Trenython Manor Hotel & Spa

4 readers found this review helpful

We were offered a "free holiday" and we dubiously chose Cornwall as our destination. We really weren't sure what we were in for but 'nothing ventured' etc etc. Trethyon Manor was a lovely surprise. Our room was fantastic. A huge room with a sea view. The swimming pool,sauna,steam room,gym were brilliant although the jacuzzi was temporarily out of order. The dreaded'presentation'-our only obligation for the 4 day's holiday-was actually made very pleasant by our representative,Jonathan. He was charming,not pressurising and jovial.We ended up in the bar sharing a pint!!!Not what we expected at all.If you get the chance I would go. The time share element might not be for you but the facilities are great.

1 reader found this review helpful

Pre travel phone call to explain about being 5 star log cabin for a family twin room.
we arrived at 5:10 pm only to find it was located miles in land in the middle of no where up dirty farm tracks.
the property was damp ,cold and in a state of dis repair
with no electric only what was run by a generator outside the front door, which by the way you had to clamber through a fence to get to the front door.the door and window frames had not seen a lick of paint this century, heating supplied by electric storage heaters (only tiny ones) no good if the generator stopped.the property was not a luxury log cabin but more like a derelict old folks bungalow, drafty windows which were single glassed.
i could go on, after expressing my discust to the manager he offered us a room only in a hotel which we would have had a further car drive of at least 5 miles each way, he said we were welcome to use the pool in the manor(ha ha).
pool i would not even class it as a pool the tiles were cracked and chipped around the edges you would need the paramedics on site to repair your cuts and grazes.
we decided to take the manager up on his offer of dinner
we thought that surely they can not buggar that up, well, how wrong did we get that we had fish and chips thinking we would be ok and our son had beans on toast i think our son got it right when asked if he liked it, no, it is horrible, was the answer. he was not wrong our fish had more bones than fish the chips were frozen ones we suspect smart price asda, as they had no middle to them, the peas had not seen any sort of heat, in all even the cave men would have thrown it away.
we did not have a pudding our stomachs would not take any more and at that we handed the key back and told the receptionist that it was getting worse by the minute.
we were there a grand total of 2 hours we did not even get our cases out and were back in the car for another 251 mile journey and four hours back home.
conclusion
in all you have been warned if you go remember you have been warned...........take our advise ........no place for kids.....and absolutely nothing to do.
mrs c. Norton & dr.c. Norton. d.sc(eng)

17 readers found this review helpful

We 'won' this weekend and had a lovely break. You will definately need a car as the place would have been difficult to find wihtout the satnav (which got us right to the gate by the way).
We were promised a 90 minutes briefing and that was all it took. We were not subjected to a hard sell and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The staff were very friendly and nothing was too much trouble even when we couldnt get the telly to work!! Food was exceptional - we ate in the restaurant on Friday night - no trouble booking - and couldn't have asked for more.
Accommodation pleasant - very warm though as heating was still on even though it was warm outside - lovely grounds as well. We did not use the pool as too much to see in and around the area and not enough time to do it all.
All in all a good cheap weekend - thank you

11 readers found this review helpful

Lovely resort, nice weekend and we took the presentation and joined up! we were pleasantly surprised at how good club la costa are and very friendly staff, given the previous comments on this site i would recommend anyone take a look at club la costa membership the rooms and apartments are very luxurious everyone was very friendly and we had no pressure selling at all everything was explained and our questions answered.

6 readers found this review helpful

very nice resort, needs a bit updating timeshare lodges are nice if you are lucky enough to get one, the hotel rooms ok nothing special . we had a presentation of timeshare which was enjoyable
if you have a chance to visit trenython take it, a nice weekend, good food a little on the expensive side, staff are friendly.

11 readers found this review helpful

Interesting to read the reviews, we are off to the above for a four day break later this month, on the basis of attending their presentation over breakfast and paying a refundable £50 booking fee. (I even rang to check this will be refunded)
They got our details from an Ideal Home exhibition and are going to be sadly disappointed when they attempt to sell us a holiday timeshare, we've just retired after 13 years of renting out 6 holiday cottages...
We still live here so of course have the use of the pool/jacuzzi etc, so that won't attract us, we tend to holiday as far away from other people as possible .
As we only live an hour's drive away it will soon become obvious there is no point in pushing us, especially as we have also bought a villa abroad to holiday in.
I'm hoping we don't get forced into the whole three hours session, but if we do, it's still a nice relaxing break for us, despite living within driving distance, we were always working too hard to visit Eden/Heligan etc.
I'll post how we got on when we return, I don't feel naughty accepting their offer, they chose to make it, but obviously didn't understand our circumstances.
If it's disappointing, we'll simply come home again.
It sounds wrong to say but even at £50 a night for two in a nice hotel with an indoor pool is too good an offer to refuse........

