The Menzies Welcombe Hotel & Golf Course

Looks impressive. Grounds fantastic. However this is a hotel which is charging top prices for very average rooms and service. Rooms are tired - certainly in the annexe where we were. Food very good but same menu both nights we stayed. We had booked DBB but they simply give a £35 reduction from the normal menu price. To have a 3 course meal with coffee at this price would be nigh on impossible so dinner does end up costing if you're not careful. Golf course is nice - short but interesting. Entails a 2 min car drive out of the estate and back in further down the road - inconvenient. On checking out they attempted to charge us per night rather than total stay cost quoted - this would have meant a bill per couple of £820 for DBB 2 nights and 3 rounds of golf. Extortionate! Fortunately we had proof of quote so they had to honour. Just shows what they must be charging to unsuspecting though! Overall it's ok but trading on it's exterior grandeur in attracting overseas tourists I suspect - not worth the money in my view

What a shame about this hotel.It is a wonderful building and has a great location but everything else(apart from a great spa with friendly staff) is a real let down.Most of the problems are to do with very poor service due quite obviously to insufficient numbers of staff and their poor training.So for example if you say ask for something at breakfast expect to wait 25 minutes, give up and try to find it yourself e.g cutlery. Expect to book your dinner table for one time and be seated 50 minutes later.There is a chance that your room will not be serviced properly eg the toiletries will not have been replenished and most of your light bulbs will not work. Best to leave this place to noisy wedding parties and coach tours who may not notice all its problems and who seem to form the majority of its guests.

Great 1st impressions, fantastic looking hotel. effecient checkin. Our rooms were very very clean but were well used if not a little tatty in places. the room was BAKING hot. the rad was turned off entirely but the 3 inch pipe feeding the rads runs through all the rooms full length at skirting height. who needs rads with this!!! We stayed with friends who were in next room and it was the same. had to request more towels after arrival as both rooms only prepped for one person, a quick call put that right and very quickly. we ate out so cannot comment on dinner. the spa has the WOW factor. exceptionally good with the friendliest and most helpful staff we met there. fantastic pool/sauna/steam/outdoor hotpool. fantastic!!! breakfast was a talking point. the dining room is so small for size of hotel that all the cold continental food/drink /cereal etc are in the smoking lounge area!!! amazing. just amazing. we were loading our plates with cereals etc whilst there were a least a dozen post breakfast guests enjoying there 1st woodbine of the day, some within 3-4 ft of copious amounts of uncovered food and all in the same room. we were just amazed by this. it was positivley cloudy in this room.I am not a super anti smoker but this situation is clearly not a good one. Come july 2007 this will get sorted though with the smoking ban. This hotel in our opinion has the building of a 4 star, the spa of a 5 star and the organisation and standard in the hotel itself (the room we were in and the breakfast arrangements) of a very good 2 star or an average 3 star. Like i said, stay again, probably not.

My husband and I picked the hotel on spec, not knowing what to expect - well were we delighted. We have travelled a lot over the past few years but this hotel is fantastic ! The long drive up to the hotel is just beautiful and increased our expectation but the welcome we received from ( Michael ? ) the porter was so in keeping with the old English feel we got when going into the reception and lounge, Reception was busy so Michael offered us tea ! we could'nt believe it ... a bit of old English hospitality. We stayed for 2 nights and the service was 5 star all the way through our stay , the lounge fire was lit all the time and gave the lounge a great atmosphere and the food was very special with smallish portions but great taste ! We had paid for a upgrade to a 4 poster and the view from the room was worth the money, but the size of the bedroom was unbelievable ! We had a fantastic stay , it has got to be one of the best country house hotel in the area. We're telling all our friends about it and we'll be back.

Simply perfect - booked one night at this hotel as a Valentine's Day suprise for my boyfriend a few weeks ago and would go back in an instant. Our room was superb even though I only booked the basic one (e.g. chandelier in the bathroom!) and the bed was extremely comfortable. We found the staff to be very helpful but the new spa was the best bit - it certainly had the wow factor!!! We didn't eat there so cannot comment on the food but other than that we had the most amazing time there.

