The Gainsborough Bath Spa - Small Luxury Hotels of the World

Nothing

They don’t tell you untill checking in that the pool and spa have limited access. We went down to the pool only to be turned away as we were not permitted to use it between about 12 and 5 pm ( don’t recall the exact times). This was very disappointing as the spa facilities were a major reason to book this hotel. We booked through Booking.com but there was no mention of restrictions at the time of booking.
We weren’t expecting this in a hotel of this stature and price point.
We won’t be staying again.

Not much really, except for the late check-in (4:00pm) & early check-out (11:00am) times.

Nothing

אולי ניתן להרחיב מעט את השעות בהם אורחי המלון יכולים להשתמש בספא?

The welcome wasn't genuine. For a 5 star, I expect a lot more. We we're in a twin room, one of the mattresses was so bad, we slept on the floor the first night. The breakfast was basic, again, not 5 star quality. Twining tea, very slow to replenish, not worth the money. Comparing this to a 5 star in London, like the One Aldwych, no comparison. If it wasn't for the spa, this would have been a very disappointing trip.

The massage experience

The hotel parking was around a five-minute walk away, which made carrying luggage to and from the hotel quite inconvenient. To be fair, the concierge did offer assistance with our bags on the steps, but parking was also an additional £40 per night.

One of the biggest disappointments was the spa. Despite being a paying hotel guest, access to the spa facilities was heavily restricted because day spa visitors were prioritised. Guests could only use the spa between 8am–10am or 7pm–10pm once day visitors had left.

Considering we had booked a suite costing £795 for one night, it was frustrating to then be told that breakfast was not included, spa access would cost an additional £75 per person (later reduced to £70), and parking was another £40. I've stayed in many luxury hotels at a similar price point, and I've never experienced so many additional charges simply to access facilities that most guests would reasonably expect to be included. There were also several service issues. We were required to collect our own luggage from the luggage room whenever we needed it, with reception staff simply directing us to retrieve it ourselves. This felt unusual for a five-star hotel and raised questions about security, as there appeared to be little oversight regarding who was collecting which bags.

In our room, the telephone was not working, meaning we had to use our mobile phones to contact reception via the main switchboard. Although an apology note had been left regarding the issue, it was still inconvenient. Additionally, if you selected the wrong extension, you were directed to leave a voicemail rather than being transferred to a member of staff.
The reason we needed to call reception in the first place was that neither the television nor the Chromecast functionality was working. Eventually, we managed to get through to someone, and to his credit, the staff member who attended was extremely helpful and did his best to resolve the issue.

There is nothing not to like

Not being able to take my 13year old son to enjoy the spa experience with me. It would be nice the hotel could offer the possibility of booking a spa session just for families so children could enjoy it too.

No complaints