Abbey Hotel Golf & Spa

First of all the staff were great, I had a little problem with the interpretation of 20% off drinks, evidently it was restricted to the terrace bar which meant if you wanted a pre dinner or during dinner drink you had to go to the other bar (which closed at 9).. a bit of a jaunt... and carry it back to the restaurant bar or the dinner table until I had a word with the assistant manager who eventually allowed our group of 8 to get the discount at the restaurant bar, not so for the group of 28 , I won’t be rushing back to this venue

Very enjoyable stay golf, food, staff & hotel facilities were all good.

Good standard of accommodation and very good food

Great Hotel, friendly staff - we turned up for breakfast after 10am(closing time) and they managed to serve us without any issues

Whole stay was great but they had too many people on the course on Saturday and it took 6 hours to go round. There were 3 groups on the second tee. Much better on Sunday.

With The Abbey always having been my favourite place to stay, I was excited to be visiting after not having been for a couple of years. Much of the updating of the hotel is lovely but the service was not as it had been in the bars and restaurant. Customer service did not seem to be top of the list with us almost feeling we were annoying to some staff just by being there! Tables outside were left uncleared all morning and it almost became a standing joke between us as to what they were going to run out of next! On the Monday morning, breakfast was chaos with not enough staff and food not being replenished to meet demand. The food in the evenings, however, was absolutely delicious and did not disappoint at all. It was sad to see the previously stunning gardens and grounds splattered with weeds and rubbish and overall just appearing unkempt. The staff on reception were spot on however (as were the housekeeping staff when it appeared there was a shortage of toilet roll!) and it was a breath of fresh air to see Annie back in the Tawny bar too!

Excellent course. in good condition. Some difficulty in contacting the Spa re treatments prior to the trip.

Our hotel experience didn't start well. With 13 of staying at the hotel and teeing off at 1132, I asked if they could provide breakfast for us to purchase at around 1000 on the Sunday morning. I was told that as breakfast finished at 1000, we would have to take pot luck with whatever might be left. Luckily, the Beefeater restaurant 3 minutes down the road was much more accommodating and we were able to get an excellent breakfast there. Once we had played our round, booking in was very efficient and the lady receptionist was very friendly and helpful. Our rooms were ok but I'm not the tallest person at 5' 10" and the sloping roof that came halfway across my bed was particularly annoying and resulted in the inevitable coming together in the middle of the night. The food in the restaurant was excellent and we all enjoyed our dinner and breakfast. At £5 a pint, we felt that the bar was expensive but the service was good. Overall, a 4 out of 5 and we would visit again.

We were a group of 17 lady golfers. Our rooms were spacious and the Hotel staff were very friendly and helpful catering for all our various needs. The bar and restaurant staff were efficient and attentive, the meals were OK, not spectacular. We were warned that a children’s club used the pool etc from 4 - 6 which rather put that out of limits for us, too busy. A couple of ladies enjoyed a very good massage. The staff in Tawny’s Bar were also extremely helpful, all in all we enjoyed our stay.

Excellent overall package, good food. Only drawback was lack of space to dry all our very wet clothes!

We had a lovely spacious room (223) at this hotel. No complaints on dinner or breakfast.

Room and housekeeping good. Golf course good. Food quality and service standards in restaurant and golf bar variable and often disappointing.

Restaurant staff, Calum, Wayne and Lily were extremely pleasant and helpful. Our meal was delicious and beautifully presented. We had a great break at the Abbey.

A superb hotel and golf course. The room was large and clean, and the beds were very comfortable. It was good that there was a bath and a separate shower in the en-suite. The staff were helpful and friendly. Our only criticism was that the service was extremely slow at dinner. We had to wait nearly half an hour for our table but we were given bread and olives in the meantime, then it took 2 hours and 45 mins to have a 3 course meal. However, all four of us were really impressed with the excellent food.

The hotel was sufficient for a weekend golf tour and our party of 19 generally enjoyed their time. The thing that spoilt the weekend was the quality of the evening meal and the very poor service delivering it. The food was all pre-ordered so the kitchen and staff new exactly what had to come out and when so there was no excuse for the ridiculously long time it took to get the food out on each table. The quality of the food was extremely poor. The most popular choice was the steak burger which was dry as anything in a plain white bun, an attempt at a side salad with no dressing and a few chips that looked like they had been cooked 2 hours earlier and left warming somewhere. Everyone requested either ketchup or mayo to try and make the meal at least edible which eventually turned up after 20 minutes when everyone had near enough finished their meal. The pan fried fish option was served with an undercooked risotto that was still crunchy and a side salad that was brown on the edges. The only redeeming option it seemed like was the chicken. The service was extremely poor and I put the blame squarely at the management for a complete lack of training and understaffing which is unforgivable when they already knew how many they had to feed that night. Also both bars at the clubhouse and the main hotel bar had only one bartender and at the busiest time after everyone had come off the course there was at sometimes 3 or 4 deep queuing at the bar. Overall, although the rooms were ok everything else was spoilt by the hotel managements cost cutting in the areas of staff training and allocation of staff numbers which I communicated to the actual manager that evening. We wouldn't book this venue again.

Rooms at the Abbey where large and very comfortable. But we did have a upgrade to superior rooms. Overall the the hotel was very good but will soon be in need of a major facelift. The most disappointing thing was the lack of staff running the bars. On or first day the sports bar only had Boddingtons on draught,all the other draught beers where not available and we had to make a trip to the restaurant bar to get the likes of lager or Guinness. Food was very good,both dinner and breakfast.