114 readers found this review helpful

HOTEL REVIEW – TRENYTHON MANOR – CLUB LA COSTA
TIME SHARE INTRODUCTION BREAK - JAN 2008
First part =Hotel
Second part= sales pitch warning/advice
Club La Costa, a time-share company who have property in the UK and abroad, owns this hotel. We received a letter offering us a 4 night midweek stay for £49 room only. However it meant having a 'presentation' about buying a timeshare. Small price to pay for a very cheap break away we thought, despite the long drive down from the north.
The hotel is situated a couple of miles outside Fowey on the southern coast of Cornwall. There is nothing within walking distance, so it’s car or taxi rides to get anywhere. I didn’t see one bus while we were there. On arrival the grounds and hotel looked very nice from the outside. The reception area is vast and impressive with huge stairs and balconies. The bar, restaurant, lounges and games areas all adjoin the main reception area. We had one of the best rooms with plenty of room and views over St Austell Bay 'Over there between the land and the sky' as Basil Fawlty once said. The room was showing signs of wear, in particular the bathroom with paint peeling off the walls around the wet areas and was just a bit 'edgy' through lack of recent maintenance. Stair walls scuffed from bags. No problem at our bargain rate, but if you were paying £150 a night you might be a bit hacked off with it. I never understand why hotels do not pay a full time man armed with a tin of magnolia and gloss paint to just go round tidying the place up! Overall it is clean and tidy and well equipped. Beware that some rooms in the main building are reported as being very small indeed, so if booking ask about the exact size and nature of the room. Staff were very friendly and always at hand.
The bar was OK, a general lack of choice, no real ales but OK if you like bottled beer. Not cheap at £3.10 for any beer bottle or draft and £5 for a large wine, £3.50 standard. However these prices would probably compare favourably with most hotels. The restaurant is very smart and well laid out. The menu looked nice, but again not cheap. £10 for fish and chips! When the meals arrived the portions were small, OK if you were having starter (£6) and sweet (£5) but unless you are made of cash, you couldn’t afford to do that very often. On another night I ordered sausage and mash, again £10 which was extremely over salted that I had to leave some of the small portion which is very unlike me. Apart from the free breakfast (below) we didn’t eat in here again choosing to go outside to local pubs and cafes. The breakfast is a buffet style help yourself job of good quality and costs a reasonable £8.50 pp. There was nothing obvious to suggest there was any reduction for children, so families beware a big bill.
The grounds are nice and well kept, but it has a small public patio area in front of the building and gardens and then rough countryside which extended down into a valley in front of the hotel. Very pretty but you are restricted as to what you can do around the hotel. The pool area again was looking a bit tatty and in need of some TLC. Having said that, it was clean and warm. A pokey and cold changing room was a shock when exiting the pool area.
General atmosphere around the hotel was a bit sterile with no music, just a TV playing in the side room from the bar. There a few bits of entertainment, mainly for kids arranged early evening. The hotel has a children’s club room fully staffed which had TV’s and computers and games etc, very small but functional. We didnt have kids with us, but if you did this might prove useful.
A major gripe however was the noise coming from the adjoining bedroom. The walls are not sound proofed and we could hear every noise from next door (don’t ask!). On our first night I had to get out of bed and knock the door next door and ask the chap to turn the TV down! The bathrooms have been built inside rooms in studwork inner rooms, again with insufficient noise insulation. The room had a 32” Sony flat screen with DVD player. Tea and coffee makings included. A bottle of wine was waiting when we arrived which was a nice touch. Another real problem was the serious lack of storage for clothes. One small wardrobe with two drawers which housed the tea makings as well plus 2 small bedside cabinets. No hooks for coats, so the room was very difficult to keep tidy.
Overall the hotel was quite acceptable, although it is in need of a good tidy up to bring it anywhere the near the claimed 4 star rating. It would appear that most guests in the main building were there for the introductory stay and mandatory presentation. There were also others staying in the detached wood framed lodges in the grounds.
SALES PITCH! BEWARE
The following relates to the sales pitch, so please read if this applies to you either here or at Hustyns, the sister CLC resort on the north coast of Cornwall. First of all lets make it clear that CLC are a successful international company and as a rule do not scam or con money out of people. If they did they would have been prosecuted long ago. What is an issue is the method of selling their product, which I have found to be less than impressive to say the least.
The sales pitch was the downside of the stay unfortunately, but we knew it would be. The so called ‘presentation’ which was booked for us in the morning slot (the best one to have-then at least you can go out to recover afterwards!). We were collected from our room and taken for a free breakfast (thanks very much and quite tasty) and the salesman who I wont name and shame on the internet as it wouldn’t be fair, started to warm us up with the normal pre sales pitch irrelevant chat. All I will say is that if you meet someone who tells you he worked for 16 years as a chef before joining CLC and has a picture of him with Anthony Worrell Thompson purposely propped up for all to see in his open brief case, you will know who it was. He seemed a likable chap, perhaps a ‘bit of a lad’ however a bit nervous.
