Headland Hotel Anmeldelser 31

My daughter, granddaughter and myself visited the hotel for a cream tea for a treat.
The tea arrived 15 minutes before the scones so the tea was cold when the scones were finally served, after having to mention it to the staff. The scones were small and hard. Not to mention how expensive it was.
Truly disappointed.

The Healand Hotel Torquay is a beautiful hotel. Very clean and great rooms, with sea views and very comfortable beds.
All staff were amazing.
Naiomi in the restaurant was very good. Her customer service was brilliant and she was very helpful.

For Christmas, my mother kindly purchased a “half-day coastal calmness” spa package for me, which included a treatment and brunch at your restaurant. As this was a special gift—and not an inexpensive one—I chose to save the experience to celebrate my upcoming 60th birthday this October.

However, when I contacted Headland spa to make a booking, I was informed that the voucher was no longer valid, as your policy restricts vouchers to a six-month period. I was surprised and disappointed by this, as I had reasonably expected such a gift experience to remain valid for at least 12 months, which is common practice in many establishments.

I explained that the voucher had only expired by two months and politely asked whether some discretion could be applied in this case. Unfortunately, I was told this would not be possible. I then requested a call back from the spa manager to discuss the matter further, but no response was received.

More recently, after discussing spa options with a group of friends—around ten of us who were considering booking a spa day together—I shared my experience. They were, like me, taken aback by both the rigid policy and the lack of customer care shown. Encouraged by them, I made a further attempt to contact the hotel, leaving my details and requesting a call back from management. Again, I have received no response.

I find this lack of communication and flexibility deeply disappointing and, frankly, unprofessional. Having worked in the corporate travel sector myself, I fully appreciate the importance of customer service, goodwill, and responsiveness—particularly when dealing with loyal or local customers.

This experience has not only prevented me from using a thoughtful gift but has also discouraged me—and others—from considering your establishment for future bookings. It has, in fact, made me hesitant to purchase vouchers anywhere, which is a real shame.

I would urge you reconsider both buying voucher policy and your approach to customer service, particularly in situations where a small gesture of goodwill could make a significant difference.

Also make sure you have good weather to go as when I went before it was raining and cold and it makes for a small facility if all indoors.

I really wished they had been more professional to have been given the courtesy of a call back.

Claire 

Truro TR1 1JL

Very poor experience. On arrival, we were told there was a wedding on the premises, and the hotel was 80% full. The ambience of the hotel is not helped by its heavy Victorian architectural style, but this is unavoidable; however, the public areas are tired and depressing, and the decor hasn't been updated for some time. Staff seemed very well-practised at brushing off customer complaints. Waiters did not come to the table, food was simply deposited after a long wait, without cutlery, or napkins, and nobody checked back, even though there were a lot of staff around.

At breakfast, we saw unsupervised little kids in the separate buffet room; one was playing with the food when I walked in. We asked for toast from the kitchen instead, explaining why; they reluctantly agreed. There were no glasses for the 'fruit juice'; a staff member said they'd 'try' to get some. Our two small breakfast orders took 50 minutes to arrive. The quality of the cooked breakfast was motorway services standard, but without the charm. The toast, which was forgotten, was cheap sliced bread. We had to ask for EVERYTHING, staff were grumpy, verging in one case on sarcastic, and we felt like everything was an effort.

Our room was dated; the bathroom needed regrouting and had a flimsy Mira electric shower. It cost £280 for the night. We stayed here for the purpose of visiting Adam Handling's on-site restaurant, which is a separate business. In terms of customer experience? Chalk and cheese.

On checkout, my partner met with the manager, and carefully recounted the poor service we had received consistently over our stay. He, of course, said it was because of the wedding, booked three years before.

Obviously, if you can't manage the hotel being 80% full, don't take any more bookings - including ours! He said he'd feed it 'back to the team'. That was it. Great end to our stay...

Extra star given for this accommodation being convenient for the 'Ugly Butterfly' which was thankfully excellent.

We stayed in the cottages with outdoor hot tub. Overall the bedrooms of the cottage were good, the kitchen a bit small, the sitting room was excellent size with diabolical uncomfortable sofas.
The Aqua club was very pleasant, perhaps should have been open longer/later but overall a good experience.
Dining and drinks at the Renmor was bit too slow. Having said that overall the staff we dealt with and the food/drinks were good.
We had a problem and we were hit whilst in the car park charging the car. The car park is poorly lit, the management of the hotel seem both disinterested and unresponsive.
Overall these issues brought this hotel, which is beautifully located as a fine overall experience, far from 5 star and prices are too high.

