Stanley House Hotel & Spa

Beautiful hotel, set in stunning grounds. The spa facilities are fabulous and the atmosphere is very relaxing. We enjoyed the warm pool, sauna, steam room and the facial with a wonderful beautician. We ate in the restaurant which was first class and the staff were very helpful with my diary needs. We found all the staff friendly, helpful and professional. All areas of the hotel were immaculately clean. Would definitely come here again.

Staff were awful. So many errors from the moment we arrived. We checked into our room (for our wedding - we had the bridal suite) to find somebody else on the bed who then had to move all their stuff out. We got told they had no poached eggs but they had scrambled for breakfast, then somebody on the table next to us who arrived later order poached eggs. We waited 25 mins for someone to bring us milk for tea. The radiator wouldn't turn off in the bathroom so the temperature was ridiculous in there (22 degrees outside) We asked somebody to make the sofa bed up for us, 5 ours later it still wasn't done. We got back around 1230am and couldn't get in because there was nobody there to let us in. When someone finally appeared she openly told us she had 'been asleep' and to complain via email. I complained via email and have yet to receive a response 5 days later.

We had a lovely stay at Stanley House. From booking, where the Reception staff were friendly, helpful and efficient to check in, where we were met with a warm welcome. Our room was clean, well presented, modern and had all the amenities we needed. We had beautiful views of the fields behind and loved spotting the rabbits early in the morning. At night the hotel was peaceful and we had the best night's sleep. The beds were extremely comfortable. We had our evening meal in the restaurant where we were served promptly. Staff were attentive but not intrusive and we liked that they gave us space and time to eat and enjoy our meal. The food was presented well and we particularly enjoyed the starters. At breakfast, we were once again seated quickly and efficiently after the breakfast bars and set up were explained to us. There was a good number of options available and we also ordered the cooked breakfast with eggs just as we asked for them. The setting is beautiful and the view onto the gardens whilst eating was a great start to our day. I would definitely recommend this hotel and we are looking forward to returning soon to try the spa.

Having been a number of times before we were looking forward to treating ourselves to an afternoon tea with some vouchers we had gifted to us, but we were really disappointed.we arrived on time and we’re seated in the restaurant which was extremely quiet ( one couple who were almost finished) Myself and my daughter have coeliacs disease so made sure that they had the correct order which I placed when I booked the previous week . We were seated and told we are only allowed one drink ( which we had already been told 5 mins before as we arrived) it then took a good twenty minutes before our food arrived. It was a very sp**** selection , much less than we had had on previous visits. Very disappointing especially for the price. Just as we started the waitress came back and said the chef had mixed up the scones and we didn’t have gluten free ones . She took them away and took another ten minutes to bring the gluten free ones. We had marmalade with the scones instead of jam and when I asked to change it the young waitress didn’t even know the difference between jam and marmalade. The selection we had tasted nice but not amazing . The tea arrived after we’d eaten half of the food and was one teapot for three which gave us a one and a bit small teacups of tea each Later on in the evening and night (and sadly will carry on for a few days)myself and daughter both suffered with symptoms of having eaten gluten unfortunately realising that with the mix up with the gluten free scones there must not be much care taken for cross contamination etc Which is not expected in a good quality restaurant. It’s very disappointing as we have been coming to Stanley house for a number of years and really enjoyed it . The last visit last year was not as good as previous visits with young inexperienced and long waits for food etc but was hoping that was a one off but unfortunately seems it has gone down even more

