The Retreat, Elcot Park

Amazing job. Staff incredible and the spa experience is excellent ate in the restaurant and used the bar more than once-everything great

I was so excited about this stay but left so disappointed. What really attracted me was the claim on the hotel's website of 'Splendid Surprises – Experience delightful extras and thoughtful touches that make for a memorable stay' - what fun I thought and I was excited to find out what the suprises were and I lived in hope for the time we were there...but nothing really emerged. We had a small bottle of some liqueur left in the room (nice if you drink) and in the kids room a pack of 4 small crayons (with no colouring book or paper) but apart from that no suprises emerged that I saw. I would have rathered the hotel didn't promise suprises if they aren't going to do it. Some people have said on here that they got a welcome drink - we checked in separately in three groups and none of us were offered a welcome drink. The butler's pantry is ok but the only soft drinks were sparkling flavoured water which seemed very limited. The snacks were in large glass jars with no scoops to get them out and so trying to pour them in the small paper bags would have resulted in them falling everywhere, so we walked in to find some young kids arm-deep in the glass jars picking the snacks out with hands - gross, needless to say we didn't partake. The room overlooked the courtyard and the lights were on all night in the courtyard making the room so bright and difficult to sleep. The service in the restaurant was terrible - food arrived before the drinks and one of the waitresses kept asking us to send in a good review of her, which was so awkward. On checking out noone asked if we had a good stay and the receptionists were busy arguing about something and seemed very stressed, so we just left without feeling we could give feedback at the time. Shame as it's a beautiful hotel.

Pros Lovely staff, nice decor throughout, Spa is great Cons Rooms were so so hot, this would really put me off staying there again. It makes for a bad nights sleep (not what you want from a spa hotel!!) and just uncomfortable to be in There was also a lot of bird poo around the outdoor swimming pool

Fantastic overnight stay from beginning to end. The rooms, Spa and restaurants are wonderful. The staff are so friendly and attentive. It felt busy enough to have a good atmosphere but quiet enough to relax. Joe at Yu and Laura were excellent

We arrived at the hotel yesterday for our 15year Wedding Anniversary due on 5th September. We hired the whole hotel in 2009 we had the best time then and a fabulous 24hours with you starting yesterday. Grace was brilliant with me on the phone the other day advising we could arrive earlier than 4pm to use the facilities etc. We met Lily on arrival who was amazing definitely deserves a promotion such a lovely young lady who was a wealth of friendly knowledge. We also met Rosa who showed us to our room and shared info of her parents getting married at the hotel before us. The room was amazing. Would highly recommend HoneyBottom and thank you very much for the complimentary room upgrade and our congratulations mini brownies. We had a fantastic evening meal in the brasserie all of the team were great especially Alice who was serving us. I ordered the Nutella donuts but was a bit disappointed it came with mango sorbet and not the passion fruit sorbet which it said it came with. Although Alice did offer to get me one if I'd have liked but by that time I had already almost finished the lovely mango one. We had a great night's sleep bed amazing. Breakfast was also very nice. We booked afternoon tea which Grace helped with last night as we did not know we had to book 24hr in advance. This was very nice of her and Chef to arrange for us. We had a great afternoon tea and Ella who was serving us was very helpful. All the team in the restaurant were great sorry I cannot name all. The take home complimentary congratulations cup cakes were a lovely gesture which our children have devoured and this was the final touch to a great stay. My parents live in Ramsbury and we live in Dubai. It was so great being able to finally getting back to Elcot Park it definitely did not dissapoint. Highly recommend.

From the moment you enter the reception and are given a glass of wine you feel so welcomed by all the staff Everyone is so friendly helpful and professional I stayed in a ground floor room overlooking the pool it was so peaceful I slept well both nights I stayed We ate at the brasserie the first night the food was delicious and the second at Yu which was equally delicious both nights all the staff were extremely attentive I strongly recommend a stay the views are amazing