Crowne Plaza Marlow Reviews 

I’d like to provide some feedback following a recent visit to one of your spas – although I use the word spa very loosely.

We were booked to attend the Crown Plaza Marlow for a spa day with afternoon tea on Saturday 4th January.

I received a phone call on Friday evening confirming we could attend from 9:30am and that towels and robes would be provided but that we would need to bring our own footwear and would of course need to be dressed for afternoon tea.

Upon arriving at the reception desk Saturday morning, we were met by a friendly enough lady but who wasn’t in uniform or any kind of branding which would identify her as a member of staff. She was wearing a Stone Island hoodie and we assumed may not have been very well as she had cotton wool in her ear.

She proceeded to check us in and said she would walk us to the changing rooms, at which point we were given a towel each. When we asked where our robes were, we were told “They’re only for people who book treatments” – not what I’d been told on the phone.

We asked to be shown where the different spa elements where situated and she pointed towards the pool and said it was all within that area, the indoor jacuzzi, sauna and steam room where located around the pool area. There was an outdoor jacuzzi but this wasn’t open yet as it wasn’t hot enough – this was 11am – but it would be open “soon”.

While in the changing rooms with our small towels, my friend decided to go back to reception and request robes, only to be told they would be charged at £2 per person. We paid this and carried on getting changed.

There was a severe lack of bed chairs available in the pool area so we spent the first hour sitting on standard chairs – definitely not the comfy, relaxing experience we were expecting from a spa day.

By 12pm the outdoor jacuzzi still wasn’t open. We asked at reception and the lady told us she would open it “in a minute”. By 12:30pm it still wasn’t open and a male guest took it upon himself to go and take the lid off the jacuzzi himself.

Some young teenage guests then entered the pool area and began swimming/messing around. While I understand your staff can’t control or tell off the guests, this definitely again didn’t fit with the relaxing experience you would expect. One of the rules listed on the website states “Minimum age of 12 to use Spa Pool / Steam Room & Sauna with constant adult supervision” – this definitely didn’t happen and all 3 were under 18. One of them actually broke the pool lane rope, a maintenance man came down to take a look and told the boy he’d seen him break it on the CCTV but he eventually had to remove the rope from the pool as he was unable to fix it.

This “spa” area can only be described at best as a leisure centre pool. There was nothing relaxing about our spa visit there at all. There were panels around the side of the pool and walls that were broken so there was definitely nothing luxurious about our experience.

Having had enough of the facilities, we got dressed and headed for our afternoon tea. Upon arrival the man showing us to our table asked if we’d like tea or coffee. I asked if it was possible to have a soft drink instead as I don’t drink tea or coffee, he simple said “no that’s not included” so I opted for water instead. While I understand this is probably part of your policy, I’ve never had a problem at any other afternoon tea I’ve attended swapping a hot drink for a soft drink so this was surprising.

I decide to ask the waiter for a soft drink when he delivered my friend’s tea to the table obviously being prepared to pay for it, I asked for an orange and cranberry juice mix. He walked off to speak to the manager and came back to say “that will be extra” – I said that’s fine and he went off and got the drink. A few minutes later another waiter came back to check we were happy with the food and delivered my bill – I had been charged £5.50 for a soft drink! £2.50 for the orange, £2.50 for the cranberry and a 10% service charge. I struggle to understand why I was charged for service when I was in the restaurant area. The general layout and ambience of the restaurant area was pleasant but the cleanliness could be looked at. There were hand prints all over the glass walls.

I can honestly say we were both hugely disappointed with an experience we had been looking forward to for months. There was nothing relaxing or spa-like about the pool, jacuzzi or steam room facilities – I could have just attended my local gym for what we received rather than driving 60 miles to this location. The pictures on the website are definitely not the scene we were met with.

We definitely won't be going back to this "spa" again and I would hesitate to book any Crown Plaza location in future.

We stayed at the one in Nottingham for a night, the room was alright even though we couldn't check in until 3pm the worst thing about it was that we tried to have dinner at the restaurant and upon making our order they said they were out of buttermilk chicken but they have chicken fillet so when we asked for the burger but instead of beef we wanted the chicken fillet the they said they couldn't do that and were extremely rude about it as well. With what they charging they should bend over backwards let alone asking for something and making us feel bad.
The worst do not eat there!!

Received poor service whilst staying including making guest who is gluten free extremely upset despite being previously advised and sharing personal details with me of other guest accidentally. Service since making a complaint has been offensive.

Review of Crowne Plaza Marlow

We booked and stayed in the Hotel on Saturday, August 24th as a special treat for my birthday. This is the first time we've stayed at the CP Marlow and on arrival it's an impressive sight. The building is clearly in the throes of a refurbishment and the rooms are clean, modern and well appointed. On checking in you are required to hand over a credit card where a customary £50 is debited to cover any "incidentals" incurred during your stay which seemed at the time fair enough...

We left the hotel for an evening out in Marlow at approximately 7pm not returning until around 11pm. On checking out the following morning we opted to use their speed checkout system as there was a particularly long line of folk on front of us & we were keen to have one final venture into the town center.

The following day my partner checked her CC only to discover that a bar tab of approximately £35 had been charged to our room! On ringing the hotel she was informed that we had indeed ordered some beers & wine at approximately 8.15 when in fact we were not even on the premises. Furthermore, my partner is teetotal and I am currently abstaining from alcohol as I’m on medication for a serious illness which i'm recovering from.

We've therefore called the hotel no fewer than 8 (yes 8) times to try and get this situation resolved, with absolutely no joy whatsoever. We've even offered to supply a copy of our restaurant booking to prove that we weren't around at the time of this alleged bar purchase. We have of course asked for the hotel purchase slips showing our name, room number, signature etc - which they can't seem to locate (funny that)

Bottom line now is that we are reluctantly getting the CC company involved and even been advised to file a police report as an act of fraud has been committed. I've been in touch with their HO and rang to speak with the Hotel one last time - all to no avail.

Seriously unimpressed and it's cast a shadow over what should have been an enjoyable break. My advice for what its worth - do not trust these people with your credit card details as you may get an unpleasant surprise. Very poor from Santos and the team at CP Marlow.