Alexander House & Utopia Spa - East Grinstead

ASHWHU

Stayed here for 2 nights for our anniversary at the start of October. It had been somewhere we had looked at previously for a stay and finally decided to book. First impressions were good. A very nice looking building and interior, friendly reception and were given a tour of the hotel, before being shown to our room, which had been upgraded and was much appreciated ||The room itself was great. We stayed in Marlborough. A comfortable and cosy room with a very large bathroom with a nice double shower and bathtub. The only small issue, very minor, were the windows, in which the handles and hinges were slightly loose, meaning opening and closing was a bit of a pain. Considering we only opened and closed them a couple of times, it’s nothing major.||The Spa area was fantastic. Can’t say a bad word at all. The changing room facilities were great also. The spa itself was a very enjoyable experience. A nice size pool and a fantastic warm spa pool with multiple jets. We booked a late checkout so we could make more use of it on the the last day and we still didn’t want to leave it. The area itself is decorated extremely well too. We also both had treatments that we enjoyed.||We also had breakfast at Reflections twice. We didn’t eat in the evening as we had already booked other places, but breakfast was very enjoyable. All good quality and cooked to order. Good continental selection, considering some places don’t tend to refill much, but this was not an issue here. Very nice coffee too. Service was also good. Even though the first day it took a little while for the breakfast to arrive, they checked on us twice and kept us updated, which is all you can ask for. It turned up fresh and delicious, so no issue at all. We also visited the champagne bar in the evening. A very nice looking room with good service.||All in all a fantastic experience and would happily return. It’s a lovely place with great facilities and I really do feel that they make sure your stay there is as relaxing as possible. It’s a 5 star establishment, but the whole feel to it is very chilled and that’s exactly what you want for this kind of stay. ||Would like to thank everyone for helping make our anniversary stay a great one.

Mandeep S

Just had a wonderful stay at Alexander House. ||The room was amazing. Prior to arrival, we were invited to submit a bid to upgrade our room. To my surprise, our modest bid for a suite was successful. It really was worth the money. ||||We really enjoyed the spa. We previously visited it 13 years ago and I was pleasantly surprised by how well maintained and wonderful it was so many years later. If you're into your hydrotherapy then this place is definitelyworthvisiting. ||||Finally, a huge thank you to the staff who were really friendly and helpful. ||||we'll definitely return again.

Kelly Grayland

Room was large and surfaces were clean. Bathroom was huge. There were some dusty cobwebs along the very high ceilings which I can appreciate is something that maybe cannot be cleaned very regularly.
Beautiful building. Nice food.
Can find cheaper alternatives for a spa weekend. £1000 Including room, food, drink and 1 treatment for 1 night.
Also would have been better to have treatment on the day of arrival since we paid extra for early check in and requested it.
Overall lovely experience but didn't feel it was value for money

Karen P

We stayed at this beautiful hotel to celebrate my husband's 50th birthday. Our stay was perfect, our room was beautiful, the spa was amazing and the food was delicious too. The staff were so friendly and welcoming. They made a special effort for my husband's birthday with balloons and cakes. We will definitely be returning.

Mark “The Zesty Guide” Gale

Beautiful spa with excellent treatment options. We booked a spa day with massage and lunch. Thoroughly enjoyed it and set in stunning surroundings. Generally helpful staff (one surly receptionist in the spa) but the bar staff in the piano bar were lovely and the cocktail was literally breathtaking! Hoping to book a night sometime soon and will update on room and dinner.

Demelza M

Myself and a friend visited Alexander House for a night away. Unfortunately that day before my arrival I sustained an ankle injury which worsened by driving to the hotel. I tried to go to the spa but the heat of the pools worsened the sprain. I immediately had to get out and go straight to the local urgent care unit to get an x-ray to make sure it wasn’t broken. ||||The staff who dealt with us were very kind and brought me some ice and even a wheelchair to get to the car as at that point I couldn’t walk. They informed us that it would be down to the discretion of the reservations team to rearrange our booking but they were thought under the circumstances it would be okay. We didn’t want our money back more just to be able to come back when not in a great deal of pain! ||||After having spent a lot of the evening in the urgent care unit I received a call the next day to inform us that we would not be able to transfer the booking to another day and we would have to pay immediately for both the room and the spa. Bearing in mind we used the spa for a total of five minutes we had to pay £20 each for something that really should be included in the price of the room anyway not to mention the hot tub being luke warm at best. ||||The man I spoke had zero empathy for the situation and just kept telling me that it was all in the terms and conditions. This of course being true and I understand a business is a business however it felt so cold and considering the hotel felt pretty empty the night we arrived just felt so hostile. I explained that I am a single mother to a disabled child and whilst I am not going for a sympathy vote it would have been nice for this to taken into consideration, for me it’s a cost that of course is worthwhile had I not sustained the injury that further developed onsite. ||||I’ve visited the spa before and would have continued to do so but now I feel like I would avoid it at all costs due to the manner in which we were treated under exceptional circumstances beyond my control. Absolutely gutted to have wasted money on this hotel with such terrible customer service and care.

Kiran Parmar

We had a really nice experience at Alexander house. Lilly the restaurant manager left a lovely lasting impression. She is warm, kind and really genuine. It's the people which make experiences worthwhile and she made the stay worthwhile.

The rest of the venue was great and really good value for money.

Elle S

We stayed here as 4 girls for a friend’s weekend as part of one of their spa deals.|The deal included £40 towards dinner each, room, full use of spa, 40min massage and breakfast.||The welcome was warm when we arrived and plenty of offers to help with cases. The rooms were good with huge bathrooms. We had asked rooms to be made up to twins but only one had been but staff very responsive in terms of sorting that out quickly and also bringing us robes so we could go down to the spa.||The spa was busy so not as relaxing as it could be but I’m guessing this is because of the deal. The spa pool , steam room, sauna and jacuzzis were great. We particularly loved the outside jacuzzi and hopped back in after our massages and ordered Prosecco which was fun.||In terms of the massages - mine was very average. The lady was lovely and friendly but I felt she was distracted , if I’m honest my guess is that she was using her phone as she kept trailing off, down to using one hand only then eventually stopping for a bit, this happened repeatedly all the way through - of course I could not say if this was really the case or not as I was laying face down but it really troubled me.||We had evening meal in the Reflections restaurant. The food was ok, not amazing. However the main problem was that we waited at least 45 mins between starter and main! We were pretty hungry, sadly my main of cauliflower was very undercooked.||Our breakfast in the same restaurant in the morning was better. The food choices were good and service was quick. Poached eggs were all pretty solid but otherwise all good.||We took a short walk round the grounds in the morning. It was pleasant to be outside in the fresh air and green areas.||When we came to check out we were overcharged by £80. We asked to check the bill and it appears that they had only taken £40 off each rooms bill for dinner rather than per person. It was quite tricky to work this out with how the bills were provided. They did reimburse once we were clear about what had happened but sadly there was no apology. We decided to hang out in the lounge area for an hour or so before leaving and we were near the reception area and heard at least 2 other parties have the same problem and ask for it to be remedied - I wonder how many people did not check their bill and overpaid? ||Overall we had a good weekend but we were left a little disappointed.