Arrived 1400 hours Friday 16th February 2007 - checking in took 25 minutes-not a great start. Arrived for dinner (party of 8 adults and 4 children) at 1905 hours - ordered dinner - starter took some time to arrive with main course eventually being served at 2050 hours. Service indifferent with head waiter having no option but to make continuous excuses for the kitchen. Off to bed but alas not to sleep as there was a delegation from Hudson (believe they are a global recruitment corporation) making merry in the bar. They made merry until 0430 hours with big whooping and shouting. Breakfast - a table of four are hastily moved to an alternative table when water starts to fall from the ceiling. Two night stay booked to celebrate parents in law 50th wedding anniversary - consensus of opinion was we should cut our losses and checkout without paying a cent which is what we did - a memorable stay for all the wrong reasons!!

I spent a long time looking for a 'spa'-style hotel near stratford which wasn't going to bankrupt me for a weekend away (Jan '07). I eventually booked this place direct, expecting to get a standard room for the rate on their website (~£180pn) but was offered it for £130 pn, and was upgraded for free to one of the 'executive' rooms; in size/grandeur our room (see photo) was midway between the two rooms they have on the website, the cheaper of which is the simple modern style and the other (4-poster) is apparently the wedding suite. The furniture was very *slightly* tired but that kind of added to the charm. Service was good - but I'm not hard to please if given normal politeness and helpfulness. The grounds are great. It is very close to stratford - you could easily stagger back. The pool/spa is very shiny and new, great place to lounge about. The main lounge has a huge open fire that was kept roaring away - with the added benefit of a slight scent of woodsmoke. The food was ok, I'm not a great judge but it was very edible - if expensive (50pp inc wine). The bar is laughably expensive. I would stay again for the same price.

We stayed at the Welcombe hotel over Christmas and thought it was absolutely wonderful. Having read some of the reviews on here we were a little nervous but found we need not have worried. Agreed, the service in the restaurant could be a little slow, but we found that this was primarily because the food was being cooked from fresh, and was all absolutely delicious. Personally I would prefer to wait for excellent quality, fresh food, than to have something pre-cooked and 'ok' served to me quickly. We could not fault the food at any point over the break - even the cooked breakfast appeared to be using good quality ingredients. All the staff were exceptionally professional, friendly and helpful. On the first evening we were not happy with the location of our table, and although the place was full over Christmas, they managed to find a creative way to solve our problem; we were particularly happy that they were able to do this rather than just saying that there was nothing that they could do. This to me demonstrates committed, good quality staff. The hotel itself is a beautiful building, the lounge was a really nice place to relax with a drink and newspaper in front of the log fire. The new spa facility was also excellent. Our standard room was of good quality, the bathroom was a little tired but nothing to worry us, the actual bedroom was well furnished with a large, comfortable bed. We would definitely recommend this hotel and would definitely come back again.

Both my wife and I stayed at this hotel early in 2004 for our first wedding anniversary, and to say the least we were not impressed. The building is fantastic and the grounds a delight to walk, but the service left a lot to be desired. I convinced the wife to return this year and we can not stop talking about the overall difference 2 years can make to a building, the atmosphere on arrival made us both feel totally relaxed. The bags were wisked off to our room whilst we sat in the beautiful lounge opposite reception drinking our coffee after a 4 hour journey from the North. Once we were relaxed, we went to find our room only to find that we had been upgraded to a suite. It was fantastic, the decor was splendid and we were really delighted. I could go on and on, but I will say that if you like roaring open fires, attentive service, out off this world food them this is the place to visit. Congratualtions to the team there, the hotel now has a team worthy of its splendor!! I hoping that the wife may surprize me next year and will let me bring my club?!

Having read recent Trip Advisor reports we booked in with some trepidation. This was a gift for my husband's 50th birthday. The week-end was wonderful. We played golf on a windy but magnificent course and booked into our room late afternoon. The reception was warm and efficient, our room was perfect, room service was exceptional and the evening meal was everything we hoped for. We have no hesitation in recommending this hotel.