His first point was to say that this hotel was the worst one they have and need of a refurb –well at least he started off being honest, however he went on..because it was a listed building they are prevented from doing so.. even a lick of paint…come on! Following this we were taken down to the presentation suite where there were other victims sat in the two's on individual tables being spoken to by Club La Costa sales reps. I knew what was coming as I have experienced this before. He said that he was under no pressure to sell us anything (I nearly choked on my Latte laughing! – what salesman do you know that is not under pressure to sell?) as he suggested ‘these holidays sell themselves’. He carried on with his comedy act by saying that the accommodation does not make money! Their income comes only from the bar and restaurant! What? They were empty all the time I was there! He said they were very cheap in order to look after the members. £10 for below average fish and chips?? Where does he come from?
We were asked a load of questions about our expectations of what a great holiday should be and then we had to go through their trademark all important ‘holiday survey’ filled out. He was very disorganised with no form to fill in and for the first time of many had to call over the first manager to bring one over.
The way it works is this; The salesman adds up the cost of your normal annual holiday costs and then converts this into a monthly amount. He then tries to convince you that joining their club would work out cheaper than what you already pay out (still listening at this stage) The sales psychology used is talking fast and writing diagrams and key words on a blank piece of paper to re enforce what he is suggesting that you might like. The only problem for us is that poor old Chef was not very good at what he was doing. He was trying to cram so much information into his act that he completely lost himself and certainly totally confused us within about 15 minutes. His pitch was not structured well and quite unprofessional. Don’t get me wrong, I liked this bloke, but from the start I knew this was going to be hard work.
What he was saying didn’t seem to make any sense and I thought I understood the concept of timeshare holidays before meeting him! His figures simply didn’t add up with him including the costs of flights into our existing expenditure but handily leaving them off the CLC club side of the comparison. I’m not sure if he took us for idiots, but when challenged he just kept saying ‘ah yes you will see! See what? - we never did. He somehow worked out that after a few years we would be in profit and holidays would no longer cost us very much at all! Not true.
Then he throws the Thomson brochure out and picks out holidays similar to what you have said you might like doing eg your ‘dream holiday’ and then prices them up. Incorrectly in his case, as he was pointing to the 7 days price, multiplying by the number of people and then doubling it!! To make it sound a lot of money when in reality the cost of 14 days is hardly any more than 7 days, as we all know. This was just downright deceiving. Did he think that we didn’t notice what he was doing, even at the speed he was talking? He then pushed the great value extra short breaks that we could book at bargain prices whenever we wanted. Yes, only after no doubt forking out a huge joining fee, which of course I wasn’t allowed to know how much at that point. He avoided that very question, saying only his manager can tell you at the end! It was all very laughable, but I imagine that some poor souls actually get taken in by all this nonsense, thankfully we did not. Why couldn’t he tell us up front what this was going to cost and then try to positively justify the outlay? If you walk into any shop for instance to buy a sofa or a car, the price is there to see, then Mr Nice sales person comes over and talks you into buying it! Why cant this be the same?
Half way through the tour we were taken across to see one of the lodges in the grounds, which were nice it has to be said, but they damn well should be at what they wanted off us for the right to be able to try to book one for a holiday! Then we were shown a video where Jenny Bond (Royal Correspondent) was introducing Club La Costa, very cheesy and told you absolutely nothing other than the interviewed MD of CLC is very smug indeed. Chef said that she joined CLC and was very keen to do the video to spread the good news…yeah right.
When we finally got manager no 2, Mr Big over to the table after nearly 3 hours to tell us how much, we found out that joining would cost…..
Again he couldn’t just tell us!!. He had to write everything down on blank paper with lines and boxes, until finally getting to the crux and wrote down £11,995 and swivelled it round, probably expecting us to say ‘wow, is that all? I don’t think he liked my reaction. Yes that’s 12k just to join Club La Costa!. On top there is a mere £415 annual maintenance fee (so they must intend to paint the walls then), This figure I know has almost doubled in 5 years! Then when you book a holiday you only have 1 week for your 12k, so if you want 2 weeks – most of us do don’t we,? you will have to buy another extra week at anything from £150 to £500 each time, depending on where you want to go. On top you have your normal flights and travel expences etc. If you want to go anywhere other than a CLC resort you will have to swap your week through the RCI ‘space bank’, which costs £119 or £159 for 7 or 14 days. Although still confused we were getting the picture loud and clear that joining Club La Costa was going to cost an arm and a leg.
