were short staffed, just that they were busy because there was a wedding on. Tbf, we did get served reasonably quickly, there was just no one around after that and another couple of ladies waited ages.

The spa was nice - sauna, steam room and Jacuzzi were all clean and in good working order. It was quiet too, so we were able to use all the facilities, which was great. I paid extra for us to both have a 1hr facial. I hadn't heard of the products and they seemed cheap and poor quality if anything and the stages of the facial weren't explained, so I didn't know what was happening. The scrub was really mild, so didn't feel exfoliating and I don't remember having a mask at all 🤔 The therapist (Chloe) was lovely and very easy to talk to.

Padlocks for the lockers in the spa were annoying. I did get an email telling me I needed to take one, but it was like a week before so I had forgotten by the time the day came - it's an unusual request and seems cheap (bit like the single cup of tea, rather than a pot, and the products used in the treatments). Just get lockers that need a token or a £1 coin like most other places. You could buy a padlock for £5 which was ridiculous. Just give them to people with a £5 deposit if you're worried about people taking them home. They don't cost £5 so it feels like you're just trying to make a few quid

Robes and towels were clean but no frills, so it didn't feel very special.

Most worrying was the floor on the corridor to reception - very slippy. I slipped but didn't fall. Sadly my friend wasn't so lucky - she went down hard and bruised both knees and one of her hands. No one seemed to care. Thankfully, she's a sprightly, slightly built sort, had she been overweight or elderly, she could have been seriously hurt. This put a bit of a dampener on things. Especially as I bought the experience as a gift - it was embarrassing - you don't anticipate your friend getting injured at a spa day where they're supposed to be being pampered!

So, onto the room...we were placed right next to the function room where the wedding was happening. This was partly my fault, as I said I wanted a room with two double beds when I booked, but I was not told that it was next to a wedding reception. It was deafening and we asked to be moved, which we were. I booked a superior room though and I couldn't see anything superior about either room. There were scuffs on the walls and they looked tired. The bathroom in the first room in particular could use a refit...I couldn't help wonder what the standard rooms were like if these were allegedly superior 🤔

Finally, food. The breakfast was nice. We had room service and it was delivered pretty much on time. The poached eggs were cooked well (slightly runny) and the bacon was decent. Yogurt was fine, the croissant was one of those cheap mass produced tasting ones like it was straight out of a single wrapper and the fruit was ok, but nothing special.

We decided to hang around after breakfast chatting and had a nice spot in the library area where we ended up ordering more food. This was nice and served pretty quickly and at reasonable prices, so that was a nice end. We also told the reception manager about the fall in the spa and she completed an incident form. All in all, it was a pleasant experience but wasn't as special as I hoped and not sure it was...

Came here as part of a Groupon voucher with my partner, which included dinner and breakfast plus access to the gym/swimming pool area. Parking was ample and no problem. Check in friendly and fast. Room was spacious, clean and nicely decorated. The ensuit walk in shower was really nice. We didn’t use the gym but spent all afternoon by the pool, thoroughly enjoyed swimming, the jacuzzi, steam and sauna rooms, and laying and relaxing on the wooden loungers. Place was not overly busy but a group of 6 did turn up, with a Bluetooth speaker which they played quite loudly at first but fortunately settled in the corner by the changing rooms and the music seemed to quieten down after a bit. A staff member did come in and out to check the jacuzzi and didn’t say anything to them so assume this must be allowed contrary to the posters they have displayed. Later on, we went for dinner and the seating arrangements were nice, was a little noisy due to the table of 6 but not overly so that it was disturbing (there was only us and 2 other couples so rather quiet aside from the group). After ordering food and an alcoholic drink each, I asked the waitress for some tap water for the table, and (I felt) was quite abruptly told that they do not serve free tap water in the restaurant, apparently the manager has specifically forbidden it and if I wanted water I would have to pay for it! I did feel quite taken aback by both this statement and the manner in which it was said (very sternly) so did not argue and just agreed to have a bottled water (they then went on to serve it to one of the other couples who I assume thought it was complimentary when they accepted it - as I had to ask again when the water would be coming and then the waitress realised there had been a mix up and went over to the other people to inform them - I don’t know if they expected them to pay for it or not!) The food itself was actually really delicious, we both had the steak, as there was no set menu for the Groupon voucher, just a set spend of £32 per person, so we didn’t actually use all this money up, just ordering the steak and no starter/dessert. We had a few drinks in the bar afterwards, good choice of drinks on offer including Beavertown Neck Oil. The nights sleep was peaceful and no disturbances. The breakfast the following morning was a buffet style help yourself, all food on offer was delicious. Overall it was a brilliant stay, I would like to go again at some point, was originally interested in having spa treatments but after seeing the price list decided against it (not sure if these prices are standard everywhere but they seemed a bit high to me, though I haven’t been to a spa in years so maybe that’s the new norm, I don’t know). Only thing lacking the 5 star for me personally is the strange situation about tap water, which I did google afterwards and have discovered there is actually a law that states if restaurants serve alcohol and you are a paying customer then they must offer free tap water - so by refusing to do so they are actually breaking the law. It’s not something I could be bothered to argue with them about so I didn’t bring it up. But I am rather annoyed about being made to pay for the bottled water when I...

My wife and I stayed for night, this was a wedding gift for the overnight spa experience and breakfast in the morning. ||I’ll take you through each step of our experience- ||Arrival: plenty of spaces to park at the back of the building, looks quite pleasant from the front outside of the building. When entered reception and stood In a small Que to check in, the one receptionist seemed lovely was helpful to the couple that checked in infront of us, we was then called over by the other receptionist she asked for surname and gave room key and no more information. I therefore asked where to locate the room, what the spa details and location was, breakfast times, she seemed quite offended that I asked which I found strange. ||Hotel: As we walked to find the room we noted the awful sewage smell throughout the building and damp, lots of people were talking about in passing as it was very over powering. ||Room: We eventually found our room - the room was described as a “superior room” this was NOT a superior room and if it was god only knows what the basic is one is like. The room stunk to high heavens of a gutter, the nets up the windows were short of crawling off by themselves, floor is stained all over. Felt really unclean being in there, the smell was just really over bearing, called reception off my mobile to discuss this as there is no phone in the rooom but they kept picking up the phone and putting it back down again. ||Spa: By this point we thought let’s just go to the spa as it is only open for a few hours so tried to lift the mood, the “spa” was worse than your average council leisure centre, the jacuzzi was taken up by 6 women who sat there for a good hour not having n a care at all about anyone wishing to use it, the steam room and sauna was ok holds two people at a time but they dont get that hot, pool was overcrowded and ice cold, there are 6 deck chairs at the side of pool no one sat on them just people using them as storage for their flip flops from home and towels, really gives a Blackpool vibe - the hotel is outdated and dingy and smelly. You need to take your own robe and slippers and extra towels. Didn’t book treatments due to the vibe throughout we worried it would be a waste of money. ||Bar: The bar man was lovely he was attentive and made us feel welcome. We had one drink but wanted to come out of the hotel to go and eat to avoid being there really. We went to eat an Italian place 4.8 miles away in the local town centre which was nice. ||Restaurant: Didn’t book a table in the restaurant because we wasn’t even told by reception about it another guest advised us we would have to call to book a table. ||Summary: overall felt unwelcome, uncomfortable, disgusted by the smell, felt like reception looked down at us when we arrived so it really felt horrible. I have not exaggerated this review one bit, you will see for yourself if you attempt a visit here. ||Raging - 1 out of 10 due to bar man being pleasant, would not...