Bartley Lodge Hotel, The Orangery

Mixed feelings. We chose this hotel as a break deal with Paultons Park as it was the closest. The main annoyance is the road to the hotel through the forest. It is in a horrible state, full of potholes and dangerous bumps. The parking area of the hotel not any better. The hotel itself is nice and the rooms and beds are really comfy. But it is obviously understaffed. This results in service being slow and not adequate. The breakfast was very limited but the quality is fine within those limits. Dinner a la carte is the star of the place. Excellent plates and great desserts

Service was atrocious, no one at reception, no one at the bar, the staff that were there were overworked. Ran out of food one night. Rooms are very very tired as is the whole hotel, small grounds are lovely. Very accommodating to our dog and 2 year old little girl.

This place has the potential to be very special, but unfortunately it seems a lack of investment in staff and maintenance is having such a negative effect that it's hard to recommend at present. Location is lovely, the access road is a mess like others have said so take it slowly. The grounds are in really good condition and first appearance is very good. As of June 2024 the swimming pool is out of action and staff said it was a 'serious' problem so I don't expect it will be resolved any time soon. We were told about this in advance so stopped off at a sister hotel 5 minutes away before we arrived. They also have their own maintenance issues (sauna and one changing room out of action) but the staff were very helpful. Back at Bartley Lodge, there's just a general sense that the staff are cut right to the bone. There's no barman so you'll need to wait for the receptionists to be free to get a drink, the waiting staff are nice but inexperienced and several things (like sparkling water) were not available. But our biggest problem was our room. It had a foul smell when we checked in which we hoped would clear while we had dinner but actually just got worse. Turns out the pipe from the toilet was not sealed and someone had attempted to improve things but stuffing it with toilet paper, which hasn't worked. Then just before I went to ask for us to be moved my wife cut her foot on some broken glass which hadn't been cleared from the carpet. We were moved to another room and given some free drinks, which was appreciated and the rest of the stay was fine, but with many other options in the area I'd consider whether the premium price was really worth the risk when considering booking here.