Fairmont Windsor Park

This was our second visit to the Fairmont. It is great value for money for the facility’s, location and level of service with kids entertainment during the holidays. The food we lovely form all the different outlets whether breakfast lunch or dinner and I’m sure the newly renovated restaurant will be the same. It is a truly impressive building, grounds and facilities. Any criticism I give in the following review is purely constructive so the hotel can continue to maintain its high standards without slipping in some crucial areas.

We knew there was renovation works to one of the restaurants but we didn’t know we’d hear vehicle reversing beeping from 7:30 am onwards below our room. The sauna is looking a bit tiered and the steam room was out of service for the three days of our stay, which was very disappointing as we weren’t pre warned of it’s closure and it’s our favourite spa facility. They do need to keep on top of maintenance for eg our shower head was almost non functional until I ran over it with the handheld shower to remove limescale residue to which it spring back into life. There was quite allot of dust on the panelling in the 1810 bar which needs to be addressed as it was a little off putting while’s I eat lunch next to it. More outside seating for the restaurants as they were short of seating during our stay and we couldn’t sit out side for lunch during the glorious wether. Whether the new restaurant will have any. For sunny summer days the seating outside the 1810 bar isn’t enough as lot of people were turned away. This last one is a strange critique as we’re normally plagued by lack of attention from waiting staff but here we were a little overwhelmed by the 11 different waiters, maître D and front of house staff that asked us how our food was during our evening meal if seamed a little chaotic. No set staff not being given set stations to deal with we joked that the same person hadn’t come to the table twice. As I say not a problem in theory as we want to be attended to but three different staff asked for my room number then a succession of others taking food drinks desserts “do you need any sauce” “how was your meal” Orders etc. maybe just a bit more organisation on this front.

Everything

I’m going to be honest in this review. The hotel grounds themselves are lovely and very well maintained, and the rooms were clean and comfortable. However, for a 5-star hotel, I expected a lot more. Unfortunately, the service in several areas did not meet that standard. I booked this stay as a special occasion for my wife’s birthday and had called ahead to let the hotel know. The receptionist I spoke with was helpful at the time and mentioned there were a few things that could be arranged. She also confirmed we could check in early, which was important to us as we had a 3-hour journey and wanted to make the most of the day. However, when we arrived, our room wasn’t ready despite the earlier check-in being agreed. We were told our bags would be placed in the room once it was ready. When we returned at 2pm and received our room key, our bags were not there. This was particularly frustrating as we were travelling with three children, all of whose belongings were in those bags, and we had swimming booked for 4pm. We called several times to locate them, and after an hour my wife had to go to reception herself. Initially, no one could locate our bags at all, which was quite concerning. Around 20 minutes later, she was informed they had been taken to the wrong room and would be delivered to us. As an apology, the manager offered my wife one complimentary non-alcoholic drink and said they would arrange something special with the restaurant for her birthday. We then went to the swimming pool, which was extremely overcrowded. It seemed that many families had been allocated the same time slot, which made the whole system feel pointless and chaotic. Later, we attended our dinner reservation. While the staff were polite and friendly, nothing had been arranged for my wife’s birthday as previously mentioned. In fact, there was no acknowledgement of it at all, despite me informing the hotel in advance.

We had an amazing and relaxed break during Easter holidays, staff were super helpful, great Easter activities for kids, lovely live music accompanying dinner and well maintained swimming pool and facilities.

No big complaints

An impressive building with well-appointed rooms and beautiful grounds. We enjoyed the live music in the bars.

The standard of food was inconsistent: excellent nicoise salad, steak over-cooked, "warm" bread served not properly warmed through. The breakfast offering, with the Moreish restaurant undergoing refurbishment, was underwhelming. The service was generally sub-par for a hotel of this calibre (and price): lots of staff milling around apparently unoccupied but only one person manning check-in, difficult to attract attention in the restaurant, a 20-minute wait to be granted admission to breakfast (yet several tables either empty or dirty when we were), admitted to the bar at dinner rather reluctantly (no tables available) only to find it again half empty. And yet, there were plenty of staff on hand to enforce with military precision the bafflingly complicated array of age restrictions applied to the various spa facilities. In summary, the hotel is a lovely building with good facilities which currently lacks either the number or quality of staff (or perhaps leadership) to justify its star rating and pricing.