New Westcliff Hotel

We had a lovely stay and the food was great. The hotel’s biggest asset are their staff - very welcoming, extremely professional and make a lovely stay great. The Receptionist was great when we booked, but the Restaurant Manager and the Head Chef when we stayed Thursday, 18th October were amazing dealing with some disgruntled customers - professional and turned the situation around so well done

Visited for a spa day with a choice of mini treatment. I opted for a facial. The spa treatment rooms are OK; clean and well appointed. I had a couple of concerns. Firstly, there is zero personal service on arrival. You find a chair, fill out the form, and just wait for someone to come and grab you. It all feels a little impersonal. The treatment rooms are also very close together with no soundproofing. You cannot hear other patrons, but you can hear everything that travels along the busy thoroughfare outside the room. Which makes for a less-than-serene experience. The treatments are fine (I had a few). Again, however, they all felt fairly perfunctory and impersonal. After my first treatment, I was also pushed to buy the products used, which I did not appreciate nor ask to know about. The pool, sauna, jacuzzi, and other rooms were clean, and modern. Which was lovely: the only downside is that the lockers in the changing rooms need a £1 coin to operate. Which not many would have on them nowadays (I didn’t). There also isn’t direct any direct access from the changing areas to the pool area, it’s only a short walk, but I would have preferred the former. Having tried this hotel and The Mercure (Queen’s Hotel) very close tecently, the Mercure is far superior in experience and treatments, and it excels at customer service. Something I found sadly lacking at The Westcliff spa. My guess is that as they offer so many spa packages on Red Letter Days, and others, that the customer service is lost - they don’t have the time to treat everyone with the same superior level of service. All of the staff I encountered were polite and were fine, but looked rushed. My advice is if you want a premium childfree pool, spa and jacuzzi only, go for the Westcliff. If you want a truly decadent spa day and aren’t bothered about the other facilities, where the customer service is second-to-none, plump for the Mercure. You’ll thank me for it.