Overall Ratings & Reviews Cowley Manor Experimental

Excellent experience. Great food and grounds. Heating in main building needs attention in public reception areas. No availability for spa treatments.

Cozy stay at Cowley Manor - good service, helpful staff especially around gluten-free dietary restrictions. Would recommend!

Great spa break, good meal options, pool and spa. Good alternative to the farmhouse.

Fantastic stay for 10 year wedding anniversary. Extremely welcoming and some lovely little touches…

Everything was excellent - from our room to the spa facilities. The breakfast was delicious - particularly the pastries! The only thing I would have liked would have been a friendlier check in. We were handed our keys with no introduction to the hotel, where to find what or when breakfast was. Apart from that - a great weekend was had!

It’s a beautiful hotel with a lovely pool/spa area too. We stayed in a Treehouse Room which was lovely but 3 floors was a bit of a pain, wouldn’t stay in that room type again but happily at the hotel. Food and drink was also excellent.

Poor service

Peaceful place, very cool and trendy interiors, lovely spa.

Beautifully designed hotel and very comfortable

I can see why Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland here , it is an absolutely enchanting place . From the minute we arrived the staff were so lovely , it was my birthday and they really went the extra mile to make it very special. The room was stunning , very kind personal touches , spa was just so zen , food was fantastic , breakfast and service was particularly superb , loved the games room and went for lovely country walks. For the 3 days we were there the service was consistently great , staff were engaging and I’m already looking at when we can return. Thank you Cowley team for the best birthday !

Experimental Group converted an existing luxury hotel. Modern Furniture was added - or old one modernised. In our room the old cupboard was painted and the doors covered with a new fabric. Bed, sofa, chairs and carpet were new. The bathroom was partial new - old shower, new sink, etc. The only downside was, that the room door was old (and a rather cheap addition in the 70s(?)) and did not close tightly. Breakfast was great and the staff always friendly and helpful. The Gardens are marvellous and the pool is very nice. If all this is worth the rather steep price, is up to you.

Lovely experience at Cowley manor, shame the steam room wasn’t working. Had a room change due to noisy neighbours and the hotel were really accommodating. Breakfast options were great, beautiful grounds and very comfy beds.

Can’t really fault the hotel apart from one small instance where we asked reception to book us a taxi to get us to our dinner reservation, but they had forgotten and we ended up being 30 mins late, otherwise it was great and the food was excellent. Decor was stunning, and the bathrooms were a particular highlight. The spa however really let the side down, and considering it’s a spa hotel makes it overall quite disappointing. The staff aren’t helpful in the spa, the steam room was unavailable all weekend, lack of staff led to a limited menu at pool bar then our couples massage was cancelled an hour before because there wasn’t enough staff, they offered an unsuitable replacement (facial) or a different date but we aren’t local so it was of no use to us and meant we didn’t use the spa that day. The responses from main reception at checkout and the spa was unsatisfactory which is disappointing for a luxury hotel.

Excellent hotel

Wonderful setting, super facilities and excellent customer service.

We had the most incredible stay for our baby moon. It’s such a stunning location. Really special! The restaurant and bar staff, the design, the atmosphere is just perfect.

A great stay in a wonderful place. The setting was lovely and the food brilliant. The spa was great too - but it was a shame that the staff seemed so inexperienced / unaware of how the systems worked there. Apart from this frustration, everything else was brilliant.

Loved our weekend here - amazing property and grounds - really great food - very relaxing. Decor - tired and overly themed and the French designer clearly prioritised style over comfort and doesn’t know how to design a chair. The spa is beautiful but the treatments were underwhelming and a bit basic for the £££. So in summary a contemporary and beautiful property run by kids - very lovely kids who tried hard…but kids all the same. Feels like a grown up needs to get a hold of this place.

Shame the check in is so late and check out too early!

Nice hotel, lots of potential, slightly tired in place but a cute blend of old and new. Not the greatest service, (maybe we expected too much) nice people with zero urgency. Lovely spa and pool area. Food is good, cocktails overpriced (£20) and whoever thinks charging £5 for water is acceptable? All in all a nice stay