Lifehouse Spa Hotel Recensioni 

I bought vouchers from Buy a Gift for this establishment for my son and his partner as gifts for birthday last May. As they had a child not long afterwards, they waited until this year to use the vouchers as a special treat they also booked the couple spa and added this to the booking. I also booked a manicure for this years birthday, which was a surprise.
Unfortunately the spa has declined and is in need of a serious refurbishment, splintering wood in the sauna, which was also not hot, cold jacuzzi and overall a bit tatty. For some
reason not only did they spoil the manicure surprise, they also spoiled the manicure by doing it just before the couples manicure!
The massage itself was very limp and lacked pressure and finesse.
I have asked for a refund but been told no, they can come back.
WHY would you want to!
My best advice for anyone contemplating wasting their money here is DON’T. It’s run down with therapists who clearly don’t know what they are doing and management don’t care.
Go somewhere else.

Firstly I would like to say you can not fault the staff here. They are polite, helpful and accommodating.

We have stayed annually at this spa for 10 years now, however on previous visits we noticed it was starting to feel a bit out dated. On this occasion lots had changed with one locker between two people, one of the spa steam rooms was out of order, the sauna was not working properly and the temperature was low. The venue was so busy and the jacuzzi was full and well it just looked like it could go with a spruce up.

The restaurant menu had completely changed and got the first time we were stumped what to eat. Nothing took our fancy, we usually have chateaubriand this was not on the menu. They had a spring vegetable risotto which I opted for which stated zucchini and asparagus, this came out with sweetcorn, broccoli and just felt like a child’s supper.

Breakfast is a buffet but not self serve so in the morning the queue was very long and the server was giving out exceptionally hot plates saying be careful the plates are hot, I in-fact burnt my hand as my table was quite far away. Also I think for a spa serving up a fry up is not very fitting with health & wellness I’d like to see poached eggs, smashed avocados or omelettes, eggs Benedict etc. Not potatoe tots.

I had a treatment, a Elemis deep tissue massage by a Daisy. I’ve had a treatment every year and all a bit hit and miss, however I would highly recommend daisy she was absolutely incredible. Best massage I’ve ever had.

Outside of that, I think if Life House invested in a refurbishment of the spa & facilities, tailored the menu to be more versatile and more bistro and healthy options for breakfast I think it would be ok. It’s incredibly pricey and you wouldn’t mind paying if it was 5*, but when it looks tired and the main features have things out of order it seems a bit steep. Also the check-in and out system is the worst I’ve seen in a long time. We queued for 30 minutes just to hand in a robe & locker key.

But the setting is beautiful, the patio in the sunshine is beautiful and has a little outdoor bar and food.

I would love to come back but it would need an update and refurb before I considered.

Very poor spa stay experience for a friends birthday.

3 friends and I booked an overnight spa break for a birthday. Unfortunately I would not return. I had previously been as a day spa guest and was treated much better than as a break guest.

On arrival we were only given 1 locker key between 2, on arriving into the changing rooms these were the small half size lockers. We asked for an additional and was told that the bigger lockers were only for day guests. We had not yet been given room keys either.

We were also told that the flip flops were for day guests only and we had to walk around in the fabric slippers they provide which obviously got soaking wt around the pool area.

On trying to book dinner, I had emailed 3 times prior to arrival and tried to call multiple times without success. On the day they said they could only accommodate 6pm - so we had to cut the spa short to get enough time in for getting ready for dinner. This was a very poor meal, not worth the money at all, and what was so upsetting is the fact that all night there were only a handful of dinner guests, therefore we could have been seated later.

Breakfast the next day was absolutely horrendous. I am a vegetarian and the offerings were poor - including tinned tomatoes and stone cold beans and mushrooms. It felt more like a breakfast you would expect in a Butlins resort.

The spa itself is tired and worn. Too much chlorine which stung our eyes. I heard other guests also complain about it. For a 4 hour portion of the first day we could not get a lounger round the pool, on asking for an additional lounger to be put out we were told we would have to sit on the edge of the pool. Poor poor service with the packed spa clearly being oversold.

In summary, I absolutely would not return her. There are much better local spas out there, even the one in my local gym gives a better service.

Until Lifehouse start actually treating customers with some respect and dignity this establish can only continue on one path, downhill!

Luxury surroundings! Good organic and fresh and tastes amazing. Customer care where all staff from reception to waiting staff to staff in the spa and who provide treatments are all 5 star ratings. Staff are welcoming helpful and customer focused.
The bar staff are friendly warm and helpful too. We spent a wonderful memorable time where we were pampered and received first class services from all staff at the hotel. Thank you Lifehouse! We will return!