All 8 member's of the party thoroughly enjoyed themselves, all agreeing that it was very good value for money. Hotel was clean and tidy, and food in the evening was very good.

We visited purely for the golf, so didn't use the spa facilities - which I guess helps to gain the star rating. The 1st floor rooms have dormer windows, and you need to watch your head! Hotel and catering staff were polite, but mainly inexperienced, which led to a few hiccups in billing, etc. However, a pleasant short trip.

24 of us had 2 rounds of golf on a very nice course would def go back and play it again. Evening meal was nice but portions where small. We had a few large fellows who like there food. Staff where very helpful and accommodating.

First of all I have to say that the staff were great and very knowledgable and helpful.... I know the weather wasn’t good but generally the course lacks a bit of TLC teeing off from mats this early in the year is unusual 100,150&200yard markers were small plaques in the fairway, most courses put marker posts at the side of the fairway which is more visible therefore speeding up the game, the bridge connecting the 17th tees with the fairway which meant a trek down the 16th and around the lake to get to your ball which was of course caused by the severe rain fall the night before, again a lack of TLC the bridge couldn’t have been strong enough in the first place, if I was a member of the golf club I would be a bit wary of the lack of long term investment in the course. Again I won’t be rushing back to this place

Was a shame that the golf course was closed from 1pm on the Sunday (so unable to play) because of heavy rain & flooding which couldn't be helped. however the course was open the following day & the condition of the course was good.

Good course, only disappointment was the bunkers, very little sand. Have to try and avoid them better. Very helpful professional.

Although the course is relatively flat - it was narrow in parts and tricky in places - definitely a thinking mans course!

Too many people on the course on Saturday in was a log jam

Good, challenging golf on all 3 days.

as prevouslysaid.

Our group of 13 had a range of handicaps from 8 to 28 with most of us around the high teens and we all enjoyed playing this course. The course was in good condition despite the lack of rain last year and was already showing signs of good growth. In fact, the grass immediately off the fairway is long enough to hide a ball and we last a few balls because of that. I know that its our fault that we didn't keep to the fairway but for the ball to roll off and get lost is very frustrating. The greens were in excellent condition and whilst not too quick, were consistent and they were certainly challenging. The position of the lakes was excellent and really made us think about our shots. We still donated a few balls to the water gods though. The proximity of the housing estate to some of the holes was interesting and we were extremely impressed that the course boundary was marked simply by white OOB marker posts rather than any ugly fencing. The seamless transition from golf course to garden in a few places looked so much better that it might have done. Overall, an excellent course and we will definitely be back to play it in the future.

We were very lucky with the weather! The gentlemen in the pro shop were helpful with advice on holes for nearest the pin and longest drive. Some rounds were slow but on the whole OK. The greens were on the slow side and there was little run on the fairways but it would keep on raining! We all enjoyed our stay .

The course was in good condition, with true greens and decent fairways. My only issue was with the length of the 2nd cut grass - it was too long, meaning time was wasted trying to find balls that were only slightly off-line. Similarly the rough was too extreme - you could guarantee spending the full time allowed searching every time a ball went in it, further slowing down the round. A lot of courses these days seem to be cutting back on the severity of rough to speed up play - I think they could benefit from doing that here.

We had two rounds of golf and thoroughly enjoyed both. The greens were a little patchy and offcuts of cut grass were on the greens. Apart from that, very enjoyable.

We enjoyed playing a challenging course

Course was as expected for this time of year. Greens had been treated so were tricky but overall enjoyed our two rounds.

It’s an excellent, quite demanding course with every hole offering interest. We were disappointed that there wasn’t a marshall on the course as the pace was painfully slow. We played Saturday and Sunday, both taking over 5 hours. We hadn’t played the course before and were amazed that there were no course planners for sale in the pro shop, nor any hole plans on the tees. The fareway markers were discs on the ground which were hard to spot...post markers would have been much easier to see.

Nice course where the greens were in very good nick. The only minor problems were they had every par 3 hole on temporary tee's which is ridiculous when the ground was still firm. The signage to the next tee around the course is also poor if you haven't played the course before.

Great course with very challenging par 3s all supposedly high handicap holes,but all played really hard. A great selection of holes which made us all plan or way round. The most disappointing aspect was very poor golf shop for such a large complex. No starter on course and unhelpful member of staff in the golf shop.

Kept in good condition, and great variety in terms of holes. There was a few blind holes, but interesting all the same. GPS watches don't quite work on the course, so can only assume they have altered the layout recently.

Played the course twice, and enjoyed both games. As expected, play was slow, because our two=ball was sandwiched between lots of 4-ball visitors. But the weather was great, so no problems!

Greens in very good condition. Had a lot of rain on the Thursday but still enjoyed the round.

Staff in the yawned bar were excellent went out of the way to help & as it was overbooked they made a huge effort to compensate for this Overall it was a good weekend with great friends but not a place a would recommend to return Hotel looked tired & in need of updating Several issues in the room like shower needed repair temperature gauge wouldn't change. Main issue was that we were booked in the restaurant both nights but we were put in the yawned bar for the first night & menu was not what we were expecting Cannot though express how great the staff are in this bar