Ardencote Spa — Local services in Stratford-on-Avon

I came away with mixed feelings about this place. It appeared to be great value for money on paper but please be warned, you get what you pay for with the spa!

HOTEL ROOM We paid extra for a refurbished room, so had high expectations. We were both disappointed though, it looked old fashioned. The TV was Biut 20 years old and we had these chintzy curtains with no blackout blind so was really bright at 6am (see images). Furniture & carpet looked new, that's about it. Room was very spacious but our beds were odd. We had a twin room & the single mattress was bigger than the base so we felt like we could topple out if we slept on the edge (which I do). Unusual to provide no biscuits in the room, but there was plenty of coffee sachets!

THE SPA We booked a Spa package which seemed great value, until we had the treatments and realised how substandard they were. Worse yet, was the disgracedul after care from the Spa Manager, Holly. Worst customer experience I think I can remember having anywhere. Back massage - disappointing, like a gentle stroke I had to keep asking her to apply pressure. Facial - now this was lovely and relaxing but there was no description of what she was putting on so we had no clue. It was just a wipe on wipe off for 25 minutes. Pedicure - both myself & my Mum opted for the full pedicure & polish. Mine was alright,had much better but my Mum's was terrible. There were large gaps between the cuticle & polish, her previous colour polish was still visible. It had smudged before she had even left and by the end of the day (after allowing to dry for 90 minutes and then wearing flip flops) it all chipped. We sent images to the spa to highlight how bad it was and they just blamed my Mum and said she should have waited until the polish had dried. 90 minutes sat bare foot in a cafe and 8 hours in flip flops should have been enough drying time, so this had nothing to do with it! No apology, I was disgusted. We spent in excess of £500 in less than 2 days & she couldn't even muster an apology or partial refund. We just had patronising emails accepting no responsibility whatsoever. She couldn't even be bothered to respond to my last correspondance.

The pool was small & pretty cold but because there were quite a lot of people in it, it was difficult to swim which was a shame as was hoping to do quite a bit of swimming. It's only about 8 meters long. The jacuzzi, steam room & sauna were good. We headed to the Destination Spa in the afternoon which was nice but a lot of the same thing with just different names. The outdoor hot tub was huge & so warm but had no jets in it so a giant bath basically - relaxing but was expecting more. The outdoor pool was shut, disappointing as that looked a good size & it was a nice day so would have loved a swim.

RESTAURANT What would have brought me back to Ardencote if the Spa Manager wasnt so poor, would have been the food - wow, it was sublime! Lunch was very light but you don't want much is you're having treatments really. Evening meal was just delicious, they even had a very good vegan menu with lots of choice. I had vegan pea risotto to start followed by blade of beef & the cheeseboard - cannot fault it. The buffet breakfast was brilliant too, proper big tasty sausages. Produce felt fresh and high quality. They did great cocktails and nice wines too. The bar needs comfy sofas and chairs, as felt more like a daytime cafe, not a go to place on the evening so we headed back k to our room.

Probably great for a golf break or just to relax and use the facilities. I certainly wouldn't recommend the spa after our experience (see images of the...

I believe when booking a spa the service should start from the very beginning. You want to have the feeling of zen and peace from the start and this was far from what I experienced. It began when I first made contact with spa reservations on 1 May, I was put through to a rather rude and unhelpful lady. I wanted to make a booking for 6 guests with an upgrade package. She said I could find everything online and that’s where I needed to book my spa package from. I again said that I prefer doing it over the phone she told me abruptly, it was check-in time and they were busy and I can do this online on the website. I then asked about the light lunch menu that comes as part of the package, as we all had halal dietary requirements we wanted to know what our choices would be. Again, with rudeness she told me the menu is never the same and changes she didn’t seem to care to ask if the restaurant could cater for our dietary requirements. However, when doing my own research I found a sample menu on the website which was exactly the same to what we were given at the restaurant. It seems like there isn’t a in menu change everyday.

