South Lodge

My wife and I visited South Lodge over the late May bank holiday. The location is stunning, and the weather cooperated as well - which is lovely. The main “house” itself is very much a converted stately home that oozes of history and character. There are two more modern “wings” to the hotel, that I assume have been added in the past 10-years or so. There is also an amazing spa, as well as a nice restaurant, great bar, etc. We travel alot, including to the Middle East and Asia. So, our standards and expectations are quite high. I also rarely give poor reviews. However, we paid £460 for one night including breakfast, and frankly I don’t think it was worth the money. Four reasons: 1. The room was large and well appointed, but it was plain dirty. Carpets and furniture stains were evident. Towels were not clean. 2. The spa was amazing, but it was so busy and overcrowded that we could barely use the facilities. The sauna and large heated pool were consistently packed to the brim. Towel and robe availability was sparse. To make matters worse; there was a swim yoga class being taught on the Monday morning, so we couldn’t even access the pool for nearly 2 hours on the date of departure. 3. The Staff were nice, but the service was consistently slow (breakfast, drinks, etc.). Their uniforms were also noticeably unclean and unkept. I also noticed that plates and cutlery were not fully cleaned (I had to send back a coffee in one case) 4. Finally and somewhat annoyingly, our room was not ready at the 3pm check in time. To be fair, we arrived about 90 mins early - at 1:30. We were told to expect a text when our room was ready. That text never came. We eventually came back to the front desk at 3:05, at which time we were told that it still wasn’t ready. We eventually go into the room by 3:15, but you could tell that the cleaning had been last minute and rushed. Thus is also probably why the room appeared dirty. My wife and I both agreed that South Lodge has so much potential. But for £460 per night (and for a room that faced the entry parking lot), it needs to be near perfect.

Absolutely flawless stay at South Lodge! It was our first visit after having stayed the their sister hotel Pennyhill Park many times. We stayed 2 nights for my 40th birthday in one of their new Reeds Lodges - we stayed in Spa category of the Reeds of which there are only 2, the lodge we were in was Newt, right at the very end with a gorgeous pond and fountain right in front of it. The Lodge itself was incredible! Everything in it was beautiful right down to the glassware. The “Spa” aspect of the lodge was brilliant too, it had its own 2 person inferred sauna that you access via the deck and the shower has a steam room function that was so good we actually used it more than the one in the actual spa. The service linked to the Reeds is just next level - the only other place we’ve experienced such an attentive and personalised experience was at a top resort in the Maldives. When you arrive you can be added to a WhatsApp group with the staff looking after you. The team members looking after us were so welcoming and really made us feel that nothing was too much trouble. Any time we needed picking up in the buggy or wanted something delivered to the room we just used the WhatsApp and it happened almost instantly. We never waited longer than 2 min for a buggy pickup. Also the treats and welcome cocktail waiting for us in the room on arrival was a beautiful extra touch. The wild swimming happens in the lake that the other Reeds lodges are in front of so there was no real disturbance from that activity although unfortunately the path that leads to the wild swimming runs directly in front of the 2 Spa lodges - which considering the location of the outdoor bath (right up against the glass metres from the path) doesn’t feel like the best thought out route - although we were told by staff the balance between wild swimming and privacy in the Reeds was being looked at - which I sincerely hope they do because we would love to stay in the same lodge again in the summer and make use of the wonderful deck space. Food was incredible - we ate at Camellia the first night and had a beautiful meal. We ate at The Pass the second night which is a wonderful experience, very interesting being able to see the chefs at work. We had breakfast at Botánica both mornings, their breakfast service runs till 11:30 and the offerings were unique and incredibly delicious - if you want something different from standard eggs & bacon then eating there is an absolute must. The spa is fabulous, I had 2 treatments, a facial and a hot stone massage and both were divine. We really didn’t want to leave and could have easily stayed another night - cannot wait to come back and stay again.