Frensham Pond Country House Hotel & Spa, The Watermark

The place is absolutely breathtaking. Splendid service, great rooms, very comfortable stay, great spa offerings, very proactive and helpful staff. If you ever happen to check in here, look for Akash at the front desk and the rest of your stay will be a breeze.

Would like to give it zero stars. Feel completely hoodwinked and ripped off. A budget hotel at premium prices in my opinion. Never again. The name implies a country house hotel and indeed one with a spa. Nothing like it in my opinion, in fact we had spent the previous nights at a real country house hotel. This horrible hotel, was nothing like it. Reminicent of a £50 a night budget hotel. The photo implies a location on the lake. However there are roads and a car park immediately around the hotel. We were told it was not possible to eat breakfast outside overlooking the lake (and the road). Breakfast was horrible and dried up. Breakfast was totally self service and really not nice. Hot drink self service from a machine only. Horrible smelly room overlooking the car park. Found a dead bug on the sofa on our arrival. Horrible 1970s type decor in orange and brown, very uncomfortable sofa. Pillows felt like bricks. Woke up with neck pain. Small room, tiny bathroom with no bath. Absolutely nothing to recommend it. You need to pay about £60 extra I believe per couple per night to use the spa. We only set eyes on 3 members of staff during our whole visit. So completely inferior to the country house hotel we had just left, which was charging a similar price for service and facilities far in excess of the minimal offering at this hotel. Photos show horrible eggs on offer at breakfast and the dead bug we found on our sofa in our room on our arrival.

I booked access to spa facilities for 2 hours, a couple full body massage and lunch for my husband and myself. The booking process was terribly slow, with two mistakes made by them in sending incorrect payment requests. We arrived on time and no one was at the spa. We waited and were eventually met by someone who showed us the facilities. We were the only ones in the spa. The jacuzzi was unusable as it was so cold. We were told we could order food and drinks via a qr code, which we did. We waited 45 minutes for 2 juices. I walked around trying to find someone to question where our food and drinks were but the spa was deserted. Eventually bumped into someone and the juices were brought down. Our food took another twenty minutes. Our massage time was set for 12 o'clock. We got ready for 12 o'clock and then had to wait another 15 minutes at reception because the spa manager had to do a pedicure. The massage was good but will not return to this spa. I have since sent 3 separate emails requesting a receipt for my payments and have not received a single reply.