Nutfield Priory Hotel Spa, Surrey Review

Overall Rating

Nice treatments

service, standard of the spa facilities, if visiting the spa as a day guest you won't get anywhere near the charm of the old building which actually only houses the hotel.

I sent this email to Nutfield this morning, following a hen party day which I organised for a friend. In my opinion it would be very easy to do better elsewhere, even if it costs a little more:

Dear Sirs,

I visited the Nutfield Spa on Saturday 15th for a hen party and I thought some comments might be useful.

I have been to a few spas in the UK, including a weekend break at Ragdale Hall last month, so I have an idea about how these things work and compare.

First point is that on the internet and in the brochure the information, quite understandably, has a focus on the gorgeous old hotel building. Having not visited before, and because it is not spelt out, it was a little disappointing that the spa and leisure centre is so separate from the charm of the hotel. I was rather under the impression we would be able to enjoy the grounds (although it was raining anyway) and log fires and have a lunch to be remembered in a nice hotel. Maybe it should be clearer that this is not the case to prevent the inevitable 'oh' feeling when you pull up the drive and turn towards a modern leisure centre and not the romantic old building.

The treatments themselves were lovely; everyone thought so and felt very relaxed. However, the overall service wasn't quite up to scratch for a spa day treat. There wasn't really anyone around in the lounge room checking if people needed tea, coffee, wine etc - you had to hunt such things down. The lunch was actually a real disappointment - the food was great, fresh and tasty, but (perhaps because of the website and general impression I was under) I really thought we would be set up at a lovely table and be able to make a bit of an event out of the whole thing. As it was we were sat at a completely empty table in the canteen area, which had not been laid out for us or anything. Like I said, the food was nice, but as it was a hen do (a once in a lifetime day) and some people had travelled a long way to make it, I was hoping it would be the best bit of the day for people to feel spoilt, take their time and have fun. As it was I was in quite a rush to make it back to the much more comfortable and welcoming lounge area and the whole thing was a bit of a wash out.

A few from the hen party invited had tried but failed to leave messages to get additional appointments slotted in for while we were there. They had called the spa, left messages and never had calls returned, therefore only a couple of people had anything other than the package treatment. I went down for a swim but the changing rooms in the leisure centre were in a bit of a state - they smelt terrible, and one of the toilets was rather nastily blocked (in the worst way if that makes sense!) so i wasn't inspired to spend much time there and went back upstairs. Lastly, when we left nobody said goodbye, thanked us for coming, checked if we had enjoyed it etc... we just sort of sloped out without acknowledgment.

I don't want to sound totally negative as we had a nice time and a fabulous hen party evening added to the day too, but I have been to a few of these things recently and it was interesting to see how it compared. A hen is quite a big deal, and cannot be repeated and little things make such a difference. I was a little disappointed, having gone to the effort to arrange everything and convincing everyone to part with their pennies, and as a spa regular I wouldn't actually choose to visit again based on the points I made above and I am the sort of person who will happily spend £500 on a weekend to a fab spa - it just has to be worth it. I thought it might be helpful to have this information to hand if you look to improve service at any stage in the year.

Our organizer was most helpful though and very kindly gave a refund to a lady who could not make it at the last minute as she is very poorly which she (and I ) very much appreciated.

Kind regards,