Solent Hotel and Spa

Lovely spacious hotel, good sized rooms with a nice style & everything you might need.

Friendly Reception. helpful staff
Room large and comfortable, large desk and chair to work at with plenty of drawers,
FRESH MILK available to be kept in fridge. Nice selection of tea and coffee.

The pool and spa

Lovely selection of cooked breakfast and fruits and pastries!

Good value,
Great facilities

Rooms and pool great. Fresh milk available is a good idea.

Great couples massage with Amelia and mikaela. Very relaxing and amazing massage. So friendly and helpful

My daughter Michelle and l went for afternoon tea at the Solent Hotel and Spa. Shirley looked after us so well. She was professional, friendly and made the experience really enjoyable. The afternoon tea was delicious and had a nice variety of savoury and sweet items. There was so much food l had to take some home. Thank you Shirley and the chef for a really nice time. Jenny.

My son and his fiance got married here last Saturday. Most of the guests stayed in the hotel the night before and the night of the wedding.

The rooms are spacious, comfortable and well-equipped. I've never slept so well in a hotel bed! Breakfast both mornings was delicious and plenty to choose from. The bars were nice and staff friendly.

The wedding itself was beautiful. The rooms were perfect and the wedding planner worked incredibly hard all day to make sure that everything went to plan and ran like clockwork. The food was exceptional, served professionally you lovely staff who worked really well together. The room was rearranged perfectly from the ceremony, then the meal, then the evening function.

I didn't get time to try the spa but will definitely return to do so!

Good local hotel near Whitely.

Very accessible, staff extremely helpful and friendly.

Food good

We paid £180 for a family room thinking we would treat the kids to a swim and a relaxed afternoon to be told on arrival that it would cost us an additional £30 for 1 hour! When we looked through the glass the pool was jam packed and would not have provided a ‘spa experience’.

We ate at the pub on site - the Parsons Collar and it was so cold we kept our coats on. Food average at best.

Came away wishing we had saved a load of cash and stayed at a Premier Inn.

Had a lovely meal at the solent for mother's day. The whole team make it feel special but Daniele was a very pleasant waiter who made sure everything was ok and ensured we had what we needed. Thank you

Amazing food! Great Mother’s Day food and drinks out with my family, mum and grandparents. Particularly I’d like to mention Daniele who was a brilliant serve for us, very attentive and very friendly! I give her and the hotel 5 stars!!

Cheers,
George

Fantastic service for afternoon tea on Mother’s Day, receipt name Eleanor2

Stayed here for a girls spa weekend just looking for a relaxing change of scene where we both work full time. We look for weekend stay and dine style packages and found the Solent Hotel and Spa in a magazine as a recommendation

In summary would I stay again - yes. Would I recommend - yes on a package if knew what I do now about what that includes and how best to use.

Pros:

*Think the stay and dine is a fair value package and convenient location on the way to and from other locations

* room included a mini fridge and a lovely touch was you could get free fresh milk dispensed with a little jug provided - as a tea lover and uht long life tea hater this was great

*room itself was a fair size with working air con and comfortable enough, slept ok with bed not being too hard (I’d prefer softer personally). Room was also quiet - tip to specify if you don’t want adjoining rooms though (ours was which is normally louder but no guests in next room)

* menu in the Fyre main hotel restaurant was good choice; plenty of things I’d have liked to have

* breakfast was again good choices and would happily have that again / more on a longer stay with range of hot food and continental options. Nice granary bread option rather than dry plain brown option alongside white bread. Could ask for eggs Benedict or omelet made to order

*parking not a problem and little shopping place with multiple shops less than 5 min drive away / 10 min walk which we went to second day and got a few bits

*spa nice place to relax when not too busy and included in stay. Tip if you want treatments book in advance

Cons

*we had a miscommunication with what was in used in the dinner and stay package - told it included 2 nights, then only 1 night dinner. We were then auto booked one night in main Fyre resultant and 1 in the pub/bar near hotel. The pub was awful. Basic pub food which sounded better than it was and was overcooked/dry. Would not have personally picked to eat there and was disappointed - maybe better if young children with kids options. But I wouldn’t have wasted a dinner allowance there. You can pick where you eat and don’t have to do the pub.

*avoid busy breakfast times as it can get overwhelming and busy running out of things - topped up and staff were good. But felt a bit chaotic. Very different to when we were earlier first morning which was nice.

*spa doesn’t have enough loungers and could do with a bigger area. Can’t be fixed now but it did have a feel of people waiting / wanting you to move for them if you had one.

*main restaurant was great menu choices and would have been a nice evening had a very large group not been booked in, who had pre-ordered but just overwhelmed the kitchen and we had an hour wait after starters. Not helped by not being told on the menu or verbally that if the bone in ha was ordered it was a longer wait (recommend you put that on menu). My stroganoff then came out with the strongest mustard/horseradish flavoured sauce it stung my nose to eat and I had to send back. It was also so noisy from the big table it was unpleasant. Ended up leaving - although before we did the manager did sort things out and he was great making it better overall. Staff were doing their best and were generally great throughout the stay.

Grace and her colleague who carried out our couples massages/facial for myself and partner which was a birthday present from myself to him, both therapists were very professional throughout our treatment and reassuring when we unfortunately arrived a bit late. Grace did my back neck and shoulder massage which was pure heaven and used a non gluten containing massage oil when I explained about my allergies it smelt divine, the entire thing experience was perfect and totally relaxing, we shall most definitely be back soon, thank you. ☺️

Location worked well

Stayed at the Solent Hotel & Spa recently with my family. I used to stay here regularly about 15 years ago, often three or four nights a week, back when it was simply a good, reliable hotel rather than a “spa” destination. Sadly the experience this time was disappointing.

We booked a family room. Years ago these had bunk beds for children. Now it’s a small sofa bed, which feels like a downgrade rather than an improvement. The bedroom itself has been updated and looks fairly modern, but the bathroom clearly hasn’t. It feels tired and well overdue for refurbishment.

The biggest issue is the way the hotel presents itself as a spa property. Three days before arrival we received a call asking what time slot we wanted for the pool. That was the first hint that something had changed. When we arrived we were told access to the pool hadn’t been paid for and would cost £30 for a one hour slot.

For a hotel that brands itself as a spa hotel, charging guests £30 per hour to use a basic pool feels excessive. At that point you start wondering what exactly the “spa” element actually includes. Walking past the pool area on the way to the room, it looked extremely busy, more like the away end at a Championship football match than anything approaching a relaxing spa experience.

In reality it’s essentially a standard hotel pool that guests are expected to pay a significant extra fee to use.

Dinner was at the The Parsons Collar, the pub located in the hotel grounds. The venue presents itself as quite a polished, slightly upscale dining space, but in reality it’s closer to a large sports bar. Multiple screens showing football, rugby commentary playing over the speakers, and a fairly casual crowd. There’s nothing wrong with that atmosphere, but it shouldn’t be marketed as something more refined. It was also extremely cold inside, although oddly the toilets were warmer than the dining area.

By about 10pm we were simply too cold and headed back to the hotel bar, which at least was warm.

Overall the biggest issue is expectations. The hotel advertises itself as a spa hotel, but in practice it feels like a fairly standard hotel where spa access is treated as an expensive add-on. Being told that because the booking was made through Booking.com the spa isn’t included only adds to that confusion.

If you’re expecting a genuine spa hotel experience, you may find the reality quite different.