Sopwell House Hotel

Great stay!

Excellent afternoon tea in Sopwell house very delicious and the best elegant place . Beautiful in every way been there every week for afternoon tea with different friends in June and July , recommended to everyone to visit and have afternoon tea.

We stayed in a plush room that unfortunately overlooked the car park. It was pleasant and quite a high quality room.The shower was large and had high quality hair and shower products with a not so fluffy bath robe and slippers.The room did not have a fridge, which considering the price was more than a little disappointing for a hotel of this advertised distinction and so we had to make do with uht milk to make a hot drink.

We couldn't gain access to the grounds as there was a wedding.

The breakfast was good, but the fact that a supplementary menu was slid under my nose that had porridge at an extra at £5 and eggs royale at another £7 rather irked me. Upselling for the sake of it, in an already dare I say, overpriced hotel felt needlessly exploitative.

There is clearly a lucrative market for this kind of hotel in the south and it certainly wasn't obvious there is any kind of cost of living crisis here.

The parking was free.

Beautiful peaceful room in The Mews with air conditioning. The breakfast was very good, although it would have been nice to have some hot dishes to order a la carte. Hash browns, pastries and bread were all very good. The Spa was great, with a big pool and good facilities in The Club, particularly the sauna which was excellent. Very high quality Spa treatments. Great cocktails at the Octagon Bar. Delicious burger, fries and crab brioche bun at The Brasserie.

Lovely place excellent facilities

Room was ready to check in early (12) so off to good start! Impeccable service from staff, superb dinner and breakfast in Brasserie - beyond our expectations. The Cottonmill Club was genuinely excellent … top facilities and time slows down here.

Cocktail at Octagon was also spot on and expertly prepared.

Pricey but would definitely return - thanks

Unfortunately our one night stay got off to a bad start. We had lunch in the brasserie and then tried to check in to our room at 3pm, but were told it wasn't ready. There was no apology for this, or idea how long it would take. At this point it would be normal for a luxury hotel to offer some free drinks while we waited in the bar for the inconvenience, but I had to ask for this from the front desk staff.

The drinks at the Octagon bar were very good, but the service slow, despite being almost empty. After 30 mins we were allowed into the room, which we found a decent size and initially looked clean.

The air con in the room was weak, even turned up to max, and wasn't enough to handle the high temperatures which made for an uncomfortable night's sleep. We found black mould on the shower floor, walls and shower head, again not what you'd expect from a 4 star hotel. We also couldn't lock the door - the lock didn't line up with the frame. There was some corridor noise late in the evening, but appreciate that's always a risk when staying in a hotel that's also a busy wedding venue.

We spoke to the manager in the morning who checked the room, agreed that the mould was unacceptable and the lock not working and pledged to take the room out of service until both were fixed. She was adamant that the air con was fine, but I see several other reviews here mention how weak and sub-standard it is, so there is clearly a wider problem. She offered to take 10% of our bill which was appreciated.

Overall, the level of service and quality of the room don't seem to justify the price and so we would have to say it's poor value for money.

It seems most of the responses from Sopwell House management on here are AI-generated and lazily copied and pasted, so please don’t reply with “your comments have been passed on to the relevant team” when you’re so clearly not even reading them.

We came to celebrate my husband’s birthday. Our lunch in the Brasserie was enjoyable and our waiter attentive and professional. We did have rather a long wait for puddings.

We found the service in the Octagon bar unacceptably slow on the two occasions we used it on Saturday.

Breakfast on Sunday was chaotic and of a poor standard. We had to ask for our hot drinks order to be taken, and were greeted by a sullen girl whose response was, “What do you want?” Nobody removed used crockery so bowls and plates piled up on a fairly small table. Monday was better. Dinner on Sunday in the Brasserie was delicious, but the wrong reservation time was put down by the staff and I had to contact them to correct it.

Our accessible Chic room was smaller than I had expected and the shower room was extremely small. The bed was comfortable. The kettle cannot fit under the taps, so we had to use bottled water. We were surprised to see plastic pots of UHT milk. We rang for fresh milk both mornings. Sunday we had to phone twice.

I use a wheelchair and we found the steep, undulating, ramped corridor leading to the lift very challenging. The incline is quite scary for both the person pushing the wheelchair and for its occupant.

Overall, not the experience I had hoped for.

The bed was comfortable and the room was a reasonable size, however the soundproofing was really bad. Every time people walked past it was like they were crashing into our room, waking us up repeatedly overnight.

