Champneys Forest Mere

The room was such a disappointment, I dread to think what a standard room must be like! The room is in need of some serious updating! Toilet made horrendous noise, complained but nothing was done about it so we had two nights of it. Coffee machine had parts missing. The bathroom was awful, rusty taps and stains everywhere. I wouldn’t mind if I was staying in a cheap place and Champneys promotes luxury, Such a shame as the grounds are nice and couldn’t fault the food, although we did pay extra for some of our meals but worth it as the quality was excellent (especially the fillet steak). Spa facilities are good but Need cleaners in spa area more often as the showers were dirty and the changing rooms smelt a little unclean.

Whilst there are many positives about Champneys Forest Mere such as the location and outside areas, but its worth noting that there are a lot of areas around the spa that are particularly tired and unloved. many areas look like they have not been updated for 20years. Much of the furniture is akin to something you would find in an old people's home, in the lounge there are some particularly outdated pieces with splits in the seat and foam showing. Its covered in a fabric that looks more suitable for a bedsit rather than a high end spa. The lighting in the lounge is so dim that you couldnt read in there. The chairs in reception were even grubby. The pools and whirlpools are showing signs of age, with water marks and dirty grouting and in some areas such as the steamroom tiles are missing. In the relaxation room with the waterbeds the ceiling as a number of areas where its either dirty or damaged, could be quickly fixed but its been left and looks like no-one cares. At the time we visited there were no Saunas in operation and the thalassotherapy pool is no longer open which means that for the size of the spa there are really not very many facilities available and those that are, are really very small. The outside pool has no cover over it, so is full of leaves and not cleaned frequently. We used a room for rasul treatments which was really not clean with a shower cubicle with a door that stuck so you couldnt access it easily. The Rasul treatment was over double the cost of another spa that I visit regularly and not as good. at £50 per person this was very expensive. I had one treatement "Head in the clouds" ... it wasnt great! The restaurant was badly organised, dinner was OK, although items were not available but service was slow. Breakfast was OK but the dining room isnt big enough so you have to put up with people queuing right next to you which isnt nice, then you have trouble returning to your table because you can't get through the queue. You have to get tea and coffee from a hot water dispenser, would it be too much trouble to have an individual pot on the table? Lunch was an absolute joke, the buffet wasnt replenished so when you went up for your meal you found empty dishes, no soup, no bread, no desserts, no plates, no bowls, no spoons... the list goes on. Just really poor. There were plenty of staff who seemed to lack direction so noone was really doing anything. We had pasta with tomato sauce, the sauce had clealy been burnt as there were flecks of burnt sauce and it tasted burnt but when we raised this as an issue we were told it was lots of herbs (lots of herbs added to disguise the fact it had been burnt maybe??) Due to the lack of other items on the buffet this meant that one of us just had bread and salad for lunch as the pasta sauce was inedible. All classes cost extra, with the exception of Aqua Fit and there really isnt anything to do after your evening meal except travel back to the seventies and sit in the lounge..

First and last visit post pandemic and oh how this has fallen! It's not clean, broken loo seats and hand dryers. Limescale and cobwebs. Excrement on Sun loungers outside and pool was dirty. Seating inside and out needs deep clean. Our double room was a twin. They ran out of shower gel! The room was noisy and trolleys were run outside the window before 7am. This was after a fire alarm twice in the night so very little sleep. Front desk girl had no eye contact and an attitude. Operations manager smelled of smoke and didn't give a toss. He literally ignored every point raised. The food is now low quality ingredients and very little choice. They ran out of puddings so it was 'fresh fruit' which was melon or melon.... our lunch was a tiny chicken leg with vegetable broth and pearl barley which was very unpleasant. The table next to us ordered beetroot starter and another lady ordered beetroot salad for main course and they were exactly the same. Dinner was OK because we paid more for steak but the 3 potato wedges with it were black n burnt. Breakfast was shocking! Only cold options unless you pay more. Tinned fruits only apart from banana pieces. No hot option. Cold boiled eggs. Cheap cereal and a mountain of bread. Self serve coffee. Totally different from the lovely buffet breakfast before with egg station and smoked salmon. Now it's low grade ingredients all the way unless you pay more each time. Classes are all paid apart from the odd one or two. Bathrobes are 40 deposit plus you have a paper stamped in and out which they insist you keep safe at all times or they will charge. Then retain this docket so you have no proof and are made to feel like a theif at every discussion about the low quality robe! It wasn't relaxing it was incredible stressful due to the filth and lack of service. Verity the spa manager was the only management who listened and tried to help. We came home early, not relaxed and absolutely shattered through lack of sleep.

Exceptional staff and classes. Treated myself to an eyebrow shape and cannot praise Lesley enough, she took her time, with excellent results. Steve went above and beyond in returning my earpods that I misplaced. Thank you to Jen in the orangery, welcoming and attentive.

The restaurant is disgustingly dirty. The floor hasn’t been swept or cleaned in months by the look of it and mouse traps under the chairs! I spoke to the restaurant manager and said that it was filthy and his response was sorry about that and walked off. Did not care one bit. If the public restaurant is this dirty I hate to think what the kitchen is like.

We went for a so day with two friends. Spa was ok (not worth the £200 plus price tag) however customer service was not good at all. One of my friends booked separately but she made an honest mistake booking the Saturday instead of Sunday. She tried to contact the hotel to switch days, she called 8 times with no answer. Not knowing what to do and seeing that there was space for the Sunday online we decided to go on the Sunday and see if she would be allowed in. Or worst case she would have to pay again, On arrival we were told my friend was not allowed in. The reason that was given was because the IT system was down. I sort of understand this but I think if we would have come on another weekend we would have been treated differently and both the IT issues and the busy phone lines were not my friend’s fault. I think at the very least she should have received some sort of compensation for this experience. But nothing was given. As we shared a car, I then had to travel a further 2 hours to get my car and come back. Missing breakfast, I asked if me and my friend could have the breakfast and then leave this was a no also. Feels the least they could do would be to give her a croissant! Lastly I spoke to another visitor who was in the spa and she said she got let in without a booking. It was a later entrance time but clearly they can do this so feels like they could have and should have done more for my friend. Very disappointed.