Birch Selsdon

Perfect place to get away from the real world. Beautiful property and stunning setting. Staff were very attentive in all areas of the hotel. Food and drink was excellent and have to recommend the Spring Punch cocktail. The rooms were extremely comfortable. No TV in the room but this fits with the purpose of getting away from it all. Highly recommended.

Have just returned from a family & friends weekend trip to Birch and I’m still trying to figure out what I thought. I was desperate to leave so that’s probably not a great sign but now I’m out of there I am remembering plenty of the good bits. The grounds are excellent, the staff are warm and accommodating - we were very impressed with Immy who led the nature walk, however the overall experience felt a bit like one of those teenage trips to a YMCA hostel - The hotel is tired and feels run down except for some of the main communal areas which is clearly where all the money went. The family room wing was grim to say the least and other than an excellent bunk bed in no way qualified as fit for families. We had no heating (after asking twice for this to be rectified we were given a small portable heater which was a safety nightmare with our 3 year old son) The bathroom felt dirty and cold with nowhere to hang or put anything down on and we had to have our 15 week old baby in bed with us as it was too cold for him to sleep in the travel cot provided. We were originally given a disabled room with no bath and when we pointed out a bath is a bit of a necessity with kids they moved us to an upstairs room - which was up two flights of stairs- not fun with small children and all the detritus and a buggy we were traveling with. We enjoyed eating in Vervain - the vegetarian dishes were especially good but the food overall was mediocre and over priced. For £50 we we joined the Wildling family forest school. 2.5 hours of being politely ‘told off’ and firmly bossed around after a long walk ’ (which was entirely unsuitable for tired 3 year olds up hill all the way back) Saturday was torrential rain and by 1pm we were all out of ideas of on how to entertain the children. The kids room full of toys and entertainment was booked all day with activities that the children were too young for so we weren’t allowed to access that room until 4pm! And the pool wasn’t heated so we couldn’t use that either. By a Sunday morning I was dying to leave and get back to soem warmth and comfort. The trip overall didn’t break the bank and I wonder if this place would come into its own in better weather but I think I’d be unlikely to return and find out

avoid like the plague. we had a night booked here and had an email the day before we were supposed to come telling us one of our booked activities was cancelled with 0 explanation or mention of refund. looked up the hotel to check our other activity hadn’t been cancelled and saw article upon article about it going into administration (unsurprising based on the other reviews I’ve now seen). since we had received absolutely zero communication from birch, I rang the morning of our stay to check how this would impact our stay. a member of staff told me that the lido was closed, and the majority of activities were in the process of being cancelled so we were unable to book into anything else. the wellness space doesn’t exist and you can’t get treatments as stated on site. at this point the money had already been taken from our account, had we received any communication at all about this we would’ve cancelled and got a refund but we didn’t hear a peep about the fact our experience would be absolutely nothing like promised at time of booking. all we would be able to do was sleep in a sub par room and have some food and drink which we’d have to pay even more money for. we rang back again a short while after discussing what we thought was best to do. we spoke to a lady who told us she absolutely understood our situation and would have a manager ring back to discuss a refund of our activity and nights stay. she said we would hear from them within the hour. an hour came and went so we rang back, with no answer on any of the options you can select upon calling. collectively we have rung over 20 times and not heard back. have sent 4 emails, messages on social media platforms and heard nothing. we will be doing all we can to get this refund back but i feel it’s important to warn absolutely everyone to not book to stay here and if you already have a stay booked, cancel while you can before you end up having to deal with this incompetence! also important to note you can still book a stay at their cheshunt location on site which has apparently closed down and i think that says it all.

Went to Birch Selsdon with family, to the Vervain restaurant. Faultless service, all staff were excellent and so friendly. We had a good variety of meals from the menu, and the quality of the food was excellent, not a scrap left 😋. Thank you for an excellent evening Birch, we will definitely return and highly recommend. PS, we had a little look around the grounds and building, absolutely stunning location. 😍

An excellent family half term trip close to London! The hotel is perfect for a relaxed weekend. Excellent kids activities and wonderful friendly staff! We even enjoyed the heated lido in October! Excellent programme of activities for children during school holidays. Lovely stylish communal areas! The food was delicious too!!!

Our stay was fantastic. Bedroom was spacious and beautifully decorated. The gym was clean and had everthing I needed. The food in the Vervain was superb, Amelia was fantastic, she was super friendly and helpful, really added to the experience. Would definitely advise to friends and family as the overall service we recieved was stellar. Will be booking again.