Review of Kings Head Hotel 4*

I would love to give this place 5 stars. The hotel was beautiful, with an ideal location right on the high street with views of the impressive church. The whole building has been wonderfully designed, from the modern but relaxed bar/restaurant, the brick work underground passage ways, to the large stylish rooms with both a bath and walk-in shower. The reception and restaurant staff were also very friendly. Sounds too good to be true? Sadly for us it was. There were several dissapointments that although small, ruined our stay. 1. On arrival I phoned to ask where we could park and was told the 7 spaces available were all full, and was directed to the pay and display across town. As this was a trip for my partners birthday the journey down the high street laden with gifts wasn't a relaxing start. On checking in I asked if we could book one of the spaces for the rest of our stay to be told it was £15 a day. Personally this is something I think should be clear on the site. We decided to stay in the pay and display which was 6.50 a day. (If you choose to park here we found a short cut on our final day that goes from directly opposite the hotel to the car park. From the car park keep the shops on your left and head towards the residential buildings. ) 2. On arrival we asked to use the Spa but were told you needed to reserve a slot. This was not referenced in our secret escapes booking. They told us to call the spa to find out the next available slot, but no one answered. Eventually I popped down to the spa in person to find out when we could go in. It was very understaffed and when I found someone they told me the entire weekend had been booked up already apart from one slot (which was of course when we'd planned to be out for my partners birthday). You could not go down to the spa in robes and slippers as other places, but were expected to change to and from cloths once down stairs, at which point they provided the scratchiest robes I've ever used. I for one love to dash back to my room after time in a spa to use the lovely private facilities, not the open changing rooms. We changed plans so we could make the most of the spa and quickly realised why they only allow six people in at a time. The spa is tiny, much smaller than it looks on the site. The hot tub was very shallow and just fit two people. The experience shower was no better than the room showers, and the sauna and steam rooms were sweet but very small and not that warm. We quickly gave up on it all and decided to go sit in the bath in our room which was much more relaxing. None of this would have bothered me too much if when we checked out we hadn't then been charged for the spa use. We were never told there would be a fee, and I completely assumed it would be included with the Secret Escapes 'spa deal'. 3. Last point is that the food was hit and miss. On night one I had an amazing steak, but my partners pork was cold and chewy with very little meat. We had eggs in the morning, which tasted rubbery and not fresh, and by the evening both had terrible stomachs. I will definitely return to Cirencester some day soon as I feel in love with the city, but sadly I will be staying elsewhere. If more had been made clear on their website there would have been less surprises.