Barnett Hill - part of the Alexander Hotel Collection - Guildford

Alex B

Pros||Coordinator – our wedding coordinator was brilliant from the start; Liz was great in communicating, understanding our needs and providing flexibility and attention to detail to planning. Liz made sure we were consulted every step of the way, was quick at getting back to us, made us feel like everything was in hand and taken care of. The final details were handled well and Liz ensured the team was fully briefed for the big day.||Team - the staff did a fantastic job setting up the venue. We provided certain decorations ourselves and the staff did a great job decorating to exact requirements. The operations manager, Lajos, was our coordinator on the day. We were very impressed with him. Lajos was at the venue late the night before and present for the entire wedding day. He checked in on us at every step, without overwhelming us and really made the day flow smoothly and stress free. Everyone knew their roles, the day was well orchestrated and if there were issues on the day, we didn’t know about it. Very happy with Lajos and the team.||Hotel – the rooms were beautifully made, especially the honeymoon suite that overlooks the rear of the hotel and the gardens. It made the day even more special. The hotel grounds were immaculate and every guest commended on how beautiful the grounds were.||Food – the taster menu was arranged 6-8 weeks prior to the wedding. We made suggestions to the menu and were happy with how the food came out on the wedding day. The canapés, wedding breakfast and evening buffet were delicious, beautifully presented, and the breakfast the following day was superb.||Cons||Dance Floor - the room allocated to evening dancing, is required to have a proper dance floor, roughly £600. No other venue we visited required a dance floor.||Overall, we were given the best possible wedding day.

Zoe T

What a Find! Gorgeous hotel and grounds. We had a room in the gardener's cottage which was simply wonderful. Breakfast was one of the best hotel breakfasts I've ever had, in the main hotel, overlooking the grounds. Would definitely go again and stay longer. This was arranged a tad last minute to start off our holiday and so happy we did!

Nicholas Tonkes

Fantastic building that has been modernised in the interior. The buildings are charming, yet also warm and comfortable inside. The grounds are picturesque and the surrounding area is brilliant for walking around to absorb country life. The proximity to great towns and country pubs of the areas is also covenant and allows guests to immerse themselves in Guildford region life. However the highlight was the staff who did their utmost to make our stay enjoyable and hassle free. Truly commendable and I would definitely recommend Barnett Hill to people visiting the region who want to be immersed in the local region.

Robert P

I took my wife for an afternoon tea at this hotel one Sunday. Our anniversary treat turned out to be memorable... ||The good news – the food was excellent. ||That however was no compensation for the shockingly poor service.||On arrival we were ‘greeted’ in an offhand and unwelcoming manner. The tables we were offered outside on the terrace were dirty and had cracked (unhygenic) plastic surfaces. We were served tea after about 10 minutes, and only then did a server come to clean the table around the crockery!||After half an hour we had one desultory semi apology for the long wait. One hour and ten minutes after we arrived we enquired again when our food would appear. It then arrived almost immediately. By this time the tea was stone cold and we were not offered refills of tea or water. ||Had the food arrived one minute later we would have left in disgust. The food was a round of sandwiches, cakes and pastries. Not something I would expect a hotel of this size to need 70 minutes to prepare. Especially as we had booked for a specific time in advance.||On leaving, the staff member taking our payment seemed equally offhand, failing to return our credit card. This would have been the ideal time for them to comment and indeed, apologise for the delay in serving us. There was not even a “did you enjoy your afternoon tea?”||I really did not expect such terrible service at a luxury hotel. The staff seemed bored and indifferent and no-one appeared to be bothered about our impossibly long wait. The experience certainly did not warrant the cost.||At the hotel's invitation a few days later I completed their on-line review of our experience. I opted to make this private, expecting them to contact me to say something. But as they have opted to ignore me, I am making this public.

Nick E

This is a big thank you to all at Barnett hill. ||For the last couple of years I've been unwell meaning alot of hospital trips and dr's both of my sisters have been there for me taking me everywhere from Sussex and St gorges hospital London. They have to travel to me first then head to the appointment. My partner also became unwell so they had both of us. |I discovered an offer on a gift site so booked a cream tea for them both on the 27th this month. |They absolutely love it!! The pictures they sent looked lovely and the picture the waiter took was really good. They said the afternoon teas was really tasty but what top it off was they just chilled in the grounds afterwards .|Thanks once again to all there! one day I'll have to come with them and my partner to taste the food and being an ex royal gardener inspect these lovely gardens I heard and saw the pictures. ? ||Their pictures

Sarah Jane Banahan

My first time visiting.

Stayed in a standard room outside in the courtyard, the room was very clean and quiet. The bed was super comfy and cosy. I love a sparkling clean bathroom so thank you housekeeping and I like the fact you use the brand Temple Spa (really lovely lotions).

Food wise, we both ordered prawn cocktail to start, followed by veg risotto. It would have been lovely to have had the prawn starter served in a traditional cocktail glass, anyhow it still was very tasty. Unfortunately the risotto was very watery, not enough stock/flavour - just needed a bit more kick, however I still ate it 🙂

When we went to the bar for a last drink around 10.35pm the bar had closed and we wanted to buy a bottle of bubbly for our room but turned away and told to order off Uber eats, which we did, I don’t mind but could have added a little more profit to the hotel as we don’t buy cheap 😉

Overall, no complaints to be honest. Staff were lovely, the grounds are beautiful and I definitely will come back (will bring my mum next time for tea and cake).

amanda l

We have to agree with the many reviews we’ve read since staying at Barnett Hill Hotel. The hotel is a beautiful old house with lots of character set in the most glorious gardens in Surrey countryside. Our room was comfy and clean. We first noticed that the service was a little shambolic when we ordered our cream tea. The scones and jam arrived but the waitress seemed surprised that we wanted a pot of tea with them although we had ordered tea. Later our evening meal main took almost 2 hours to arrive staff just walked past us for most of the evening ignoring us until we pointed out that we had sat down at 8pm, had our starter at 8.18pm ish and we were still waiting for our main at 9:45pm! The meal when it finally arrived was a very odd combination of flavours and not very hot. Kind of mass produced Cordon Bleu. Breakfast was unremarkable. I think the scrambled eggs were made from dried egg. Again the service was frustratingly slow and staff seemed indifferent to the guests. Such a shame as we would have liked to go back and stay again but never would now.

nerysfinch

Afternoon tea for my daughter’s birthday. The service was excellent, and the food was delicious. Despite a few last minute changes to our plans they were helpful and accommodating. Beautiful setting. Wholeheartedly recommend and will return