Themoleresort Reviews 8

We were unable to attend the resort on the 29/07/25 due to our vehicle breaking down. We attempted multiple times to call the resort to explain that we won’t be arriving that day, but the 30/07/25. There was (and still is) nobody answering the number provided and in the end we had to focus on getting our car repaired and somewhere to stay that evening.

I emailed the resort on the 30/07/25 stating that we would be arriving that day and explained the reason.

We arrived late afternoon 30/07/25. We were allocated room 302. Late that afternoon and all evening we were exposed to loud music resonating from the ‘Cellar’ bar immediately below us and coming through the windows. Immediately outside the allocated room that looked nothing like the one advertised on your portal - see attachments, were smokers and drinkers that gave no peace and the smell of cigarettes and vapes was horrendous.

I complained to the resort that evening and they stated that they would get the music turned off. They reported that it was off and I advised no it wasn’t - then eventually it went off. We had to keep our windows closed due to the stench of cigarettes and vapes. Being very warm weather, all we had was a small noisy circulating fan in the room.

The next morning, around 06:30 there was horrendous noise below us from the ‘Cellar’ bar and outside in the courtyard where tables were being dragged and reallocated by the staff.

We went out for the day rather than using the facilities at the resort as we needed to ‘escape’.

On the evening of the 31/08/25, I complained to the Resort again as I was told previously that the music would be switched off by 11pm. We stayed out of the room walking the grounds to find sanctuary - when we returned to the room I had to contact them again as the music had not been switched off - it went off around 11:30 after I complained.

The next morning (our day of departure) we experienced the fact same noise around 06:30

I suggested to the resort that they need to make it clear that room 302 is subject to dreadful noise and smells (vapes/cigarette smoking).

I contacted the Resort upon my return to further express my disgust and was advised that due to us not arriving on the 29/07/25, they gave our booked room, which we had paid for three nights to the guests and the room we were given was an upgrade!

I attached pictures of the room advertised, the actual room and the position of the room directly above the courtyard etc.

There was no seating area nor the decor (see ceiling) was completely different.

I had booked through Secret Escapes - posted this on Trustpilot too as they have been quite unhelpful....

Hi we stayed up the mole resort for a night they asked for a deposit of 50.00 this was not mentioned on there website. We stay here every two months and have not asked to pay any deposit before. We paid and then went to the cellars bar there was no one at the bar there were 4 people talking at the big restaurant at the bottom I asked if we could have some drinks and the waitress was rude and rolled her eyes. She then said the coffee machine was not working this has been out of order for a year. As we go there every two months on business. Do I settled for a cafeteria coffee. The bar was tables were dirty so I sat on the seat at the end of the room.
The service for food and beverages is not with waiting for you will be dissapointed the room was lovely but noisy from other guests. But we had a nice stay the only thing is we are still waiting for our deposit back it’s been 5 weeks sent email no reply’s.
What’s going on with this hotel never use to be like this will be going Northcote manor in the future.

I come here semi-regularly, which at this point says more about my questionable life choices than my commitment to fitness. You walk into the female toilets and the smell hits you like a hot slap, think nursery apocalypse with notes of despair. The changing rooms somehow manage to be worse, marinated in a rich blend of baby nappy steam and tired old chlorine. The floor? Oh, the floor. It’s not just dirty, it’s hairy. Not a couple of strands, we’re talking full-on wig collection. Sprinkle in random dead leaves and you’ve got something between “budget spa” and “nature documentary about decay.” I keep my sandals on until I’m physically in the water, because bare feet in here feel like a one-way ticket to historical diseases.

Lockers? Hilarious. If you actually want to lock one, you have to trudge back to reception, pay an extra £1 or £2 for the honour, and they hand you a lock that looks like it’s been stolen from a 1980s shed. Most people just fling their belongings in and pray. And honestly, with £12 entry per person for this standard, I’d also take my chances with theft over funding another shed lock.

Ventilation is essentially two sad little windows and a decorative selection of mould. Privacy? Non-existent. If there are kids around, you will get walked in on mid-change because the only thing separating you from public humiliation is a thin, flappy curtain that looks like it came from Poundland’s “emergency bathroom” section.

The sauna… oh, the sauna. It looks like it’s been through a small fire and lost. The thermostat is cracked, the wood feels like it’s holding on out of pure stubbornness, and the whole thing gives “health hazard with ambitions.” The steam room has previously had mites and tiny flies, which really adds a “live nature experience” to your spa session. The jacuzzi is so aggressively chlorinated you emerge coughing, blinking, and wondering if you’ve just chemically peeled your corneas. The pool is cold, which should be refreshing, but instead just feels like a baptism into disappointment.

The staff are clearly on minimum wage and radiate the energy of people counting down the seconds until they can go home. Can’t blame them, this place is a time capsule of poor design and budget cuts. I keep coming back, holding onto the faint hope that one day it’ll improve, but honestly, I’m now at the point where building my own sauna in the garden sounds like a saner investment.

