Champneys Reviews 927

We've just had a lovely stay at Forest Mere celebrating our daughter's 21st birthday.

I'd like to express a special thanks to Megan on reception who was very helpful and also a big thankyou to the team for organizing birthday balloons,cakes and card in our room on arrival. That was really kind!

We stayed using one of their deals (£140 ) and personally felt that a stay overnight, dinner, breakfast , lunch, use of the facilities and a 50 minute treatment was brilliant value for money.

We will be coming back.

Thankyou again for the lovely mini break!

Staff lovely but it’s the little things that count. Firstly arrived after long journey to be directed down the hall for arrival drinks only to be told closed 15 mins beforehand so had to go to the cafe and join long a long queue to pay for a drink . Only two lockers in changing room worked , no working hair dryers so had to drive home In the cold with soaking wet hair . Shower in spa area not working so could not rinse off after going into steam room .steam room door not hanging correctly so very hard to open or close . Gym tiny with not enough equipment for a decent workout . Damaged and leaking ceilings everywhere. The place is simply not well maintained and no drink on arrival is just basic decent service . .

I booked a package for myself and three friends.The lunch was excellent and staff in the restaurant very good.
Unfortunately the sauna and jacuzzi were closed on this day.I feel that they could have called guests and given them the chance to re-schedule as that just left the pools which got very busy.
Sitting outside the cafe we decided to have coffee.The tables had not been cleared and only one lady serving.I queued for over 25 minutes to order four coffees.I emailed Champneys in regard to our day and they never responded.Considering the cost I would never use or recommend them ever.

I was given a gift voucher as a gift and tried to book the stay at Champneys Tring. I found it very difficult to book online as it didn’t take my voucher off of the final payment. I tried to ring but to no avail. So i emailed Champneys Reservations. Within a few minutes I received a really helpful reply from Imogen who was absolutely brilliant. She booked our stay and sorted out and booked our treatments and sorted the payment out regarding the gift voucher. I can’t thank her enough and have to say she was professional and very friendly. Thank you again Imogen!

Eastwell Manor: Most things about the visit itself were very good. Good facilities, good food, friendly staff and a decent room. Also very pleasant grounds. A good package price.
The experience was soured somewhat after we left. I realised a couple of weeks after our stay that I had left two items of clothing (value about £150). Would anyone at Eastwell Manor respond to my email, WhatsApp Messages or pick up the phone? Sadly not.
Conclusion: Recommended with a very bold health warning: Don’t leave anything behind!!

Just returned from a twilight spa at Champney Springs Leicestershire and as someone who goes to spas a reasonable about this was the worst experience to date . Tired / no soap in the bathroom / lack of facilities - one overcrowded hydro pool, a max 4 person sauna and steam room and a small pool.
Drinks hugely overpriced and the little board of nibbles had clearly been sat on the side for awhile.
Given the name and the prices charged expected a lot more.
Do not waste your time or money pick alternatives that have much more spa facilities.

Terrible service and experience. With a lack of secondary response from a complain email.

Champneys Forest Mere stay - issues as below. All sent to the management team at the spa and they responded with the offer of a gift voucher for me and a special gift for my mother (who had been unwell). However, they failed to acknowledge that there were another 3 guests (my sisters) who also had the same experience as myself. See below for a list of detailed issues with the weekend:

Check-In Experience
The check-in process was delayed due to incorrect information regarding the number of guests on our booking (there were 5 but only 3 were prepared for).
We were not informed about breakfast or lunch timings, nor were we advised that advance booking was required for these meals.
Check-out procedures and times were not communicated at any point during check-in.
Despite booking three rooms together, we were placed on separate floors and not next to each other, which was both inconvenient and disappointing.
Two of the rooms were incorrectly made up as doubles instead of twins. We had to return to reception to rectify this, which meant we were unable to use our rooms to change and prepare as planned.

Facilities and Overcrowding
The hotel appeared to be overbooked, which had a direct impact on the availability of key facilities.
The sauna and steam room were overcrowded and clearly did not have the capacity to accommodate the volume of guests using them.
The showers and floors were unclean and there was a lot of hair in the showers - this was at midday.
Clearly people were just leaving their wet towels and belongings on loungers and water beds and leaving them for long periods of time - making it impossible to use such facilities.

Bar Service and Pre-Dinner Experience
When requesting an ice bucket and five champagne flutes at the bar, we were told there were not enough clean glasses available. We were instead given wine glasses due to an apparent delivery delay.
The bar was not busy, yet staff were unresponsive and unhelpful when it was clear we were waiting to be served.
When we attempted to drop off a birthday cake before dinner, staff were dismissive and questioned whether this had been pre-arranged. Then our servers for the evening were unaware of that we had requested this earlier in the night.