My husband and I had an afternoon tea there, It was delicious. A great selection of sandwiches, rolls, scones and little cakes with as much tea and coffee as we wanted. Would go there again.

Stayed with three friends on a Sunday /Monday break the station pick up and drop off was a great bonus and we checked in hassle free. Got straight in to our robes a dived in for a lovely relaxing few days. Food was fabulous very good service from Luke (I think that was his name) and staff were all super friendly and helpful. Leanne on reception was efficient and keen to help and answer any of our questions as were the rest of the staff. All in all we had a great stay, having been several times before I agree with some of the comments that things are perhaps a bit tired but also feel a winter break often seems a bit bleak and the grounds are fantastic when the sun shines. Only criticism is that at times communal areas were a bit chilly. Will definitely come back maybe in the summer months😀

What a shame about the other reviews! I had a lovely time with my daughter. Check in is at 3pm but you can arrive at 10am to use the facilities. We arrived in the morning and were kindly advised that our room was all ready so we could unload our things, I thought that was a great start. We found the staff very smiley and welcoming. We made full use of the facilities and the gym was nice, clean and fresh. If you want to go around dissecting everything then yes it is looking tired in places and to have not fixed the sauna in good time is a bit disappointing. We loved our contemporary room but I did find the bed rock hard and so did my daughter. I felt it was value for money tbh to still be able to use the facilities until 6pm after check out is fab I think and the 3 course meal and breakfast was really really nice. I think some of the reviews are stupid, I mean how can you get offended by white sun loungers!?? And the comment made about a person in a robe with their legs spread out!? Move then and grow up don’t look at people with judgy eyes!!! Yes it needs attention and a tidy up but I should imagine the company is still trying to recover from Covid. We had a wonderful time and the staff ALL of them were lovely.

It's not worth the money. To start with we arrived and at check in there were no lockers for males so my wife had to take mu bag and go back and fourth all day when I wanted to go to the gym etc.

Next the sauna was not working and on top of that is was so busy there was no where to sit in the spa.

It was not worth what we paid, really disappointed.

Reply: 2 months later a reply. If you have a “maintenance team on site” why is your Spa in such a run down deteriorated state: how have you allowed it to get this bad over years of neglect!

No mention of the appalling food! Despite your reply - which deals with “frankly” nothing on this point.

Had a spa day with my Partner - came when it first opened but was shocked at how deteriorated it was now. Changing rooms horrendous. Had to get changed in some small cupboarddoor room.,,The number of signs saying “awaiting-maintenance” The salt inhalation room the walls were broken no salt in there. Pool cold.

The restaurant awful £22 for a Turkey bacon & cranberry ciabatta you needed a microscope to find the Turkey.

Burger dry & burnt.

The worst spa I have ever been too

Felt ripped off

An Uncomfortable Environment

We do love a good spa experience when cruising at sea, so this time we thought we would experience an on land experience at Frinton-on-Sea.

Note that all my reviews on trip advisor are based on honest feedback. So let’s start with the:

Positive:

Outstanding location, about 1.5 miles from the town centre and coast line. Set in a lovely setting with good garden landscapes.

Check in process was simple and effective, although I’m not one to like the pre authorisation of £50:00 going on the card.

Bedroom was a nice size, good views and comfy bed.

Breakfast good quality, good choices, and food hot from the buffet.

Negatives:

The Spa Swimming pool was cold and whilst it has lovely brown rattan sun loungers, the environment is spoilt, where they have put in extra cheap white plastic sun loungers to accommodate for the additional peak times; no doubt to simply to drive up the revenue.

Lack of lighting over the jacuzzi tub area. Only one over head spray working,

Wet steam room was ok as was the salt hydration room.

Our Bathroom: The shower tray was dirty as was the floor.

All the general common areas of the hotel and our room was excessively hot and you had no way of controlling the temperature in your room. It was like having to visit someone in a care home where they keep the heating on fall blast.

Breakfast. Well what can I say! It’s certainly not our kind of environment so be careful and selective where you sit. For some reason they allow you to go and have breakfast in your Spa gowns, so if your the kind that likes to sit near others who have open gowns and spread eagled legs then go for it, but it’s not our cup of tea at 9:00am in the morning.

The check out process: Well we are well seasoned travellers but this is not one that I have ever comes
across. It goes like this:

“Can I help your sir?

Yes I would like to check out please.

Certainly. Did you have a pleasant stay with us?

No it was absolutely horrible and we didn’t enjoy it’

Now at this point,you would, or I certainly would have expected him to have said. “Oh I’m so sorry to hear that, what didn’t you enjoy, or is there anything you would like to raise with us!