Service in the brasserie and Octagon Bar was painfully slow on multiple occasions, and whilst there were some gluten free options on the menu the fact I had to scan a QR code to view allergen information meant I felt I was being singled out compared to the rest of the group - not very inclusive. For a place that aspires to a high quality ambiance this was a let-down, adding the allergen information to the printed menu wouldn’t negatively effect the experience for others but help those with dietary needs feel much more considered.

Food quality at lunch in the brasserie and dinner in the conservatory bar was very good, although breakfast was not their strength the following morning. The cooked breakfast buffet was mediocre at best; with fried eggs that had dried up on the hot plate and scrambled eggs that tasted like salty lumpy milk - I’m not convinced any egg had touched that dish.

The gluten free cereal selection was good and a limited selection of bread / muffins but not much else on offer: no sausages and gluten traces in the potato rosti, and no sign of gluten free toast. Again, not living up the level of quality the hotel claims to offer. Even pubs or B&Bs can do a better gluten free breakfast at a quarter of the price.

Despite an abundance of waiting staff they weren’t very attentive. Having to wait over 10 minutes for a hot drink order to be taken and then a similar amount of time for it to be brought to the table made me long for the self service buffet of a premier inn where at least I could get another cup of tea before breakfast service ended. We had intentionally gone down to breakfast relatively early to avoid the peak time as advised on check in, so who knows what it would have been like later that morning.

Overall the decor was over the top with a lot of artificial plants and clearly a lot spent on different sides for interior design and furnishings, which isn’t a compliment and detracted from the historic house.

We have just had the most wonderful experience having afternoon tea at Sopwell House. It was outstanding. From the moment we arrived we were treated as if we were special - in a good way. Nadia was the most fantastic hostess and all the staff were lovely. We had different types of tea and the most amazing vegetarian sandwiches. The falafel wrap was so different. We took home the cakes as we were stuffed.

The setting was beautiful and the decor added to the experience. Thank you team for making it such a memorable afternoon.

The Afternoon Tea waa splendid. Thank you to Lun.

We've come back from an overnight stay so wanted to review while fresh. Overall a nice stay, but too inconsistent. The Cottonmill Spa is genuinely incredible: one of the best spas we've ever visited. It was amazing in great weather but I imagine would have been great in the cold too. High quality, deeply relaxing. We had dinner in Omboo and had the set menu, which is a great experience: incredible food kept on coming, with delightful service, and an after dinner drink in the Octagon bar which is really classy (and amazing cocktails!). So much so good. Now the downsides. The room (we had a Chic Double) was quite small but just about OK - it looks from the floorplan that the old building means some rooms are very different sizes and shapes so might be worth calling in advance and checking you've got a kingsize (we did). The decor was generally good, nice furniture, comfy bed good shower and Elemis everywhere. However the aircon seemed to do almost nothing so the room was hot (while being quite loud). Lots of noise from the corridor and other floors. Overall just about good enough, but not worth what we paid for the room itself. Then breakfast: what a disappointment. We were crammed in so close we could have easily joined in the conversation with the couple on the next table. The buffet breakfast was very disappointing, only just better than a Premier Inn honestly. Lunch in brasserie and dinner menu were ok but again nothing better (not enough vegetarian choices in particular).

A lovely, indulgent afternoon tea experience. An excellent choice of teas served with a fine selection of sandwiches, scones, and sweet treats made by artisan. The service is top rate and a special mention to Vincent who was incredibly attentive, helpful and knowledgeable. excellent customer service from Vincent and his colleagues and all with a smile. Highly recommend and will be back

We checked in at around 6pm. The hotel itself is beautiful, and the food was excellent.
The following morning, after checking out, we went to use the spa but were told we couldn't because we had already checked out. That was extremely disappointing and really spoiled what had otherwise been a pleasant stay.

We regularly visit Gleneagles, where guests are welcome to continue using the facilities on the day of checkout. The contrast in customer service and hospitality was obvious.

I've given this stay 2 stars solely because of this policy. With a 6pm check-in and an 11am check-out, we effectively had very limited time to enjoy the hotel. We paid around £400 for the room and over £200 for dinner, so the hotel received more than £600 from us for less than 17 hours on the property. Refusing to let paying guests use the spa for a short period after checkout felt unnecessarily inflexible and poor value.

Sadly, because of this experience, we won't be returning.

Lovely hotel inside, lovely staff, great food and awesome massage if very pricey 🙈