Felbridge Hotel

I had a bit of an unfortunate stay at the Felbridge hotel. We had booked the overnight spa trip for £238.
We arrived at the hotel and upon entry we were greeted by a clean, well laid out reception and a smiley receptionist. We booked in and were given brief directions to our room, but we did have the offer of help with our bags, which I think is an improvement after reading some older reviews.
We got to our superior double room and couldn’t see a thing, so we fumbled for the light switches, which did nothing. Then for the lamps, which also didn’t switch on. My other half found the phone with the light from his mobile and phoned reception, who told us we need to put our room key in the slot near the door to switch on the electricity. It ruined our first impression of the room a tad that they forgot to tell us this when we checked in. We had a peek out the window to a terrible view of a huge hedge and some wood construction materials in an alleyway.
We did our room check and when opening the wardrobe we were horrified to find a grotty pair of socks on the shelf from a previous customer. I’m still haunted by the image now. I think the housekeeper was rather distracted when they got to our room as the bin was also full of coffee and empty packets, and a glob of hair.
We had massages booked for 4pm and we went down 20 mins early. We had robes and slippers with the room (My other half had one with a yellow stain on the shoulders/​collar which made him uneasy) and were able to wear them down to the spa. We got there before quarter to and filled out the health forms. When we handed them in we were told to wait for the therapists. They arrived just after 4 and we were confused as to why they were introducing themselves to us individually, then we were incredibly disappointed to discover they don’t have double massage rooms so we were in separate rooms. I was so miserable and really not relaxed, as we usually hold hands when we receive massages (I know, soppy fools). The therapist was a lovely lady, she was very calm and asked me if there were any specific points of tension. The actual massage was really painful (She said I was really knotted) and I wish I spoke up and said something as I felt quite a lot of pain the following day too.
Afterwards we went in to the pool area and relaxed in the jacuzzi for a while. It was a lovely layout in the pool area and the jacuzzi was larger than that of of other hotels.
I was rather disappointed to see that you only get 1 hour of free internet when you plug your laptop in on the room desk. I think it was £6 per hour after that.
The food menu and room service was a bit too posh for us, we’re a bit of a McDonalds couple.
I genuinely take my hat off to the manager; Carl. He dealt with our complaints well particularly as after all of it plus back ache from the massage, I was rather upset. He offered us an alternative room should we decide to stay, and met us directly to personally apologise when we decided to go home. He refunded our money and called my Fiancé the day up to ensure we got home okay and were feeling better. Because of the service I find myself wanting to try and exaggerate the positive points of our stay, which is a change for me. The customer service we received during our short time is second to none, and is the reason for me leaving a more positive than usual review. I wouldn’t discourage anyone visiting the hotel, as I know our negative experiences are rare. And we’ll most likely be back for the £15 a day spa passes!

Went there for lunch and coffee not long ago and was really impressed by the re furbishment of the hotel and the service was really good… felt very relaxed there!!!

Schon wegen der Adresse East Grinstead in West Sussex wird mir dieses Hotel ewig in Erinnerung bleiben. Das finde ich genauso lustig wie das Schild am Bielefelder Bahnhof Willkommen in Ostwestfalen. Damit nicht genug, gleich neben dem Hotel beginnt die Furze Lane, was für deutsche Augen schon etwas seltsam aussieht — dabei ist Furze nur das englische Wort für einen Strauch (Ulex Europaeus).
Das Hotel selbst gibt sich außen traditionell britisch und hält auch innen, was es verspricht. Auf dem Weg zum Zimmer durch (gefühlt kilometer-)lange Gänge kann man sehen, wie viele verschiedene Türenarten (Schwing-​, Schiebe-​, …) sich die Menschheit hat einfallen lassen.
Das Zimmer selbst bot ein großes französisches Bett — Hotelbetten in USA und GB sind ja generell bequem, ein relativ geräumiges Bad (keine Naßzelle) und einen großen Handtuchtrockner.
Die im Rahmen der Tagung gebotene Vollpension (einschließlich Tee und Sandwiches in den Pausen) wurde vom freundlichen, dezent-​aufmerksamen Personal mustergültig serviert und strafte alle Schauermärchen über die entsetzliche britische Küche Lügen. Mir hat es jedenfalls sehr gut geschmeckt — bis auf das etwas zu lockere Rührei (das ist nicht my cup of tea) und die Grillwürstchen zum Frühstück.
Ich habe mich in dem Hotel stets sehr wohl gefühlt und auch der Hol– und Bringdienst zum nahen Flughafen Gatwick (der aber keine Lärmbelästigung verursachte) hat den Gesamteindruck positiv unterstützt.
East Grinstead ist ein hübsches englisches Städtchen, in dem man bei Spaziergängen die englische Gartenkunst (die auch vor handtuchgroßen Vorgärten nicht kapituliert) bewundern kann.