We came to this hotel and loved it. Decided to do turkey and tinsel weekend. They didn’t disappoint. The food was amazing service was a high standard. We had a sea view which was lovely. The breakfast is fabulous lots of choice. I am gluten free and they met all my needs nothing was to much trouble for any of them. Highly recommend this hotel

DO NOT BOOK HERE!!!!
If there was a ZERO, this place would get it. I booked the hotel and four hours later, could not go, so I went to change the date. When the other date was not available, as it had originally come up as free cancelation when booking, I was shocked when I was informed that I had to pay one night's cancelation. I had booked through Booking.Com and was given the option to ask the hotel via that to which I did and they refused.
I then complained to Booking.Com who tried to reason with the hotel, but again, they refused. So I was given the option to call the hotel to ask.
I called the hotel and had to deal with the rudest women I have ever had to encounter, Karolina Sienkiewicz. She said because I had booked through Booking.com I was not going to get away without paying for one night. She was patronising, rude and the most unhelpful person I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Following my call, I got upset and my husband called back where Karolina proceeded to lie about me and swear at my husband in the reception.
The most disgraceful and rude behaviour, do not book to stay here!!!

Bad misinformed at check-in. Sent to wrong place. Facilities told provided in Spa weren't there ie hot tub or didn't work great steam room not much steam pool not warm no towels changing rooms cramped locker codes lock not explained. Aqua facility pool warm no steam room hot tub outside timed bubble beds didn't come on in 10 mins waited. Children use this facility we went here as spa wasn't great this had warmer pool but sauna v small no steam room. Manager rude unapologetic refused refund despite being there less than hour and 20 mins of that was finding correct check in and then moving from spa to aqua Park. A real let down St Michael's Falmouth beautiful lovely staff facilities towels robes shoes provide drink dispensers throughout spa.

Waiting 30 mins to get the drinks now you’ve got to spend £10 to use the car park. The prices are well over priced would not recommend this place. Been coming for years and changes have been made but not for the best.

I was given an evoucher for 2 afternoon teas and I didn’t realise there was an expiry date. I realised today that it had expired and contacted the hotel hoping it could be extended until then end of August and I was happy to pay any increase from last year to this. I was told categorically no as the evouchers are issued by a third party. If I wish to extend it I would need to pay £50 as my voucher expired nearly 6 months ago. I had hoped for some compassion and discretion to allow an extension but instead was confronted with an extreme penalty. Yes it was my fault for not checking the fine print on a gift and yes now I have looked on their website it is written there but even so the afternoon tea has been paid for. I did ask for a refund but again the answer was no. So just a word of warning when buying evouchers from the Headland in Newquay check the expiry date.

The reservation system is the worst I have come across. I did eventually call but the staff member appeared totally disinterested. The only positive was that it made me look at Trust Pilot where the reviews are not good. So I shall not be proceeding with my reservation.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!
This place is just awful, and is run by awful people.
Don't be fooled by the shiney exterior, they are just out to rip you off.
They pay for the shiney exterior by scamming hard working and genuinely good people out of money for nothing!
A voucher was bought for a lot of money... and we of course were very much under the impression that this was a 12 month voucher, and why wouldn't you be, 12 month vouchers are standard practice after all, and all other similar establishments issue 12 month vouchers?
If you are not told any different you would, of course, assume that you are buying a 12 month voucher?
Not so!
The Headland Hotel only offer 6 month vouchers apparently!
Now that's extremely unusual, but ok, that's fine.
But what is NOT fine is that they DON'T make this known!
They DON'T tell you this while you are buying one!
They hand it over to you in the pretty purple envelopes, and why would you get it out and read the small print?

Yes, it is written in the small print on the voucher which is what they repeatedly come back to when you question this, but they DO NOT make this clear at the point of purchase.
They set out to deliberately mislead you!
They deliberately let you assume!
Why? So that when the poor unsuspecting customer comes to use the voucher, they can tell you that sadly its of date... but what they WILL DO is offer for you to purchase a voucher extension!!!!!!!
At, of course a ridiculous and wholly unreasonable amount of money! On top of the ridiculous amount spent on the voucher in the first place!
And they follow it up with a smug... you can either pay for the voucher extension or loose the voucher, and we are bound by the terms and conditions on the vouchers without exception, nothing we can do!
They are very robotic about it, almost like they do this every day?!
What a fantastic con / scam! This must be a huge huge revenue stream for this company.
Absolutely genius!
BUT PLEASE DON'T FALL FOR IT
BE WARNED
THESE GUYS ARE STEALING YOUR MONEY!

I’m writing to share my recent experience with The Headland regarding a gift voucher situation involving my mother-in-law, a long-time guest and a dear friend of the previous owners, John Armstrong.

After the passing of her husband, she received a gift voucher as a thoughtful gesture. Unfortunately, she was unaware that the voucher was valid for only six months. When she attempted to book her stay one week after the expiry date, she was informed that the voucher could not be honored.

