Jade

Review of Champneys Health Resorts

It's nice to experience the original champneys but...

It's nice to experience the original champneys but the reason we've given this rating is for a few reasons, which we've listed below. I understand it's a lot of work to maintain such an old building but small things like service could be worked on to make it better.

The building is a little tired around the edges, even though it's in the process of being renovated - there is still a long way to go, including the bedrooms. Our bathroom was mouldy, with panels pealing around the bath and there is no Aircon in the rooms (not a basic room, but not a suite). The coffee machine in the room looks impressive, but just give it a miss as it didn't work and just made a mess. There is also a strange green light in the room we had that you couldn't turn off and not great if you like a pitch black bedroom to sleep in!

The treatments were a little hit and miss, I had an amazing facial with Aylin, my massage was poor and my partner's massage was average. The first treatment room I experienced was lovely, the second and the one my partner had was in definite need of care with the ceiling coming down due to damp in one corner.... Not a nice thing to look at during a treatment.

The class I tried was good, the gym was nice and not too badly equipped and the "spa areas" are nice, if a little small and it gets quite busy with day spa visitors.

Food wise, the service is hit and miss in the restaurant, simple things like coffee at breakfast not arriving without asking a few times or being delivered to another table, having to ask for bowls or plates and wrong desserts arriving in the evening.

The WiFi is terrible with little to no mobile reception which was a bit of a pain, as there is little to do after dinner, unless you like dominos (4 packs in the music room) and basic TV channels.

Some reception staff were lovely and helpful, others such as Rodderick were abrupt and you had to ask several questions to get a useful answer from him and feel he could do with a little customer service training.

Overall, it's not a bad spa, but not as good as some others that we have visited throughout the country. I would say it's a 3* hotel, not a 4*.

We had high hopes, but we will go to other spas next time.