I went on to emailing the reservations teams as online booking was not working in my favour. I was given a call back by a pleasant, helpful staff who helped me make my reservation. I asked her again for the menu but never received an email back from her and also asked if they could do anything special for the 3 out of six guests whose birthday we had come to celebrate and again, no response.

Spa day check-in. We arrived for our spa day on 11 May. We were met with the reception staff. At all the spa’s I have been to, we are given a tour of the facilities. We were told the itinerary of the package and that was it and then told where the changing rooms were. However, during our stay I noticed two other group of guests being given a tour.

Restaurant- the staff again lacked hospitality service. Unapproachable, and rude it felt like they were forced to work there for a weekend job

Massage- we all upgraded from the 25 minute to the 50 minute pro-sleep massage. I entered to the treatment room and the therapist told me the massage includes a brush stroking your nerves with oil then soft hand movements around the body. I asked can you not add pressure she said this is not that type of massage. However, as mentioned there were 6 of us. We all experience a complete difference version of this pro-sleep massage. One of us didn’t even have a brush touch us , another didn’t even have her whole back touched another had a pressure massage of just her arms and legs. For 50 minutes, at a £45 upgrade- ridiculous. I think the therapists need better training and people skills.

Changing rooms- well, let’s just say that your local leisure centre has better and cleaner facilities. For a ‘4*’ spa this was below standards. Wet, hair everywhere, dirty. When showering after the spa all the shampoo/body wash and conditioner dispensers were empty not in just one shower cubical but ALL!

Overall, this was a mediocre spa, how they’ve received 4* is something I’m still trying to wrap my head around. I fully think if the service was better we would have appreciated our day better even with the issues at hand. A spa is meant to make you feel welcomed and you would leave feeling relaxed and light, however, we felt like we checked in to a Premier Inn and left flustered and dirty after our experience of those awful changing rooms.

I wouldn’t...

Very disappointing experience here on a Spa evening (I think it's a twilight package we purchased which starts 4pm - 8pm) The changing rooms smelt horrendous and during our entire time there, not a member of staff or cleaner to be seen so there were towels and slippers all over the floor and piled sky high in the basket. There was thick black mould in the showers & inside the soap dispensers. There was something that resembled goldfish pooh on the floors in the shower cubicals which made me gag. I didn't want to touch anything. Thankfully it was a hot day so we could use the outdoor pool. The indoor pool was incredibly hot, I was 6 months pregnant and had the choice of boiling to death in the indoor facility or to sit outside in the sun. However, if u want a spa pool you have to go indoors so we had no choice. There isn't anywhere to sit at the indoor pool so had it been bad weather, you would be really stuck for what to do with yourself. There was also mould all around walls/tiles. The relaxation room is not your traditional relaxation room it's just a hotel lounge with sofas & chairs so it's not ideal if your in a towel, a robe or you have a wet costume. You can't put your feet up, there is no music & the curtains are back looking out on the pool so it's really bright. We were told we have unlimited drinks in the relaxation room. We went to get tea & coffee at around 16:30 & once we had made up the teas and coffees from the flasks we discovered they were cold. So I had to go on a long waddle to find someone who would replenish for us. We had our treatments at 17:00. The treatment area again was stifling hot, there is no air con. My friend and I had back massages which were nice. My mom had opted for a mini pedicure because of the heat which turned out to be a removal of polish from her toes and then repainting. That was it. When we returned to the relaxation room at 17:30 all the drinks had been taken away and we were told that drinks service was over & if we wanted drinks to use the bar (and pay) - despite the twilight spa package running until 8pm the spa staff had gone so we had to search for the manager of the hotel, in our towels. He had nothing to say regarding the spa as he apparently wasn't in charge of it so he couldn't really help us, other than to get us a drink, which he did, but there were no apologies. We entered the restaurant at 19:30 for our booking and there were no restaurant staff to seat us we had to fetch the bar man to sit us down and get us menu's etc. The two stars is for the food. It was absolutely beautiful food and you couldn't fault it. The service, once we had ordered drinks was also much better. I would recommend the restaurant. The Spa however, don't waste your time or your money. You will just leave angry which is the opposite of what...