We were then told about their special trial offer. Chef had hinted that this ‘final twist’ as he put it and would be too good to be true. I could hardly contain myself. We could pay ‘just under £4,000’ and try out CLC to see if we liked it. Having already explained that firstly I was signing nothing that day and was not in any position to part with that kind of money, Mr Big then went off on his credit loan figures diagram trying to say they would be doing us a favour if we borrowed this money as a deposit which gave us 6 weeks accommodation which we could use against the initial 12k joining fee if we wanted to join proper. The manager left when he finally realised they were not getting our cheque.
It all ended a bit messy with poor old Chef attempting to get a commitment and us telling him in no uncertain terms that we need time to think about lashing out the price of a decent conservatory on a scrap of paper with handwritten numbers. He was getting a bit agitated (funny I thought he wasn’t under any pressure) ‘We must have a decision today’ he said. ‘You would be an idiot to walk away from this deal’! he said. Really, why is that?. If the product is so good and sells itself, why will they only sell it using the hard sell pitch when you are on site? You don’t ever see these advertised anywhere else do you? It’s obvious why not. You wouldn’t pick the phone up.
They also try to suggest that as a member you can make money by recommending others to come on cheap trips where they will get the same sales pitch, however ‘we must cap you at earning £6,000 a year as some people were making a living out of it’!! By now I was chewing the inside of my face attempting to keep a straight face. Did he really think we would fall for that one?
As we got up to leave Chef said in a whispered voice 'if you come back, haggle with the manager as they usually drop the price'. The final straw is being told that you can’t go until you have been ‘signed out’ by another one of the nice smiling managers.
This was a poor sales pitch, which went on far too long. Even if we had a salesman who really knew what he was doing, we would never have gone for this. Where was the professional price structure brochure which might have assured me that the company are ethical and transparent and also that couple on the next table were being told the same price? Scribbles on bits paper does not cut it I’m afraid. From start to finish I felt that they were attempting to have me over. I liken this to a double glazing salesman or a ‘Kirby’ Hoover sales pitch where they will only sell their overpriced vacuum cleaners after a demo in your home and you must decide on the day and usually only after phone calls to managers to try to lower the ridiculous price tag. You don’t ever see those advertised for sale either. Why? because you would never buy one after weighing up the alternatives.
The CLC figures didn’t add up to me. Yes the time-share accommodation is nice and yes you will no doubt get well kitted out rooms, lodges and villas, in nice resorts, but you will end up paying for it, plus more. I cannot see how this can save you money as they try to suggest. It should never be described as an ‘investment’ either, as again they tell you it is. It will never gain value and will surely depreciate like a new Fiat as it rolls out of the showroom! Just look at those currently trying to sell their timeshares for peanuts on the internet. The additional fees, which you have no control over, will almost certainly go up beyond normal inflation. Everybody I know that bought timeshares when they were in fashion, have all got rid at a big loss.
My advice is to take the offer of a cheap break and enjoy it. I would certainly do it again. However be very careful of the hard sell and do not commit to anything on the day. Leave your cheque book at home and don’t sign anything at the presentation. The web is full of people who did and are very unhappy about it and now trying to get out of it. Even you want to buy into this, do not do it at the presentation. Go away and think about in the cold light of day and then go back and get that price down in the comfort of Mr Big’s office when you are in charge.
I’m sure there are some people who feel happy with timeshare ownership, however I cannot see how being tied into such a big financial commitment could ever save you money when you take into account the ongoing and continually rising additional fees.
For CLC to suggest that this is money saving opportunity is not on, as you wont. TV’s Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert is of the same view. He says ‘Don’t touch it with a barge pole’
As we left the hotel after the presentation, so did Mr Big in his 57 plate Lexus with his mobile strapped to his ear. Ah, so that’s what the maintenance fee is spent on!
Disclaimer- this is my view only and is based purely on my own experience

12 readers found this review helpful

Like the previous contributor, we were expecting self-catering accommodation but were instead lodged in the main hotel. The rooms are tastefully and well furnished, and the bathroom was well equipped; the view to the sea is presently obscured by scaffolding as they are working on the outside of the building which did spoil the view.
We thought the restaurant, TMs was very good, though we only ate there once - they offer a two course prix fixe for £28 and the dishes were both well cooked and well presented.
Breakfast is £8.50, which is cheaper than many hotels, which is a full cooked breakfast buffet, or juice and cereal. We did not try the spa, but found the pool / jacuzzi / steam rooms some what run down and in need of some urgent improvements.
The grounds of the Manor may have been elegant in the past, but they are now filled with timeshare chalets.
On the whole, the hotel seems very good, and a look around the chalets suggests a high standard there too, but, being a recent Club la Costa acquisition, time and money needs to be invested in the pool area and grounds to bring it up to the standard they profess to offer.