Our honest experience. Our family experience at The Mole was nice overall but for the money I don’t think I’d return. Firstly it’s location doesn’t make it easy to get around Devon if you’re the type if people that like to drive around, or even to a local shop or supermarket if you need something last minute. Access roads are awful. Mixed experience on arrival in that our lodge was ready for us to check in early but we were asked for a £250 damage deposit which wasn’t made clear when we booked (may have been in the small print). The site and Lodge itself were lovely and probably the high point of the stay. However our lodge was attached with a family that had dogs who did nothing but bark morning, noon and night. Perhaps management should consider keeping dog owning families together in one area of the site? Walked out of the restaurant on the first night (having had a 7 hr drive and not wanting to cook we booked ahead) due to poor organization and service (we hadn’t even had a drinks order taken after 30 mins) and never went back. Our savior was the local pub the Exeter Arms where we ate several times and had takeaway pizza on our first night, its walking distance from the site and you are made very welcome. Activity experience mixed instructors were all great and football was a high point but touch rugby for example the lead instructor admitted she’d never played it before and my son was the only participant so if my husband hadn’t joined there wouldn’t have been enough people for a game. Dodgeball there weren’t enough balls - apparently the delivery hadn’t arrived. Not sure on this basis whether they were worth the money. Final thing was we wanted a late check out on our final day. Other places I’ve stayed it’s ranged between £25 and £100 depending how long you ask for. Here they want to basically charge you an extra night at £250 which is excessive in my view. So overall ok but not the experience I’d hoped for, not worth the money and I wouldn’t return.

Stayed here for the week in a luxury 4 bed lodge overlooking the Mole Valley. The Lodge was excellent and well equipped. Underfloor heating throughout- we had to turn it off as the lodge was very cosy. Jacuzzi on the deck was a nice touch along with the bifold doors to open up the lounge. We ordered a breakfast and bbq pack for our arrival- a little expensive but excellent quality food. On site facilities and all’s were great - we used the gym and swimming pool whilst there. We dined at the restaurant on site. New menu which was nice. Service a little slow and meal a little expensive but lovely setting. Plenty for all to do or just sit back and relax. I will come again!

I made a purchase from Travelzoo for afternoon tea and use of leisure facilities at The Mole Resort in Umberleigh, Devon. This was a treat for myself and my daughter as she has been stressed and poorly recently so we wanted to unwind and relax. She also has some poor mental health and OCD so what followed was damaging for her.

Whilst the food and food service were excellent, the leisure facilities were exactly the opposite!

The jacuzzi was out of order but no one thought to tell us beforehand (we travelled over an hour to get there) and we were informed that maintenance were behind on their fixing tasks. The pool water temperature was quite cool, the pool room/area temperature was cold, the sauna was absolutely tiny so no room to squeeze in to use it as others were in it, but the worst offence was the steam room. This literally had small bugs crawling / flying around the walls underneath the seating area – it was absolutely disgusting! I took a video for proof as I’ve never before come across such an outrageous level of zero hygiene control. A member of staff said it was because they had done a deep clean previously and it had brought all the bugs out but that it was fine as they could get them after!! They did not shut it down to solve the problem and save customers from this horror!! We immediately left the pool area as it was such an uncomfortable and health hygiene risk experience – unbelievable!

Also, the changing rooms had empty shower gel/shampoo holders, the lockers had no keys, I had to go back to reception to ask for these to be supplied and was told the keys were too stiff so they don’t usually bother using them. Other ladies in the changing rooms who were locals told us that the jacuzzi is always breaking down and that they’re used to the place being “generally a bit run down” and are advised to just not bring in any valuables rather than having the lockers fixed!

A truly dreadful 'leisure' experience and one never to be repeated.

This was a new type of holiday for us and the reviews promised us a nice vacation and being a fairly new establishment, we thought that everything would be well established but there were a few surprises.
1. Pre-holiday communication - It’s good to get some good and useful information prior to your holiday but after booking we were sent repeated special offers suggesting that we sign up for sports such as axe throwing, pottery and massages. One special offer would have been enough for us.
2. On arrival – When we checked in, we were given a short introduction and as it is a fairly large complex site the receptionist drew the route to our lodge on a site map. Unfortunately, she drew the route to the wrong lodge and so it took us about 30 minutes to find the right lodge.
3. Our accommodation – The lodge was lovely, clean spacious and well positioned but I found it strange that the door to the lounge that had a self-closing device on was ‘wedged open’ with a chair – having looked at this further I established that this was a fire resisting door and installed to protect the staircase from the 1st floor. It was interesting to note that it was not identified as a fire resisting door and there were no instructions in the lodge advising that it should be kept closed so anyone without any expertise in this subject may continue to wedge the door open. Other minor items included the safe didn’t work and the dishwasher required salt and rinse aid.

4. Fire safety – Having established that the cleaners appear to have a set procedure of wedging open the fire doors after cleaning I decided to ask a few questions about the level of fire safety and as the staff on site did not appear to know a great deal about it I wrote to the architect who responded that he was not responsible for the fire safety of the lodges as it had been carried out by a third party but he would forward my request to the management who would be able to respond. As I did not receive a reply from management, I sent a request to the General Manager asking for details of the fire safety arrangements and I received a reply indicating that it would be sent to the appropriate department and despite sending some more follow ups about this I have not received a response.

5. Other matters – All of the literature indicates that there is a Bistro and we went there one day only to find it closed and a member of staff told us that it did not make enough money so it was closed and they were not sure what to do with the space. Another day we arrived back at the lodge to find part of the hot tub electrics on the decking and I took a photo to show the receptionist who said she would get someone to look at but no one arrived and when we checked out, I mentioned this and the receptionist said “oh”. There was also sign by the hot tub indicating that the hot tub would be checked every day but we did not see any sign of this.

Our experience of this resort would not want to make us return and this is a great pity as it does have a lot of potential but until the essential safety procedures are sorted out and communication and management /customer services are improved we cant see it being somewhere we would recommend.

Exceeds any self catering accommodation my family and I have ever stayed at.