Rhinefield House Hotel

2 readers found this review helpful

I got married recently at Rhinefield House and wanted somewhere close by where all my bridesmaids and ushers could stay. The pictures on the site look lovely and the people on the phone are very helpful. However on arrival (the day before my wedding) I was horrified at the cottage. It was old, dirty, mouldy and looked like it should be knocked down. One of the bedrooms was the size of a shoe box and had spiders all over it. I was so upset - as were my bridesmaids. They don't supply towels which at the cost of the place i was astonished at. So we had to hire them from the hotel. When the cleaners came on the morning we were leaving they were so rude. Do not stay here. There are plenty of other cottages in the area a million times better

6 readers found this review helpful

Have just spent a week in the Rhinefield cottage with 14 members of my family. The photos on the website dont do the place justice, it looks like nothing has been done on the property since they were taken.
Mouldy, filthy bathrooms, an uncleaned semi functioning kitchen. Carpets or encrusted dirt I couldnt tell the difference. Water seeping through bedroom walls, no heating, the oil fired boiler has been out of action for at least a year (friends stayed last year). Non functioning showers with hot water that lasts 10 minutes, try showering 14 people!
Filthy diswasher, hot water over kitchen sink leaks onto electrics below.
Sorry I could go on and on, but please if you read this review find alternate accomodation or check repairs have been done at this proprty when booking.

1 reader found this review helpful

Arrived on a Friday for a one night stay. Very pleasant Reception, and very impressed with our room - which included a complimentary bottle of pink Champagne and chocolates. Spacious room equipped and furnished to a high standard including king-size bed and plasma TV - however, lacking A/C.
Dinner was to a superb standard, and no complaints with the service. Similarly, Breakfast was plentiful and with a good choice. On check-out we were charged 45p for a Saturday Daily Mail which costs 70p in a Newsagents !!
Look forward to returning to this hotel in the future, and hopefully take some friends.

1 reader found this review helpful

Having booked before we read all the negative reviews we were a bit nervous about what we would find. However we were pleaseantly surprised. We had an exectutive room which was a good size, very comfortable & had a huge double window looking straight into the forest.
We had no problems with the service either at the bar or at dinner, there was no waiting time for breakfast in the mornings either despite there being weddings on. Although the majority of the staff are foreign there English was good, and yes the drinks are pricey but having read the reveiews were were well prepared & I have been charged more for a glass of wine at the local Hilton wich doesn't have the setting that this place does. We would definitely go back again.

3 readers found this review helpful

After reading all of the negative reviews on here i felt as if i should write something. Me and my husband had our wedding there last wknd and i had read some previous reviews which made me quite apprehensive. I needn't have been, it was faultless. We arrived on the friday evening and the girls at check in were brilliant. they showed us to our rooms immediately and offered to help with our bags. The next morning they let us keep our room until the suite was ready for us to move into. The wedding itself was perfect and the setting was beautiful. After the ceremony we had a champagne reception in the beautiful grounds. Included in our package, were two glasses of champagne per person. We had drunk our first glass but when me and my husband returned from having our photos taken, it had all gone!! the staff didnt hesitate in opening another bottle, free of charge!
Moving on to the meal. The staff were brilliant and the food was amazing! so many people commented on the good food and service that they received. One of the waiters also explained to us that they had over ordered on rose champagne so we were able to upgrade to that for our toasts, again free of charge! We couldn't fault anything about the day or the hotel.
The next morning they had breakfast set up for us in the brasserie, which again was lovely. The staff were brilliant and i really believe that if you show good manners and appreciation, they will give good service. Me and my husband have since been overcome with messages from friends and family, all with excellent praise for rhinefield.
I cannot thank rhinefield enough for providing us with the setting and service for our perfect day. We shall without doubt be returning.

