Sopwell House Hotel - Saint Albans, United Kingdom     

If you are looking for quiet night's sleep, avoid this hotel. We booked a quiet room in advance, then checked in early at 13h30 (official check-in 15h00) to confirm that a quiet room had been reserved for us. The desk clerk confidently assured us that we had been allocated a quiet room on the top floor away from the lifts, and when we returned at 19h00 it would be ready for us. We were actually put in a room on the first floor and discovered that the hotel had old, creaking floorboards both in the corridor and the room above us. We went to see the duty manager and he said this was unfortunate but there were no quiet rooms available. That was it (take it or leave it, essentially) The hotel had a number of evening wedding receptions on and we had to listen to late-night partying guests, followed by the people in the room above us arriving back at 02h30 and walking over the creaking floorboards for around 40 minutes. A nightmare.

We booked Sopwell House for a one night spa break in need of rest and relaxation but at the time of booking the hotel and at check-in, they 'forgot' to mention that on the night of our stay there was a private party for 800 guests going on in the function room, just below our bedroom. At 1.00 a.m. when the music from the disco was still thumping and the drunk party-goers had spilled out onto the lawn making lots of noise, taxis and cars hooting their horns, this was anything but relaxing. When we complained to the hotel manager in the morning he was unhelpful and offered us such a tiny discount it was insulting and then they miscalculated our bill. As we were checking out, 2 other people were complaining that their bills were incorrect. The Spa and Country Club are in need of repair. The robes they give you are torn and dirty, the door out to the terrace from the pool area had jammed and people were either stuck inside or out and the staff were disinterested. For a supposedly 'healthy' experience, when I asked for skimmed milk in my coffee and told they didn't have it I was told by the charming waitress "you can't please all the people all the time". For the same money I think there are much nicer and more relaxing spa's around and definitely wouldn't go back to this one.