Great Fosters

We are a local family to Great Fosters, we have dined out at various venues for around 30 years now for Christmas lunch, up till now all have been excellent value and thoroughly enjoyable. We have to say our afternoon at Great Fosters was the worst we have ever experienced. To start, there was nobody at the main door to greet their guests on what is quite an important day for the hotel (you would think). The entrance is a small door within a large door and we had an elderly family member with us so we had to find a member of staff to open this so we could gain access. We were then shown to our table, a few minutes passed then our starters arrived (we ordered our food at time of booking) we were not asked if we would like to order drinks or wine at the table once seated. So we had to ask the staff for the wine list, The main course was served to us, well, all five meals were lukewarm, the sprouts were totally inedible, virtually raw! I asked the waiter if they could rectify this issue. A while later they returned with what they said were fresh meals, once again they were exactly the same as before (lukewarm and not properly cooked). At this point I asked to speak to a Manager, she came over, I explained the situation to her, the food again was taken away and a while later replaced with what I can confidently say were the same meals heated in a microwave oven, we were all asked to be very careful of the very hot plates. The Manager never returned to ask how the third attempt was. We then went to the bar area and tried to order coffee to be told by a very rude barman they do not serve machine coffee at that particular bar, we would have to go to another bar within the hotel. My daughter explained that we had an elderly relative with us, no difference. Another waiter heard this and offered to get this for Never again!us. Eventually I spoke with the assistant manage, explained how unhappy we were with the whole afternoon. A full refund was given after a very farcical day.

We booked the hotel on booking.com to go this weekend but I have had a terrible cold over the holidays and we missed the free cancellation date, the hotel were amazing, they cancelled the booking and refunded our monies - it was very kind of them.

We stayed here on a spur trip to London to fly British Airways home to SFO. It is close to LHR making it possible to overnight at a very cool place rather than the Hotel airport. The old manor house is impressive as you drive in. The place is billed as having 56 rooms all different. Some are in the main old building and some are in the more modern annexes; if you want to stay in the old building, make sure your room is located there! We stayed one night in No. 25 Deans (modern annex) which is small but comfortable and something like a ship cabin which was fitting as we just finished a 22 day cruise. The other night we stayed in No. 2 Italian (in the main house) which was opulent 'over the top' decor. Both had extremely comfortable beds and the kind of pillows I like which don't collapse to ground level when you put your head on them so you need like 6 extra! Amenities were generous and nice: shampoo, conditioner, lotion and also massage oil! My only complaint about the rooms is that, aside from a 'high intensity' and small reading lamp, ALL the room lights are on ONE switch: they are either all on or all off. More flexibility is definitely preferable, especially if you are sharing the room and one person would like lights on and the other off. Breakfast was delicious: Eggs Benedict was prepared perfectly. There is also a continental selection that is included if you get the hot breakfast and that had some of the best yogurt and best honey I have ever had! The honey is from bees that are kept on the property. We also indulged in afternoon tea: a generous helping of savories, scones and sweets in a lovely "Anne Boleyn" room. This comes with or without champagne (extra cost of course). We brought our own special champagne for £30 corkage. The Gardens are really special. December is probably not the best month for them as rain makes grass and dirt paths muddy and there were very few flowers. But still impressive and I'm looking forward to returning in the summer. A special thanks to Guest Services Manager, Charley Hall for making our 2 night stay extra special!

We have just returned from a night away at Great Fosters and we were blown away. From the second we turned into the drive and caught sight of Great Fosters to the moment we left we were blown away by the beauty of the place. The building oozes charm at every opportunity, starting with the quaint entrance with a door within a door. We were greeted by the staff and received a warm welcome upon arrival (on the booking it had been written that the occassion was a birthday and they wished us happy birthday immediately), our bags were taken from us and we were shown to our room a short walk across a courtyard. We were staying in the Frogmore room and it was absolutely idealic. The wooden beams, gave a real character to the room, and the king size bed was beyond comfortable - after a day of walking around Windsor Castle we were very pleased to take a shower (with gorgeous complimentary toiliteries) and just collapse. As mentioned the occassion for our visit was a birthday and they had surprised us by leaving a little sweet treat in our room, perfect with a cup of tea. Despite there being a party somewhere on site we didn't hear a single sound so we're only aware when we walked across the courtyard to head out for dinner and saw some of the guests mingling. In the morning we had breakfast which was delicious - unfortunately I was so full up from the English breakfast that I didn't get to eat any of the pastries (rookie error on my part as they looked stunning!) We ended our stay with a walk around the grounds and we were blown away to see a heron circling! There are wellies available to borrow should you forget your boots. Thank you Great Fosters for such an incredible stay. It was a birthday stay to remember.

This property was fantastic! I believe I was told that I received an upgrade as a Diamond member but I’m not sure what made it an upgrade. The room was very difficult to find as you had to enter multiple doors, go up different staircases, etc. The ceilings were fairly low, but the room was comfortable overall. The bed was comfortable with a really nice down comforter and good pillows. The bathroom was roomy, although our shower was clogged and had to be turned off halfway through in order to let it drain a bit. We were only here for one night before heading to Southampton for a cruise, but it was nice that it wasn’t far from the airport, but it felt like we were in the countryside. While we didn’t have great weather while we were there, we did walk the grounds, which were very pretty. We had dinner at the more casual restaurant on site and it was actually really good. Breakfast in the same location the next morning was not great. We waited 40 minutes for our food and finally had to leave as we had a car service coming to pick us up. Check out was a slight pain as there was only one person working at the front desk, five people in line, and the one receptionist was on the phone setting up a spa appointment for someone and we all sat waiting for almost 15 minutes to get checked out. I’d definitely stay here again if I wanted to be close to the airport without being at the airport.