I stayed at The Forest Pines for one night as part of a corporate event.
The resort is awarded 4 AA stars but I would recommend you don’t get your hopes up. The welcome by the staff on the front desk was 4 star as was the size of the room and comfort of the bed but unfortunately, that’s where the 4 star service and amenities stopped.
In the room, there wasn’t a single mirror you could either A/ get close to as all the surfaces were so wide or B/ see to do you make up in due to the dim lighting. I ended up rearranging the furniture and sitting on the floor in front of the full length mirror in and effort to see what I was doing.
There was no plug socket near the bedside table for charging phones which is an issue if you use your phone as an alarm as I do. I also couldn’t pick up any wifi in the room.
The taps in the bath stick out to make the usable space for showering very small, be careful you don’t knock yourself on them.
We dined in The Grill restaurant. Despite being quiet, we waited 20 minutes at our table before a drinks order being taken and another 15 minutes before they arrived.
The poor service continued into the meal. One person’s starter arrived 10 minutes after everyone else’s (and it was only a garlic bread!). We were a party of 8 and the majority of the party ordered steaks. When they finally arrived, the waitress had no idea which was which so everyone ended up with a steak not cooked to their liking. I also ended up with a pile of tomatoes and mushrooms on my plate most people had asked for them to be left off but they were still added. The chips to go with the steaks arrived after we’d finished. I had poached salmon on a pearl barley risotto, which I’m afraid can only be described as grim. Clutching at a silver lining, the Gewurztraminer wine was lovely, but it was £35 a bottle!
The breakfast was adequate (word of advice, don’t turn the tap of the water dispenser too far the other way when you turn it off! I nearly caused a flood when adding water to my tea!). If you are like me and enjoy some granola and yoghurt for breakfast, the muselli is by the yoghurt. The granola is squirrelled away near the breakfast cereal on the other side of the room.
I am willing to chalk this up as a bad day as you surely can’t be a busy hotel claiming 4 stars if this is typical, but despite mentioning the above at the time and again in the morning, we weren’t really offered any apologies. It certainly appeared like the staff weren’t interested.
I wouldn’t recommend at all, this was a very expensive disappointment.
Date of visit: September 2015
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