Nothing of the kind the response was simply “oh ok let me get you, your invoice for you’

Buyer beware, it might on the face of it be advertised as good vfm, but you pay for what you get and on this occasion we got very little and an unpleasant experience for our money.

Having seen your response please don’t tell lies, it does not and will not do your business any good. Take the constructive criticism, re- train your check out staff or sink.

This weekend was our 7th stay at the Life house Spa. We have always enjoyed the spa, grounds and also the NYE packages as it is relaxing and informal allowing a reset.

I have never made a review on a consumer business review websites/platforms before but i am still in shock at our experience with Lacey the Manager at check-out, I am disgusted at her conduct. She is rude, overly confrontational and aggressive. During our six stays at the hotel and spa we have never had an issue with staff.

We booked our stay on booking.com which we have done before, upon check-out we were told we would need to pay £29 each to use the spa.
We advised that previously we used the spa the day of check out. We were advised by the receptionist, we would need to incur the commission that booking.com takes if we wanted to stay at the spa after 11am and make payment of £29 each as the Life House needs to make that commission back from booking.com. We were told we pay the same price as booking directly but we get one less day at the spa via booking.com and this was our issue. Please note when we have previously booked on booking.com this has never been the case.

Lacey the manager then appeared and said she had been listening to our conversation, her conduct was hostile and we were advised if we did not leave the property by 11am security would be called. absolutely disgusting conduct. We left the hotel immediately as we felt incredibly uncomfortable and not welcome. After our stay we felt distressed and not relax after our Lacey encounter.

The booking for the night was £250 (with dinner package), with additional treatments, restaurants, products in the gift shop and bar tab the night stay totaled just shy of £800 for one night. We were more than happy to pay as we have on our other six stays previously but to be spoken to with such disrespect and to have hidden charges that have never been there before is quite frankly appalling.

Life House have lost two loyal customers as a result of the negligent customer service.

Overall on this visit the hotel had lost it previous quality. For Example: dirty marks on towels in room, steam room broken with no notice, out of dinner choices at the restaurant.

EDIT: response to the below:
1/ my partner said he felt that Life House was "taking the piss" for telling us that we needed to cover booking.com commission and pay the same price with a reduced service. (one less day at the spa.) To be clear he did not swear at her.
2/ check-out information is in the footer of the booking.com email confirmation and is not highlighted in bold.
3/ weak response, we will not be returning.

Good location, nice rooms, good facilities, evening meal was a joke, we wasn't allowed to have our steak cooked how we liked it, we were told " it comes medium to rare" and thats that, after a heated public discussion with the "manager" we chose something else, bizarrely they were happy to serve the cod without the mussel sauce that it came with and happy to serve the chicken without the polenta chips⁹ that it came with, but their chef refused to cook the steak for a little longer, absolutely gob smacked.
Will not be returning, or recommending.

I had heard good things about this, with a friend highly recommending. However, my experience was not that good. As others have said, the pool area leaves a lot to be desired. Not many beds (even though if items are left to hold beds,these are removed after 20 minutes). Nevertheless not many areas to relax around the pool. Felt like sardines. The hot spa pool was so crowded and unpleasant it looked like a non-league Saturday football team’s communal bath. I kept hoping that I’d walk around a corner and there would be the beautiful spa area as portrayed in the photos, not this dismal, dreary municipal pool. The individual spa rooms eg sauna were so cramped and small, they too were unpleasant. If you didn’t book in one of the extortionate treatments then the idyllic spa experience was not to be had!
The bedroom was clean and comfortable, with a well appointed shower and facilities but was so hot that it felt like a sauna itself.
Food is good and probably was the saving grace of the 2 days stayed and the restaurant staff extremely helpful and friendly. Would I recommend, no. Would I stay here again, no. Is it worth the money, even an offer? No! I was truly disappointed and trust me I’m not the type to leave a poor review willy, nilly! Following on from Lifehouse Spa’s response. Just to add it was a Monday/Tuesday and as I stated I know there are other seating areas but hardly any by the pool. I really feel they couldn’t care less!

To start off with the good points: bed was nice and had a nice room overlooking the garden. Garden was lovely. Staff were nice and friendly, especially Angel, who looked after us at evening dinner.
Now onto the not so good points. The smell on entering the hotel was a bit musty, not very nice. The robes that were given to us did not have a fresh smell either. The spa and swimming pool area were far too crowded and far too hot, so didn't get to use these facilities, even after trying a few different times.
Evening Dinner: For my experience this was poor. I had the skate, which was full of bones. I have had better at a fish and chip shop. I also had stomach ache all night long and into the next day. My wife had a better experience than me, really enjoying her main of Vegetable Wellington. We must say the ambience in the dining room was lovely, nice subtle lighting.
Breakfast: This was self service. Again, for my experience was not great. The bacon was hard and dry, sausages were hard but the small egg was fine. My wife again had a better experience than me, enjoying her breakfast, they had vegetarian sausages and non dairy milk.
Garden: We went for a walk into the garden, which was lovely, great pond for the wildlife. When trying to get back inside we found the door we came out from was locked so couldn't get back in. There was also another lady who had also been locked out by another door. We had to walk all the way round the building to find another entrance to get back inside.
We would call this only an average hotel not a spa hotel and definitely doesn't warrant the prices you have to pay, would have expected a lot better and more relaxing atmosphere, which it didn't have.
We won't be rushing back.