While I understand policies are in place for a reason, it’s disheartening to see a loyal guest who has been visiting for years treated this way, especially given her connection to the hotel and its history. We hoped for some understanding, considering the circumstances surrounding the voucher.

I urge The Headland to reconsider their approach to loyal customers during difficult times. A little compassion can go a long way. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The décor and atmosphere as you walk into the Headland Hotel at Christmas time is quite something—no complaints there. However, when it came to afternoon tea, that was a different story, to say the least.

We were seated in a private area with a great view overlooking the ocean, which was perfect for our party of eight. After we sat down, it took 15–20 minutes before we were asked, “What drinks can I get everyone?” Keep in mind, during that time, no one offered water for the table.

As for the sandwiches:
• Cucumber and cream cheese: 4/10 – there was no cream cheese at all.

• Rosedown truffle and egg: 5/10 – the butter was too overpowering.

• Salmon and lemon herbs: 7/10 – decent overall.

• Christmas-themed turkey and cranberry: 8/10 – easily the best of the lot.

The sausage roll would have been better if it was served warmer instead of at room temperature. The vol-au-vent prawn cocktail was messy but adequate.

We asked for more sandwiches, but when the waiter returned from the kitchen, we were informed the pastry section was closed. However, he did manage to bring us two additional sausage rolls, which was kind of him.

The scones, thankfully, were not as dry as they looked, so that’s a positive. As always, though, like anywhere that serves afternoon tea, there was far too much cream and jam for the scones, which felt wasteful.

The sweets at the end were very disappointing. The cherry Bakewell wreath was far too hard and inedible. The Valrhona chocolate was far too bitter as they only used dark chocolate—it wasn’t even like a ganache. Given the high cocoa content It completely dried out my mouth, which was upsetting. The rest of the sweets were saved for later.

Towards the end of our afternoon tea, we asked a young lady for a top-up of our teas and hot drinks. She reassured us that “someone will be over.” However, 15 minutes later, we still had no drinks, so one of our party members had to get up and ask directly. Once asked, the drinks came in no time, this highlighted poor communication on the staff’s end.

Overall, it was an OK experience at the Headland Hotel. Would I return? That depends. Is it worth the £48 price tag? No, I don’t think so. Personally, I feel they are relying too heavily on the Headland Hotel name.

Spar was excellent. What really impressed us was food in bar area being able to order anytime .
Breakfast selection was wonderful . perfect views from room over well kept gardens

We had an excellent morning in the Spa. The package we paid for was a sunrise swim with breakfast.
The spa was excellent but I was extremely upset with the breakfast. I ordered fruit and after a while they came back and said they didn’t have any in the whole of the 5 star hotel ?! Why didn’t they say that to start with ? Come on 10.45 am no fruit !

My friend treated me to a wonderful 2 night stay in this beautiful hotel. It was just perfect from walking in to sadly having to leave. The staff were simply charming, friendly, polite and helpful. Our room was just perfect with great views over Fistral beach. We both had a facial in the spa, which was simply the best treatment I have ever had. We LOVED everything about this wonderful hotel, thank you xx

The hotel is a scam claiming to be 5 stars. At the very best it would be 3.5 stars. Poor management and overworked staff with outdated decor. Squishing in as many tables as possible to make he most money. They do not care about service at all. And do not blame your very pleasant staff, blame the money grabbing owners.

Has a two night break in September in a suite so it was top money, room was hardly a suite but non the less nice view and over looking spa however limited facilities in room and no separate shower.
Restaurant meal was nice but at no point did staff offer us a window seat even though there was tables same again with breakfast as the view is what makes it a premium stay. So disappointed about breakfast shortages ie jam and marmalade and had to ask for cutlery and condiments as nothing on table, service was slow but we were warned possible at peak times. Fancied a cream tea but had not given 4 hours notice which seems a real over exaggeration but they missed out on £90. Overall lovely location and impressive building but the new owners clearly have lost sight of the fact how good it used to be and if you are charge a lot you have to offer value for money. A day or so later I received an email about out stay and I gave a similar response but a true measure of their commitment to service is the fact I have had no response to it. There are some great options to stay locally and I strongly suggest you book them until such time they sort it out.

After a nice long coast walk we called in to the headland for a drink and as returning guests we ordered a cheese board if you can call it that all it consisted of was 3 slices of cheese 10 grapes 5 crackers and a small pot of chutney served on a dinner plate with a butter knife no cheese knife all for £15 absolute rip off this hotel is going to loose its appeal very soon if they carry on like this I have also emailed them directly but no response this tells me all I need to know I won’t be returning any time soon and I will make sure people know