Alexander House Hotel & Utopia Spa

We stayed here for a 40th birthday celebration and sadly discovered this hotel is very much style over substance. It was a hot weekend and the windows in our room would not stay open. After telling reception and being assured it would be fixed we were given a AC machine which did no good and no fixed windows. Leading to an uncomfortable night. After using the spa we were told we could not sit outside in dressing gowns (at a spa hotel!) Then after we changed saw other couples doing exactly that. We waited an hour for lunch and then an hour for breakfast (which was wrong). I emailed the hotel with my issues and no reply for two weeks despite a further email and completing the obligatory survey. Don't stay here if you want good customer service! The hotel otherwise is fine but overpriced for what it is. We will not be going back.

We booked the Alexander House Hotel for a relaxing night away over the weekend with a hint of luxury. That's not what we got. The room we booked was the Deluxe garden suite, which was lovely, and the spa facilities were excellent, but that was where the good things stopped. In the Champagne bar, whether lunchtime or early evening, you had to wait 10-15 minutes to order two Gin and Tonics, then wait a further 30 minutes to actually receive them. I heard one staff member say to another member of staff, "These guests think they are so bloody entitled" After another guest complained to them about the length of time it took to get a drink. I think that when you are paying £700/night to stay there, you should be entitled to good service. However, it gets worse, at breakfast both mornings, the service was again terrible, taking nearly 45 minutes after ordering to receive the boiled eggs we had ordered. We gave up waiting the first morning, with the promise from reception that it would not happen the next morning, but 45 minutes for a boiled egg is ridiculous, and it was at least that wait, if not more, if you wanted to go for the full English. Then we move on to Dinner. The first night the food was acceptable but not outstanding; however, when given the wine list, I had to make five different selections before find a wine they actually had in stock! The second night, they still had issues with their wine stocks, and the food went downhill. My wife and I both had the same starter, Ceviche of sea bream with chilli and orange, what we got was some lumps of fish with two slivers of chilli and a segment of orange in a bit of juice, which was completely tasteless and looked like it had been prepared by a five year old. The main course did not get any better. I had the Catch of the day, which was Octopus served with couscous. The octopus was overcooked, as it was akin to eating a piece of rubber from a tyre, and the couscous was so salty it rendered it unedible. My wife had the chicken breast, we were not sure what they had done to it, but it was more like reformed processed chicken with no flavour, and the tomatoes were supposed to be grilled but were raw, and the potatoes were flavourless like the rest of the dish. Subsequently, we sent our starters and our main courses back, and we left the restaurant. We complained at the reception, as the restaurant staff said "ok, sorry" when we complained. Reception arranged for us to have two ham sandwiches sent to our room; surely the chef could manage that, but no, they had to put mustard in the sandwich, which neither of us asked for, as we are not keen on mustard. At this point, we just gave up trying to eat anything that evening. On check-out, I asked to speak to the general manager, and was told he was busy, to which I then asked the receptionist if that was not the general manager pointing to a suited guy, I was told yes, but he was with someone. At that point, the manager left the people he had been talking to