Pennyhill Park Hotel and Spa

To the Hotel Manager I recently stayed at the Penny Hill Park Hotel, upon arrival there were no directions to the reception, no Doorman, and no help with the luggage. Upon check-in, the receptionist asked to have the Credit card and she input the card manually, she didn't ask for any chip and pin pre-auth, is this right? After check-in, she informed us about our room number and told us where to go, no rooming, and no showing at the Hotel, so we had to ask housekeeping to have the directions to the room. When entered the room, the radio on the bedside table was on and loud, anyway, we left the luggage and went to the Restaurant to have a bite for lunch. For 2 burgers and 2 drinks, we wait 40 min and when I was asked where was the food, the waiter was pissed off and not happy at all. After an hour and a half, we went back to the room to get a chance to go to the spa, and on arrival, we found a little treat regarding our anniversary celebration. THANK YOU On arrival at the spa, we met Michelle, the SPA Manager, I have to say that she is the most wonderful member I have met during this stay, she was nice to us and showed us the spa and directed us to the pool and confirmed the treatment for the next day. However, If you expect to have a service in the spa or a waiter passing by to take the order, forget. There is no service in the pool, all tables outside and inside were dirty and not patrolled, there is a little Bar where a cocktail costs 6 pounds, where you have to go to order and wait there to pick it up. Anyway, the day in the pool was nice, and the pools outside were nice too, it was relaxing but the problem is that the Service doesn't exist. The restaurant is nice and the food was very good, I have to say that for 310 pounds of dinner with that service is very expensive, portions very little, and no service at all, and again when we sat down, we ordered the water and never arrived, only when the waiter came to take the full order ( after 15 min). After dinner we went to the terrace, all the tables were dirty and full of glasses, and plates and we decided to sit down in front of the fireplace with all the dirty plates from the previous guests and the bad smell. In the morning we missed the breakfast, as the breakfast was only 2 hours, the receptionist informed us that the breakfast started at 7:30 and finished at 9:30, that's very odd. Anyway, we went to the spa to have the treatment, as the treatment was at 11 am, we asked to have a late check-out at 1 pm. The reply was simply NO. Because there was another arrival, the receptionist didn't even try to find a solution, nothing, no care at all. Anyway, we went to the spa to have a treatment, and thank God we met again Michelle, the only person who cared, she explained the treatment and was with us all the time. After treatment, we went to the room and the keys were not working, so I headed to reception to have the new key, however didn't work and luckily a receptionist was coming

Mouldy pillows, hot tubs and other spa facilities out of service or not working, average food at best, crazy prices for bottled drinks. Massively let down. Used to love this place to come for our anniversary but not anymore. Stayed in better 3* hotels for a quarter of the price. Been waiting for over a month for the so called chemical specialist to do a test on the pillows and get back to us, management made us feel like it was something we had done, we had no spa treatments, no skin products used, I have no hair so no products on the pillow, I flipped it over in the morning and found it covered in what can only be described as mould spores. Still awaiting the outcome over 4 weeks later. I guess it's has happened before and they are hoping we will forget about it. I mean what 5* establishment leaves it 4 weeks to find out if they have a mould problem in bed linen department., unless they know they do and don't want to admit it...

So let's start with the amazing. The Spa is pretty incredible. The different thermals, outdoor, are roasty / toasty hot and the Spa rooms are wonderful. Lots of space and an excellent experience. The showers in the changing area are amazing with side showers and rain shower. Also the lockers are great with a place to put valuables (not sure how secure they are) and a decent hanger for your shirts / blazers. A couple of small gripes are that the lockers were a bit fiddly to use, somebody had to help me get mine open again which involved getting a bit physical with it. Also the swimming pool has lounges around it which ALL have towels on them and appear to be taken despite only 1/3 to a 1/2 actually being occupied. I saw one lounger had a book, glasses and towel on it for an hour without anybody going anywhere near it and nobody in the pool. I think they need a policy if you don't use your lounger in half an hour they take the towels off for somebody else to use. Small gripes for an overall awesome experience. The hotel on the other hand was good but service was definitely sub standard. I started with the afternoon high tea which was fair. Decent selection of teas and cakes however the two younger people they had working didn't seem to be particularly well trained. Asked if we could change a couple of the sandwiches (trout) and were told that they were all pre-made already and it can take up to half an hour (to make a ham sandwich) and they had to go and ask the chef ! We were told that we could have as much tea as we liked but service was so slow, and the waiters not around, that we spent long periods of time with empty tea pots. It took ages for the scones to come out, should be after the sandiwches, but we'd eaten all the sandwiches & the cakes before they finally arrived. It was OK but just a little lack lustre. We then came for dinner that evening and the person who welcomed us was great and full of enthusiasm. Once seated I don't know why our waiter took a dislike to us but just seemed to go out of his way to ignore us. He forgot my wife's diet coke, we had to ask a couple of times. He lavished attention on the table behind us. He leant right over our table, towering over us, so he could take a good picture of them behind us. We barely saw him and had to ask somebody else for sweet menus, to order sweets and for finally the bill. I watched him as he seemed to move with his back to the area he was servicing quite often. The bill was quite large for an OK, but not outstanding meal, and we were given a £30 service charge which seemed crazy given I was doing the waiter's job for him quite often. The next morning we had breakfast. Again the waitress forgot our tea and we had to ask a second time. The breakfast seemed good but if you don't like eggs then you are going to be limited in choice. Overall it's a nice place, the room was OK, the spa is magnificent but the the parts around it are not quite there. If you are charging £1500 a night fo

Excellent, amazing and wonderful. I cannot fault our stay at Pennyhill. The staff were lovely and friendly. The hotel was clean with exceptional amenities in our room. The food was exquisite. The spa was amazing with so much choice, it was clean and hygienic. Neither of us wanted to come home!!

Enjoyed a fantastic afternoon tea where some tricky dietary requirements were catered for without fuss. Excellent service, lovely spacious lounge for private conversations over afternoon tea. Everything was delicious and the cakes especially well made with some different treats to usual. As ever with afternoon teas, a take home bag needed as so much to enjoy!

Amazing experience from start to finish. The hotel is everything you expect from a 5 star hotel, service is amazing everywhere you go, everything you want is there and nothing is too much trouble. Both restaurants are fantastic, Latymer is a very special experience! The rooms and beds are luxury, the spa and treatments first class. Can't say enough about how special Pennyhill is. Ellie made our stay even better, thank you again for making our weekend so special!