Dinner Service
Despite being at the front of the queue for dinner, our party was overlooked in favour of a group that arrived after us. No apology was offered.
Once seated, we were not offered drinks and had to signal for service.
When our bottle of prosecco arrived, we were given mismatched glasses. A table seated after us (of similar size) received matching glasses, indicating inconsistency in service.
Multiple parties seated after us had their food and drink orders taken before ours, despite us being clearly ready.
Two starters were overcooked, and no staff member checked on our meals after they were served.
One main course was served cold, and another was severely overcooked and inedible.
At no point during the meal were we asked if we would like to order additional drinks.
One dessert was burnt, and again, no checks were made on our satisfaction.
Due to the delays and late dining time, we unfortunately missed the evening entertainment, a key part of our plans for the night.

Check-Out and Billing Issues
At check-out, none of our additional charges had been correctly logged to our room. We had to manually inform staff of all extras incurred, which added unnecessary confusion and delay.

Booking System and Accessibility
It was extremely difficult to book treatments online prior to arrival.
We were also unable to secure our preferred dinner time due to lack of availability, only being offered an 8:30 PM slot, far later than ideal for our group.
This lack of flexibility and accessibility made it very difficult to plan our stay and contributed to the stress of the weekend.

Eastwell manor

Overall experience awful. Room looked like it hadn’t been cleaned or hoovered. Cracks in room general maintenance of the room hasn’t been dealt with for years. Some cracks have been filled and not re painted. Mould around windows. Following this we were woken throughout the night from 11.30pm by a dog barking and someone keep entering and leaving the property slamming the main door. Around 4am we were woken again by loud banging on the door downstairs to which loud shouting it’s the police. Hotel staff in the morning didn’t even bother to write a note to apologise and have had me chasing them around trying to talk to a manager. Awful place will never come again. Spent £404 in the spa to which was un enjoyable as we hadn’t slept woke up late and rushing around to get there. The whole champneys experience is about money everything is an extra charge. Our stay was for two nights we didn’t even make 24hours and checked out early. I would avoid this place like wild fire.

Extremely unhelpful and zero customer service skills. I phoned Champneys (Springs) for some general enquires about a spa day, and in shock at how unhelpful the receptionist was. Unable to answer basic ‘yes or no’ questions, and just told me to call the other number (where no one answered after 20 mins). Beyond unprofessional.

Booked a Christmas spa day as a family treat for £690. Over half the treatments were not available on the day we booked and when you tried to find out what was available, that was near impossible. Then 3 days before our spa day we are informed that the sauna and lounge areas are "under refurbishment". When I tried to cancel I had to wait 45 minutes on the phone before someone answered!!! Then they tried to say that I did not have cancellation insurance. DO NOT VISIT THIS PLACE, IT IS A JOKE.

This is the 2nd year I have bought a gift card from Champneys, I had an issue last year but do not remember the details. The website is so outdated you are not shown a summary of what is in your basket so I inadvertently bought two gift cards. I emailed Champney's immediately to make them aware of my error and to request a refund. After several days of not hearing I tried to call them - I would advise anyone to not try this - I spent almost an hour listening to facts about Champneys and never got to speak to a human. I emailed again several times and called again only to be told their phone systems were down!! I have now rec two gift cards and am still trying to get the to cancel one and refund me. THIS HAS BEEN A VERY STRESSFUL EXPERIENCE

Forest Mere. Took my daughter for her birthday. Have been many times before but not for a while. Facilities were poor, everything is money focused. Had a treatment and the bedding was dirty but I was told it was an issue with laundry and all the bedding looked liked that! A day out at a council leisure centre would have been better quality. Don’t waste your money.

Bought a £100 gift voucher that was never sent through despite numerous emails and phone calls. In store staff wouldn't help at all. So currently I have been scammed out of £100. Has ruined a gift that was going to be used in the black Friday sale which is now ending. Very upset and will not be using you ever again.

Faulty towers would've been better!
Very understaffed, no response from the phone lnes, some staff are very rude and some clearly under pressure from being understand.

