Palace Buxton - Devonshire Rd, Buxton

Booked into the spa with my mum and arrived 15 minutes early before treatment was due to fill in required paperwork, change etc. We were directed through the hotel to the upstairs spa area and treatment rooms and found it deserted on arrival. One 'beautician ' did walk past, saw us and failed to engage. We waited for 5 minutes in reception and no-one arrived. I poked around and found a bathroom. The toilet was tiny and dirty with visible dirt around the taps and what appeared to be either faeces or blood smeared on the back of the door. The toilet paper dispenser was empty and there was a box of tissues open on top of the sink with an empty box slung in the window sill behind . I returned to find my mum still waiting and still no-one arrived. We had time to check the unattended appointment book lying open on the desk to check we were registered... ,yes) we could 've taken away any number of products that were on display.....security was non existent. Eventually after walking past us once another staff member returned to check if we had an appointment ...at this stage we 'd already decided to leave as our appointment time had already passed. We were so disappointed..the word spa and beauty treatment implies in our minds a clean, welcoming environment with caring, well presented staff as a norm. The tired, unclean environment was not conducive to the idea of a relaxing massage at all. This felt like a dodgy massage parlour...not a four star hotel. There are other spas in town. Pay a little more for them, you won 't be disappointed.

We were upgraded to a standard room, which was really good. The room was fine but the lock on the window did not work. This was a concern because scaffolding was out side the window. Food was excellent. A good stay at a good price.

Arrived, no parking at all. Receptionist who sounded like she didn 't know what she was doing. We booked on booking.con, arrived after 6 hr drive to be told there is no booking when we did have one. Offered a room smaller than what we booked, no compensation at all or discount. We didn 't have a choice but to take the room. We go to the room, the double bed is the size of a single bed. Kettle has to be on the floor. Lifts that take 10mins to arrive, you press a floor button it goes the opposite direction, access to gym and pool times are wrong, in fact a door within the hotel with posters on each side of the door indicate different opening times for it which is very misleading. Just a bad experience. We didn 't stay that night, asked for a refund and drove to stay in Manchester. Stay very clear from this hotel.

Do Not Stay at This Hotel!!!! The worst hotel we have ever stayed in. From the moment we checked in the system crashed and we were passed to another receptionist who clearly didn’t want to be there. No one explained about evening meals or any extras we could have paid for like the on-site pool and spa or restaurant. The only extra we did pay for was the room twice as they took our payment twice. As apparently in the small print they do this at weekends we arrived on Friday). Did get a complimentary breakfast though because of the hassle, the room had nowhere proper to plug in the kettle. Room reminded us of a room in a care home room didn’t have a window compact room). There was empty wine glasses outside the room our entire stay that weren’t cleared away. The tv was missing it’s remote, we were promised they would bring one, but that never happened. In the reception guests were arriving for a charity walking event which took up the entire reception area. The next morning we were hoping to get to breakfast first thing at 8.30am but when we arrived the restaurant was rammed full of charity event participants. Tables were filthy staff couldn’t keep up with clearing. Tea/coffee machines weren’t working properly. Hardly any food left. I think in the future they will need to pay me to want to stay at this hotel. Buxton itself is a lovely area but choose your hotel wisely. read reviews)

For an old hotel, it's well kept. A good balance between old and new. Lifts are a little dated. They take forever, but I guess it's part of the experience. Rooms are quite big, and so are the bathrooms. Standard breakfast, to be honest, but all in all, a good stay.