Bovey Castle

Beautiful well manicured setting. Warm and welcoming atmosphere with staff that seem relaxed and cheerful which make the experience enjoyable for guests. Cider and gin making/tasting experience is good fun for groups. Lots of spaces in the hotel for guests to relax and unwind. Not all spaces welcome dogs but this hotel is very dog positive and popular with pet owners. Spa allows family swim 9am-5pm so I wouldn’t reccomend for a spa day, unless you like being splashed or having a wet tennis ball thrown at you, however for a morning swim or an evening chill the sauna and steam room are welcoming. Focus on the outdoor activities for the gym is an afterthought.

Daisy the spa therapist did not do a good job for my massage they were late starting and also finished early and I did not feel satisfied with the pressure as it was not hard enough for me overall 1/5 star massage would not go back in a rush and would want a different masseuse.

Excellent stay at Bovey Castle, fantastic roast dinner and beautiful hotel. Special mention to Izaak who was our instructor for clay pigeon shooting, very knowledgeable, friendly and we had great fun doing the shooting with him. Would highly recommend doing the clay pigeon shooting and booking a stay at Bovey castle.

My partner organised the Clay Pidgeon Shooting for my birthday - it was FANTASTIC! Cannot complement Issac enough - he was absolutely superb from start to finish, we felt instantly at ease; he was such a lovely, friendly guy and his instruction was on point. All in all help to delivered a memorable and truly enjoyable experience.

The building is amazing and the setting is magnificent but unfortunately the superlatives end there! We went with friends to celebrate their wedding anniversary and it was substandard from start to finish. Our friends room was not ready on arrival ( although they were 1.5hrs later than expected) and they were not even offered a complimentary drink while they waited. In Smiths Brasserie the leather seats were stained and dirty and the service was very poor. The meal was adequate, but a decent pub would have been better and probably half the price. I have a gluten intolerance and the menu was very limited as to what could be served gluten free. The Great Western restaurant on the Saturday evening saw us taking 3 hours to receive and eat 3 courses! We waited for everything- for the menus, for our order to be taken, for the food to arrive, for the dishes to be cleared etc. The saviour of the meal was a delicious Poire William Soufflé, as the rest of the food was quite mediocre and not very hot. The final straw was after dinner in the Oak Bar. When our order was finally taken for coffee & liqueurs it was obvious that the barman didn’t know what we were asking for, let alone whether they had any in stock, although we chose from their drinks menu. We were so late by this time that my husband decided that he needed to walk the dog who had been locked in the room for almost 4 hours, so he retrieved the dog ,took him for a walk, returned, and the drinks still hadn’t arrived! We also witnessed one couple get up and leave as they had been ignored and another gentleman came to the bar to cancel his order as he was tired of waiting. In short - a large amount of time and money needs to be invested in staff training and refurbishment of the Bistro to bring Bovey Castle up to the 5* standard that it claims to be. At present it certainly doesn’t come anywhere near the class of other 4&5* hotels in the area. Never to return!

My husband was given a gift voucher for the Deer Park Tour for two people for a ‘special’ birthday; I have been unsuccessful in booking this. I have phoned the hotel’s main reception many times; they attempted to put me through to their ‘Activities’ department, but on each occasion, there was no one there to answer the call. Each time reception promised that they would pass the message on and someone would call me. I am still waiting for a call back I have also tried to phone direct and have left messages on their voice mail requesting a call back – again, no call. So, I went onto the hotels website and filled out a ‘contact me’ online form. What a waste of time that was. Still waiting for a reply. What is the point in having an online contact option if no one reads it or responds. I am now considering posting a letter to them in the hope that I will get a response, but very much doubt it. I would have hoped that a hotel of this calibre would be totally ‘on it’ when it came to customer service, however they are not. To say that I am disappointed is an understatement.

This was supposed to be a celebration of my wife and my Ruby (40 years) wedding anniversary, along with our bridesmaid (lifelong friend) and her husband. We booked for the nights of the 27th October and Saturday the 28th October. When I booked I requested flowers on arrival in the room and champagne on the Saturday. I received communication that they expected us at 1400 hrs. We arrived at 15.30hrs but the room wasn’t ready until after 16.30 hrs and there were no flowers in the room. Going to reception they apologized and said they would send them up. They arrived with the champagne which totally spoilt the surprise for the Saturday evening. We booked the Brasserie for the Friday evening and I can only say the menu was restricted and looked like ‘pub grub’ at overly inflated prices. The service was extremely slow and we had to ask twice for the wine we ordered. Afterwards we had coffee in the lounge and once again the service was extremely slow. Saturday night we had dinner in the ‘award winning’ Western Grill. After ordering the wine the waiter took our meal orders, four lobsters. He came back to say there were only two lobsters left and there was no chateaubriand. Fortunately, our friends changed their order to steaks. Once again we asked for the wine three times before it arrived. The food arrived only warm and the thermidor sauce was conspicuous by its absence. Our friends steak was supposed to be medium rare but came more medium to well done but we were fed up of waiting and we didn’t want to make a fuss in front of the other diners so we accepted it. All in all the food was of very poor standard, very limited on choice, and extremely expensive for what it was. Having coffee and digestives in the bar was an experience. I chose Calvados from the menu and the waiter didn’t know what it was. He went away, brought the coffees and went to look for the calvados. After about 10 minutes he came back and said he couldn’t find it so I asked for an Armagnac (there were several on the menu), he didn’t know what an Armagnac was. The coffee was going cold by this time and the digestives didn’t arrive for another twenty minutes, my brandy arriving in a tumbler not a bubble! When we came to settle the bill a credit of £130 (an allowance for dinner) was omitted. Although the Hotel is in a beautiful setting the service and standards of food etc. we’re appalling. I wouldn’t give the Hotel more than two stars and that’s being generous. We will definitely not be recommending it to friends and colleagues nor will we be returning.

The hotel needs to wake up and not rely on past glories of Peter de Savary. The staff are surly when you arrive and are just not helpful. We arrived to have lunch and play golf. Obviously a second rate guest and we’re told to park in the mud in the woods. Lunch was poor. The bistro is crying out for a refurb the chair were just dirty! I had fish and chips which was not a good choice the fish was definitely not fresh and neither was they oil that the dish was cooked in. Having played golf - told to get our buggy from the woods by the way! We went in for a drink and it literally took us 15 minutes to get four drinks and there were only 10 other guests. They don’t deserve the accolades they are getting. Wake up!!