This is an impressive hotel but it is all new new new and has very little charm.

Everything fel very Holiday-Innish and mass produced with littel thought going in to it. Average food, nice enough staff and Ok all round but... customer service really let us down with some requests which was a real pain.

Pretty average really.

The rooms are pretty Travel Lodge-like and the spa - which is why we had gone - was pretty average and very expensive. It is a big corporate scene going on and we felt that this was their focus so our requests like breakfast in bed took hours to come. The several problems we encountered were acknowledged by nice staff and we got money off the bill but it still ruined the weekend. Nothing special for the price bascially but maybe if you like golf it would be good.

First impressions were great, lovely public areas, grounds and room , they certainly live up to its 5* status. The one thing that lets The Grove down is the attention to detail on the service offered.

Taking a seat at the Glasshouse bar in the late afternoon midweek i.e. not very busy, you would expect to be served fairly quickly, but not so. Cue the practice of the few staff that are working there avoiding eye contact as they rush past so you can't place a drinks order. Our group ended up going up to the bar to request our drinks order be taken. Even then it took a while for someone to come to our table. What was clear was that there weren't enough staff (I think there was 1 man behind the bar preparing drinks, a Manager who seemed to just wander around and 1 poor girl trying to take orders and deliver the food and drink).

Even more bizare is their response upon the request for food in a public area after 11pm. Upfront we offered to order from the room service menu (I clearly recall being told in check in, unprompted, that "breakfast was served in the restaurant from 7am but was available by room service 24 hours a day")

My group's requested a simple round of sandwiches at around 11.15pm and were told this wasn't possible. I have stayed in a variety of hotels around the world ranging in star ratings and all offer some food 24 hours (even travelodge that let you order takeaway).

After asking for the manager and explaining we couldn't believe we couldn't order something as basic as sandwiches we were accomodated, but he explained it would take at least 30 minutes and we would have to sit elsewhere to eat them (tucked away so other guest couldn't see us!).

Not what you expect from a 5* (or even 3* or 4* hotel).

After a disatrious Christmas/NY my husband and I booked ourselves and our daughter in to The Grove for a 'treat' weekend. We wanted somewhere with a kids club and a spa along with a decent restaurant but didnt want to travel miles for it - The Grove provided all of these.

On arrival we were surprised at how big the hotel was and it is busy but on booking we were advised there were a couple of corporate events on and had been offered a Mansion house room at a discounted rate to move away from the noice for our daughter - so it wasnt anything we weren't prepared for.

Reception staff were helpful - Our room was amazing more like a flat! All bookings we had made were just as we expected - Childcare staff were brilliant and I think our daughter preferred being with them than us ;-) Dinner at Collettes was great and the golf buggies to take you round the site are brilliant fun!

Yes it is expensive but if you spend your time thinking about how expensive it all is then you won't enjoy your stay!

We stayed at `The Grove' in March this year as guests of a large corporation. When we arrived we thought that the buildings and gardens were lovely and had high hopes for our weekend. When we arrived our room wasn't ready so we went for lunch in the bar, where drinks and food were pleasant but incredibly expensive and certainly not 5* standard. When we finally got into our room I noticed a strange smell. I then noticed I was walking on a wet patch on the carpet. On further investigation I discovered that the wet patch was in fact vomit that someone had made a poor attempt to clean up. My husband then discovered that the valance of the bed, on which we had been lying, was also spattered in vomit. We were horrified and rang reception who said they would be up in 10 minutes to move us. HALF AN HOUR later we had to phone them to find out when they would be there. They finally arrived and the duty manager told us she was upgrading us to a Deluxe room. The room we were given was exactly the same as our standard room other than it had a small balcony and a view of the garden. We later wrote to the hotel manager and questioned this. She assured us that the room was a `Deluxe'. This contradicts the hotels own website which clearly states that `Deluxe' rooms "are more spacious and all feature a free-standing roll top bath and walk-in shower, a sofa for extra lounging, and a balcony or terrace with fabulous views of the formal gardens or golf course." So which claim is accurate - the website`s or the manager`s? Our `Deluxe' bathroom had a shower over the bath (in a 5* hotel!), black mould growing under the rim and cheap, nasty waffle-weave bathrobes. When we arrived in the new room there was a bottle of champagne on ice on the dressing table. We thought this was a nice touch which showed that the hotel was trying to make ammends. We were therefore astounded when the duty manager picked up the bottle, wiped it off, stuck it under her arm and walked towards the door with it. She then offered us a GLASS of something compliments of `The Grove'. We were completely gobsmacked. They clearly didn't feel that checking guests into a filthy, vomit-stained room was a major error that warranted any more than a move to a clean room. Is this what 5* service is all about? All in all `The Grove' is a 5* building with a 3* hotel operating within it. The hotel isn't clean (the restaurant hadn't been vacuumed from the night before - there was table confetti all over the floor) The service throughout the hotel was pleasant but very amateur (at breakfast they sat a couple at a table for 2 next to us. Whilst that couple had gone to the buffet they sat another couple at the same table so when the 1st couple returned with their breakfast they had nowhere to sit). Prices are certainly 5* but the hotel definately isn't. If you have money to burn and don't care about standards of service and care then you might enjoy `The Grove'. Personally I feel that their corporate motto should be `ship 'em in, grab their cash and ship 'em out, and if we don't see them again we really don't care!