My Son was married there last weekend and the wedding was wonderful, we all had a geat day, but that had nothing whatsoever to do with the management and staff, it was only made possible by the lovely location and the people at the wedding. The staff are some of the worse I have ever come across and their entire focus is to fleece the guests out of every penny possible. The early signs were there when, during the planning stage, they charged my Son and his now Wife £20 per head to try out their choice of meal for the reception. Virtually all of the staff are foreign, some with hardly any English at all. The English staff were pompous and uncaring. At the reception the Bride & Groom were whisked away for photographs and missed the reception glass of Pimms, so we were made to buy two for them when they returned. And speaking of Pimms, that is advertised in the bar at £7 per glass, so some of our friends bought some and were charged an extra £1.50 for the lemonade in it. When they complained about the deception a manager intervened and dismissed them out of hand. As I was leaving a Lady was checking out and paid a hefty room bill and was then charged 36p for a phone call. The prices at Rhinefield are ridiculously high, perhaps they could be justified if the service and food were value for money, but they are not. I have already eluded to the service, and the food is distinctly average and the portions very small.
WE HAD A GREAT WEDDING, BUT I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND IT TO ANYBODY ELSE.

Having read some of these reviews after booking a long weekend at this hotel I was dreading the worst, having said that I was more than pleasantly surprised at the excellent service we received. Yes they employ a lot of staff who don't have English as their first language, but there were plenty of supervisors/managers on hand to make sure things ran smoothly. The hotel itself was excellent, very quiet and relaxed which made for a very restful weekend. Two weddings were taking place while we were there, and apart from seeing people walking around we didn't know they were there - certainly no noise from their music. The resturant was excellent, and the service was very unobtrusive. Food first class. Overall a very good weekend and money well spent.

1 reader found this review helpful

This hotel has a very wide range of reviews and I can understand why. The hotel service/facilities are inconsistent. We had one night's dinner which was excellent - lovely food, beautifully presented and good service - not brilliant but no complaints. We had two breakfasts - each time it was impossible to know where to sit and who's taking your order - some offhand French staff in particular were annoying and made us feel like we were causing a nuisance - we're just hungry and want our breakfast! Breakfast itself is of a good quality - lovely bacon, good produce but here's the inconsistency - they use the cheapest white bread possible for toast - it should be homemade or at the very least the best supermarket quality. We were expecting a luxury experience from the website photos - it isn't one. But on the other hand it is fairly relaxed and you don't feel you have to really dress up for dinner etc which is great when you want a chilled out weekend. I had two main issues that could easily be resolved - there was no sign, ever, of any management being present. This means that you are reliant on a mix of staff from all over the world, who don't always understand English. They are young and not professionally trained so they don't know how to meet high expectations. Most of them are very pleasant but as I said, absence of management presence was a bit disconcerting. The second issue is to do with the price of drinks in the bar - the prices are appalling.... get real Rhinefield. We would happily have spent an evening in the bar drinking for several hours - as it was we had a glass of wine each and left early simply feeling ripped off..... that in itself put a dampner on our entire weekend.
In general the hotel is a bit grubby and could do with new furnishings, walls being painted etc. The floor in the dining/breakfast area is absolutely filthy - there is a big difference between character wooden floors and dirty wooden floors... I won't' be back.

Went for dinner - fantastic location, good front of house/reception, really very good food indeed, completely and utterly let down by weak service. We were the lucky ones at least the service was adequate just unfriendly - but certainly not of the standard expected of this class of hotel nor for the amount they charge in the restaurant. Others tables didnt fair so well - witnessed food delivered to wrong tables, food left on the side not delivered to diners and some waiting staff (prob temps) who just didnt have a clue what they were doing.
Glad been there because the house itself and grounds are impressive, however unlikely to go back. For the same money one of their competitors in the area are Chewton Glen who could certainly teach Rhinefield House a lesson or two in what good service is..

The best thing about our weekend to Rhinefield House was the ornamental drive leading up to it. The house itself is beautiful and they have just added a new wing which is very much in keeping with the original building. We stayed in one of the Executive rooms which was a bit of a disappointment as it is very modern and i would have preferred a more traditional room. However, the room was great, very spacious with an awesome view of the New Forest from the panoramic window. The only criticism of the room was the lighting system. It is far too complicated. There are light switches all over the place and it was trial and error before we finally figured them out. Also, the air conditioning seemed to switch itself on and it took time to figure out how to turn it off. Now the major criticism. This place is WAY overpriced. One night full board cost us £395. Okay, it was Valentines weekend but to be honest, the meal was good but there wasn't nearly enough food. They were liberal with the champagne though. For that price, we would have expected champagne, fruit and flowers in our room no such luck. The drinks in the lounge bar are also very pricey, £6 for a glass of wine and over £4 for a beer. The staff were ok but not overly accomodating. To sum up, it felt like they were just trying to get as much money out of you as possible.