Woolley Grange - A Luxury Family Hotel

I don't usually write reviews but this hotel/resort was exemplary. It's an old establishment but the on site facilities, services and the professionalism of the staff was absolutely second to none. They always went above and beyond the expectations of their duties (I think) and special thanks in particular to Daniel, Emma and Ben, you three stood out as we had the most interaction with you. Hospitality is a very difficult sector to work in not just because of it's up's and down's and the people you are dealing with but also for the long hours. More often than not the people (me and my son Arthur) we saw before we headed off to bed were the people we saw at breakfast. Keep going and commend these staff. The facilities that the hotel/resort offers are also fantastic. Whether you are there to stay or flit in and out on trips, you shouldn't be disappointed.

We had a lovely stay at this hotel and the room was very nice. Breakfast was lovely. Only improvement I would recommend is a printed diagram showing where all facilities are or a link emailed on arrival. Didn’t manage to find the outside pool

Firstly a cautionary note, this hotel is very family friendly which may not be what you want so check school holiday dates whilst the sound of children enjoying themselves adds to the experience for me/us I understand this isn't for everyone, you have been warned, We booked a "cosy" room expecting a broom cupboard but no, the room was big enough and light, nicely furnished however the ensuite was tiny There were surprisingly few maintenance/cleaning issues which for an old building is a great achievement for the team who deliver these activities! We didn't use the spa much, but the pool and sauna was nice the changing facilities were limited two showers and two cubicles. We didn't take any of the treatments offered,. Breakfast was lovely the families in the orangery couples next door. A good variety of continental buffet juices, breads, cereal etc and the option for something cooked which came quickly and on a warm plate. Oddly we took an evening meal at the hotel and it was very poor. The location is easy to find and has parking which given that it's not far from town is surprising.

A lovely place. Great little touches to make a holiday with a young family fun, easy and special. The staff were really lovely and went the extra mile always to make it a great experience for kids. The lawn games, fairy garden and little hidden treasures, fruit to pick and gardens to explore, it was brilliant.

We stayed at Woolley Grange twice in the 90's and have fond memories of it. It is a lovely building set in very pretty grounds. I should say it rained most of the time we were there which obviously didn't help. Overall I think the experience was disappointing and, having read some of the other reviews with similar complaints, I hope the owners take note. On the plus side it is very child-friendly and the staff, who are generally lovely, seem to enjoy looking after families. On the negative side, and these outweigh the positives, the hotel looks very tired and could do with some renovation and redecorating. There doesn't seem to be anyone in charge and keeping an overall eye on the guest experience. So, for example, the reception is potentially very pretty but it has so many laminated notices up it looks more like a dentist waiting room. It was raining as I said so we wanted to take our grandchild to the Woolley Bears Play Area. We went there at 12noon on a Sunday and it was open and empty of children. The staff member, who was eating her lunch in a side-room, told us it was closed. Surely it would be a good idea to open it as people couldn't go outside? Finally, the food and service in the restaurant is poor and expensive. On the Friday night we had to wait over an hour for our food and it was pretty horrible when it arrived. Our very young and sweet waiter didn't tell us of the extra cooking time for the Cote De Boeuf. If you are paying £89 for Cote de Boeuf (sharing for two) and £36 for a rib-eye it needs to be done well. Full English breakfast at £20 was poor too - cheap ingredients throughout. If you are going to charge Soho Farmhouse prices then you need Soho Farmhouse quality. So overall, unless you have young children and don't care about the price and quality of what you get then don't go.

Great location and helpful staff, but room certainly not luxury. Unfortunately the bed and mattress were of very poor quality combined with an extreme mattress topper that resulted in very poor quality sleep on the first night. We mentioned this to staff the next day and they did kindly look into whether they could move us to another room, however this would have involved moving room every night of our stay and being without a room for several hours each day which would have added to the disruption. We were also given the impression that the beds were of a similar quality in other rooms. Staff were helpful, kindly removed the mattress topper for us when we explained that this seemed to be resulting in the bed feeling like a bouncy castle (when one moved in their sleep the other would be disturbed by this being transmitted across the bed). This slightly improved things but then it was possible to feel the wire frame of what felt like a very poor quality open coil mattress below. The bedding felt of the quality one might more associate with a hostel than a luxury hotel. We could not understand why there are not better mattresses throughout as this would be a relatively small cost to the hotel. Overall Wooley Grange was sightly less well renovated throughout than some other hotels from the Luxury Family Hotels group that we have stayed with. This might not have put us off staying again had the quality of the bed at least been good. Sadly we would not stay until renovated.