I did make the staff member on reception aware when we left today that I would be sending this email as we were extremely disappointed with our experience at Stanley House this weekend. Had there been one thing that we weren’t satisfied with I probably wouldn’t have contacted you in this way. However, I feel that given the total cost of our stay and the number of issues, you need to know so that these can be resolved. We found Stanley House via the Spa Seekers website, after booking through the website the email confirmation I received stated that it was my responsibility to contact the venue with regards to timings. I sent an email on 30/04/24 stating that I was contacting Stanley House regarding timings and that we would likely arrive between 1-2 pm. I allowed a few days but I did not receive a reply to my email and therefore phoned up. I spoke to a lady in the spa reception and explained that I had emailed the info@ email address (that I had got from the footer of your own website), to be told “Well, that’s the wrong email address, I’ve never heard of that email address”, That isn’t actually of my concern, that is something which should be taken up in-house, however, she did seem to be able to read my email back to me from what she could see on her screen. Anyway, I explained what my email was regarding and was told that she would speak to the hotel team and call me back - I asked that if I didn’t answer the phone she could email me the information instead as I may be seeing to my baby. I didn’t receive a call, missed call or email following this. A few days later my husband made a phone call and was given the following details: Arrive for 13:00-14:00. Thermal at 14:00 Massage at 16:00 Dinner at 19:00 Breakfast next day Afternoon tea at 12:30 On arrival at the hotel, we went to reception hoping to check in, as I had emailed and my husband had called and confirmed that we were hoping to arrive between 1-2 pm. We were told by the receptionist “You’re early, check-in isn’t until 3 pm”, which is fine but had someone confirmed this, we probably wouldn’t have rushed to get to get there from the other side of the country. We were told that we could go and get a drink and that she would come and find us ‘if’ the room was ready early, we didn’t have high hopes for this and alas, she didn’t come to find us. We made our way to the spa just before 2 pm and were taken through to the guest lounge where we were asked to fill in forms and wait for someone to show us the facilities. As part of the booking, my husband was told that the use of the thermal spa was from 2 until 4 pm, however filling in forms, changing etc all ate into this time. We felt that maybe we should have been told to arrive 15-20 mins earlier than our booked time, plus had we had access to our hotel room, we could have changed into our swimwear and put a suitable covering over before arriving at the spa. We also obviously needed our luggage with us as it contained our swimwear, theref

Today I attend Stanley House with my family for afternoon tea. We arrived and waited about 15 minutes for drinks and then following the drinks about 20 minutes later came the afternoon tea which I can all best explain as an absolutely poor selection of sandwiches that were both stale along with desserts and puddings that look like they come off the shelf at Costco. This was a terrible experience after the tea was delivered to the table. We had to wait literally 12 minutes before we got plates brought this to the attention of the manager who didn’t seem that bothered at the time and she simply walked away with a disconcerning grin. Most definitely will never be back to this place and such an awful shame has came several years ago and it was outstanding. If I could give this zero stars and I probably would as there was no attempt to rectify such a shambles of an afternoon tea. I simply would not recommend it! avoid……. To prevent disappointment

Had afternoon tea today, what a total disappointment! Took over 15 minutes to receive our 1st drinks order of 2 cokes and 1 water. Food order taken, again took 15 minutes. This was pre-ordered! Consisted of 4 finger sandwiches each: Smoked salmon on white sliced bread Egg mayo on brown sliced Chicken with according to the waitress, "some sort of pesto" Grated cheese with chutney. Not inventive at all! Bread dry on surface, no real flavours in the sandwiches. Then to the "scones"! Solid is the best way to describe them, uncooked dough inside. Sent back. 20 minutes later, new scones appeared, better but plain not fruit so boring and uninteresting. Raspberry jam, not strawberry, clotted cream not as expected. Waited a further 25 minutes to be served 1/2 glass of prosecco. 2nd round of drinks deducted from bill as gesture. It was obvious that the 2 weddings were taking precedence and the staffing levels were totally inadequate for the other guests. All waiting staff were young teenagers with no apparent supervision or understanding of customer service or needs. Thus venue has closed before and will again. I'll not be going back and I suggest others contemplating whether to visit, just save your money.

We had an afternoon tea bought as a present for my 70th birthday so was so looking forward to this special treat at what should have been a prestigious hotel. Unfortunately it was more like afternoon tea at fawlty towers. Staff very young & inexperienced, (had to ask for side plates & water) Coffee Luke warm, minute portions, with rock hard scones. I am not an aficionado on afternoon teas but of the half dozen or so I have had over the years, this was definitely the worst!!

Beautiful setting absolutly ruined by the service and staff.... Breakfast tatally unorganised.. No plates, stained cups, coffee machine out of coffee then out of milk. Young staff no idea how to refill it.. Evening meal overpriced and small portions, bar staff were untrained obviously, low stock of alcohol and took 15 mins to get a drink when we were only guests at the bar. Bar closed 10.30pm without any warning. Housekeeping staff need further training as rooms not as clean as expected, crumbs and paper left on carpet. Shower screen full of streaks and water marks on mirror, not what you expect for star rating of hotel. Will not be visiting again and hope management take note of all the negative comments recently left by other guests and make the MANY changes needed...