I was stuck in traffic on my way here( no fault of theirs) a journey of apprx1 hr took over 3hrs, that gave me an opportunity to read the reviews about this place (Should normally read reviews before booking 😅) Anyway so many reviews were horrible and coupled with the traffic, I thought this was all a mistake. However the experience was really 👌 wonderful, all the staff were polite and helpful, from Emma at reception to Helena at the restaurant, Many, Abbey, Jordan at checkout day, the massage, staff at the hallway etc almost everything was wonderful. I say almost because some improvements are required with the cleanings, the rooms could be better cleaned, noticed some dust and cobwebs around the facility and watermarks on rugs, but don't let that pit you off. This place is worth a visit and make sure you spend some time in the relaxation room. 👍👍👍👍👍. N

Absolutely shocking display of zero customer service.

It's a business. I get that. But these people are in the business of customer service and they display absolutely no respect for their customers.

They currently have more than 32 rooms available but will not accept their booking because 'as a business' they cannot accept a booking for a date almost 7 weeks in advance that has been pre-paid with a voucher.

If that's how they treat people I won't be going there.

Had a disappointing return visit. Having experienced welcoming staff and great facilities in the past was looking forward to a relaxing time to find some staff unwelcoming, with a "that's the way it is now" attitude when I expressed my disappointment at the reception desk. Had a reply to my review on Trip Advisor saying I should have spoken to the 'guest services team' but wasn't given that option at the time.

Was very disappointed, I had treated my partner for his birthday. Paid £500 for 1 night stay, prosecco package. I upgraded the room. When we got into the room, no aircon, fridge and super outdated. When you are paying so much you really expect more. I was unwell half through stay and needed some paracetomal and they were not helpful at all. Spa facilities were okay, but certainly wouldn't say they were amazing.

The food was very good, however. The 3 course meal was delicious and nice portions. The gardens were very beautiful to walk around.

I received an overnight stay for my daughter and myself, in arrival we were disappointed from the off, very shabby and dated, our bathroom had limescale in the shower cubicle, the room was tired and dated, the curtains were faded from the sun, room extremely hot with one desk type plastic fan, the spa area was dirty and basic, the water in the pool/jacuzzi was cloudy looking, the salt room was out of service and had been for sometime according to reviews, we were not advised of this on arrival, the 3 course meal very basic and accompanied by a dirty jus of water, no ice etc, treatment rooms need a complete overhaul as does the rest of the building, lounge chairs in the relaxation area covered with throws to hide the peeling covering, I could go on and on, we left after an inedible cold breakfast that resembled a greasy spoon, Dont waste your money or time, the entire stay was based on extra costs for everything, complaints procedure is ridiculous

I’ve stayed here 4 times and each time we felt a slight decline in services. Unfortunately this weekend gone I was there with my wife celebrating my 50th birthday and on the last nights stay woke at 4am feeling very unwell with what I now consider as food poisoning symptoms. I stayed a wake with severe symptoms until 9.15am when I finally built up the mental strength to make the 1.40 hour drive home, even tho we had the full spa day and breakfast still, but no possible to stay. Later that evening my wife came down with the same symptoms & was extremely ill to the point she passed out. We ate throughout our stay at the restaurant for the whole weekend so can only be down to something we ate at the restaurant. This will most definitely be our last visit to the life house spa.
UPDATE !!!!

As you can see in the response from life house spa, they wanted me to talk privately….with me thinking they was going to take responsibility. But when I did email they basically dismissed any fault. So please everyone think twice before booking with this company and if you do, be very careful…they talk about doctors, knowing fulll well the GP is shut on a Sunday that’s why my wife went to the local pharmacy who said it sounds like suspected food poisoning and gave her the medication I needed. Over time food poisoning if not life threatening goes with lots of rest and fluids., which it did. Now they are stating it could have been alcohol, my wife doesn’t drink. Keep trying with your silly excuses as you do with every bad review you get. Never take responsibility do yous. No wonder your rating is terrible on here, and it will only get worse from what we experienced.