Champneys

Hi,

Letter of Complaint

Having waited numerous times last week to see Steve the Resort Manager whilst staying at Tring and eventually to be seen by Elsa, the "Head Housekeeper", we left feeling more than fobbed off with the whole situation.

Before we left the premises, we emailed photos of the disgusting and dirty room, including a discarded sock under the beds, which we discovered when we pulled the twin beds apart - as requested by Elsa, with a promise that our complaint would be resolved as soon as possible. Plus we brought up the dressing gown given to one of the members in our party that was full of hair and had make-up all over it when she went to put it on.

Elsa told us that the room hygiene and the photos that we showed her and offered to show her our room personally, though she declined this offer - should found Unacceptable - this we found quite ironic, bearing in mind, as Head Housekeeper she was actually the one responsible overall for the dirty state of the rooms and should be making sure that the rooms were actually cleaned to a high standard, not just sugar coating her replies to us.

At check in, we were given no information, or guidance on where to find information about activities, facilities, classes etc, which was a shame as we would probably have taken advantage of them. Nothing also in the rooms to say what was happening, or available.

In addition, was the attitude of the member of staff in the cafe, when we stopped in for tea to find all of the tea cups were very dirty with tea/coffee stains down the outsides and tea/coffee rings inside. We politely asked if they could be changed for some clean cups at which point we got an "eye roll" and then some new cups were brought to the table and virtually banged down in front of us, with no words of apology. My friend said to the young waitress - we are not having a go at you, we just wanted some clean cups to use, to which she ignored my friend and abruptly turned and walked off and was then seen complaining about us to her colleague in the cafe.

Both our room and our friend's next door, who are frequent customers of Champneys, amongst other spa hotels, were in a very poor state.

The windows had cobwebs all over, the curtains had a huge stain on one, with cobwebs behind them and above in the curtain rails. The carpet had very obviously not been hoovered and there were cobwebs on the walls. The radiator in the room was filthy and behind it had not been cleaned in years or the carpet around it.

The bathroom had mould in many places, the towel rail was thick with grim plus the sink chrome tap was disgusting and had not been cleaned properly in a very long time.

I scraped my nail through the dirt to see the chrome, added to which the sink had no plug and the water still did not drain, leaving a sink filled with residue when it was eventually empty.

Overall shocking, unclean and overall in a disgusting state.

The Spa did not bode so well either, being quite dirty, with visible mould even in the corridors, no towels to use and the public toilets were absolutely filthy, no toilet rolls and with many guests talking about this.

For breakfast, we were shown to a freshly laid table only to find it still had jam/sticky food on the table and crumbs everywhere, so we moved to another freshly laid table to find the same scenario until we did find a clean table to use.

We did speak to Dari the Restaurant Manager, as we were unable to speak to the Resort Manager and he offered us a bottle of wine, or prosecco, hopefully to shut us up - which we did not accept. He was not a lot of help and did nothing to make us feel any better, or really put any effort, or concern into making a paying guest feel heard and try to improve their situation.

The only member of staff was the young receptionist and unfortunately I did not get her name but I would say, she was possibly Eastern European, who tried very hard to help us and was genuinely sorry about the situation.

We also found after leaving a friend's suite in the main building about 11pm that the whole foyer and staircase was in darkness with no sensor lights, so we had to gingerly hold the rail and feel our way slowly down the staircase.

Now we have been patient and waited a week already for a response from someone at Tring, so I have been in contact with Dacorum Borough Council and have arranged to speak to them later this week, along with HSE and various other offices and media that I know regarding our findings and subsequent treatment whilst paying guests at Champneys Tring.

Having worked in the hospitality sector for many years both abroad and in the UK, I am fully aware of how things should be run and what standards should be, plus from a customer service point of view, how the client should be treated.

So therefore, I would appreciate a quick response to our complaint and am happy to fill you in with any details that you require to resolve this for us.

Otherwise I will be speaking to the relevant local authorities about the poor conditions we found later this week.

I look forward to your speedy response, having waited a week already,

Amanda Moore