Forrest Mere- 50th birthday treat for a friend, spa evening, booking confirmed on morning 5-21:30, one vegetarian. On arrival, confirmed time of meal (charcuterie board) and vegetarian x 1. One jacuzzi out of action. Went to have food at set time to be told they were unaware of veggie so no option, needed to speak to kitchen, other two had charcuterie board, halfway through ( inc. stale crackers which tasted like cardboard!) when veggie friend presented with a glass of crudities, a small pot of humus and olives and 4 breadsticks. Pointed out unacceptable after £69 and 40 minute wait to be told needed to complain to reception. Said complaint promptly made and bit of cheese followed. In total an hour or more wasted trying to sort food ( said friend a critical care nurse who had come from work during the resident doctors strike). Back to spa 8pm ish, relaxing on water beds at 8:45 to be disturbed by a member of staff saying spa closed and 9 and male cleaners would be in to clean changing rooms. Informed staff member booking said 9:30 ‘oh yeah, that has now changed, they should’ve told you at reception’ … they did not! Back to changing room with others also in same predicament- 4 showers not working with out of order signs. Finally get a shower at 8:52, drying myself at 9:05 to be told ‘hurry up ladies the changing rooms are closed’ at which point I was quite abrupt pointing out our shambles of an experience to be told ‘ I am sorry i did not know about the misunderstanding but my shift finished at 9’…. At this point I am afraid I lost my sense of politeness and replied ‘with respect you are talking to 3 nurses who never get off on time, I am rushing as much as I am prepared to rush and if you want to send your male cleaners in then feel free’… I left our ‘relaxing ‘ spa evening so cross… and my veggie friend who made the booking had been offered £50 off her next experience after complaining… no thank you Champneys, having previous loved your spa evenings NEVER AGAIN

Oh boy, what an awful experience I had trying to buy a giftcard online.
I couldn't even log in. I tried resetting my password, numerous times it wouldn't even let me request a reset link.
Finally, I reset it but despite the password meeting requirements and me getting the tick it had been reset, I couldn't log in with it.
After too much time wasted, I just created a new account with my work email.
Then I couldn't add the delivery details for the voucher, then I had to keep entering the billing address multiple times...

I just wanted to buy a voucher! It should be the easiest thing! I really can't believe how hard they made it to give them money. You need a new website team!

We booked an overnight stay at Champneys Springs as a special treat and sadly it was a huge disappointment. Our booking was made incorrectly by Champneys’ own reservation team, so we were very lucky the Springs reception managed to fit us in at all. The room we were given had mould on the bathroom ceiling and even the bathmat was covered in black mould, which was really unpleasant. The resort overall looked worn out and not what you expect for the price. I even witnessed a serious safety issue in the men’s changing area where a handrail came away from the wall as someone needed it for support. I raised all of this in a detailed email afterwards — but Champneys haven’t even acknowledged it, let alone replied. The restaurant staff were lovely, but that was the only highlight in what should have been a memorable and relaxing stay. Very disappointed.

Very disappointed after booking an evening spa and got delayed due to an accident and then spent 30 minutes going round the spa car park with no parking till someone moved. Had a meal that took 2 hours and couldn’t access any spa facilities paid for as a result. When I tried to explain this, I was met with dismissive attitude despite willing to pay and extend the time.

Appalling customer services. Once you have handed over your money, forget about any form of customer service, it is non existent. Looking at other reviews, it is the kind of behaviour that the current MD and CEO of the company are happy to go along with.
My advice - take your business elsewhere - the service could only be better

I visited Champneys at Mottram Hall on 18th October for a spa weekend with a friend and had a very poor experience. After spending the day in the spa, my brand-new swimsuit was completely bleached. When I reported it to reception that evening, staff were uninterested, offered no apology, and didn’t acknowledge that I now couldn’t use the spa on Sunday.

We had sat in a small whirlpool that had such strong chemicals it made my eyes water, and by the next day I had a reaction requiring medical treatment. When we left for lunch, the whirlpool was closed, which my friend witnessed, yet this was later flatly denied.

It took two weeks of chasing to receive a refund for the damaged swimsuit, and still no apology. With little response I finally asked to speak to a senior manager. I finally spoke with Sara Lord, Spa General Manager, in our conversation she was patronising and my concerns were minimised and parts of my experience were questioned. Even after submitting evidence of my medical appointment for their “external investigation,” which I assume in still ongoing as I’ve heard nothing, there has been no written response, no acknowledgement of the chemical issue, and no accountability at all. Sara left it with, email when you want to come back for a day visit….asked for this in writing but nothing…..and no response to a follow up email asking for an update.

Overall: poor customer service, no responsibility taken, and a very disappointing experience at what should be a leading wellness spa. A clear disregard for their customers health and safety.