We stayed in a 2 bed/2 bath apartment recently. It was very spacious, clean, well equipped and modern. We had full use of the hotels facilities and had breakfast included in our package. Not sure if it was because we stayed midweek in January but the price was very reasonable too. It felt like we were in a large suite rather than something separate to the hotel, i imagine the hotel rooms have similar decor/furniture. The kitchen had oven, dishwasher, microwave etc and cleaning products and tea towels were provided. The bedrooms had hairdryers, irons, trouser press, tea/coffee/biscuits, toiletries as in a hotel room. The walls were glass and there was decking outside which went on to the lakeside. Not all the apartments had lake views i don't think.
The complex is huge and i imagine caters for big groups, conferences and weddings. The corridors were never ending!
The breakfast was hit and miss. The first day, no issue but the second day was a little substandard. For example there was only grapefruit juice so i asked for an alternative as the children wont drink that (the day before there was orange and apple too) and it was a real hassle to get a small tumbler of orange. The cooked goods were not of such a good standard the 2nd day and the fruit salad was all melon. The service was pretty good both days.
We were a bit annoyed we couldnt take our baby into the pool area during children's hour. We understood she couldnt swim but wanted to take it in turns to go in with the older child and sit poolside with the young one. The spa staff were very polite tho.
All in all, a lovely apartment in a big, conference hotel setting. Location is handy for circencester and the south cotswolds. Also swindon, m4 close by. I imagine lots happening on the lakes in the summer. Would stay again.

I've been scratching my head on how to review the weekend that I have just spent at The Four Pillars. I would normally only review a hotel if it was very good or very bad and this was neither. Generally I felt that hotel delivered what I would expect from a 4* set up and therefore a comment wasn't really necessary. That was until the checkout which proved to be a bit of a battle of wills with the customer relations manager.

Firstly, a quick overview. The hotel is well positioned in amongst the Cotswolds Lakes. The rooms (we had 2, as we were a foursome) were good as were the public areas. When I say "good" I probably mean acceptably functional as they lacked cosiness. That said, I don't really expect a chain hotel that leans towards the conferencing market for 5 days a week to be overly full of character. A small thing, but whilst I'm writing I'll mention it, the bar couldn't manage to deliver a Spritzer in a suitable sized glass. The wine glass doesn't take anything more than a splash of soda and the next size up was a Cola glass, thick and heavy, or a pint glass.

We had the dinner, bed and breakfast package and dined the first night in the Old Boathouse and the second in The Brasserie. The Boathouse's menu was fairly reasonably priced so we assumed that our dinner was covered by the package. The meal, in itself, was fairly uninspiring but in all honesty okay for what we wanted. The second night we ate in The Brasserie. This was a whole different experience. A better menu and dining experience all round. No complaints, in fact, only praise. We did have to get the bill adjusted though as they hadn't allowed for our £22.50 per head dinner allowance.

The problem came on the morning of checkout. Both our rooms were delivered a "speedy departure" bill. My brother-in-law and I both spotted immediately that we'd been charged the full price for our meal at The Old Boathouse with no half board allowance. This was not a big deal, as we assumed it was an oversight (which it was). We were informed that the allowance per head is only £15 in The Boathouse (rather than the same £22.50 in The Brasserie). Okay, not a big difference in a joint bill of £800+ but we asked for an explanation. This then sparked the "battle of wills" with the duty manager. Irrespective of whether it's correct to have a sliding scale of costs on a fixed package is one thing, but the manager was adamant that this would have been explained at the point of reservation. I said that whilst I was pretty sure that it hadn't been I wasn't prepared to be overly argumentative as who would remember a 2 month old conversation. The manager said to "resolve issues like this" they recorded all booking conversations and he would instigate an enquiry. This was when it started to get a bit out of shape. We really didn't feel it would be necessary to doubt us to such an extent that phone calls needed analysing. After all we were only discussing a £7.50/head issue. The manager seemed to want to press home the fact that his team don't make mistakes (the bill was one to start with) and the problem lay with us. There is no mention on the hotel's website about allowances. We were informed that although the package was booked by Four Pillars the Old Boathouse is only to widen the dining experience rather than part of the hotel.

We spent 30 minutes getting to the point where the manager said the bill stood, as itemised, subject to an enquiry. We subsequently refused to pay the bill, over and above the package price, until he backed up what he was saying (not all mentioned here). A grudging reduction was made and we await his reply to prove we were "in the wrong" and "mistaken" about information given both verbally and within their website. What a palaver over £30, but when you're paying £800+ you don't expect what actually became a bit of a dressing down from the manager. Had it not been for my brother-in-law's resilience to state our case, which we believe was correct, then the manager's bombastic approach would have won the day

A messy end to a generally good stay. My recommendation would be eat in The Brasserie, much better that The Boathouse, and if you're on half board a better deal too.

I stayed in this hotel back in 2009 for a business course for 4 days and didn't have the best experience. So 3 years later... has it improved??? Well in a word no. As i was in the area in need of a little relaxation i decided i would try out the day spa. For my £25 entrance fee this entilted me to the use of the gym, spa and lounge. First into the gym which i had to myself as it was fairly early, the gym area was fine, nothing special. Then onto the spa area which consisted of a small cold (although beautiful) swimming pool and a steam room and sauna. I took the pulnge and quickly got into the swimming pool, temp is fine for lenghts (very short ones) but not to sit around the edge where the jets are as it way to cold. The steam and sauna are both nice though. There are loungers around one side but as you cant have any drinks or snacks and no reading material they we pretty pointless being there. The changing area smelt very badly of sewage which was not nice and the whole place was so cold (it was about 2 deg outside - but still) I order lunch at the bar from a yawning, eye rolling, stroppy young girl and asked where the spa lounge was... now the "lounge" is through the bar area full of guests (in your robe and slippers!!) through reception, up two floors and it situated in one of the corridors off to the guest rooms - all still in just your robe! Here you'll find a cold noisy area with some chairs, papers and complimentary tea and coffee. after having lunch in there, which was nice and served by a nice young gentleman, i had my treatment which was not to the best standard but the girl thats did it was very polite and helpful, again treatment areas too cold. All in all one of the most expensive and unenjoyable spa days i have been on.

The only thing that deserves 4 or even 5 start about this hotel is the view over the lake. We got lucky and the lake started to ice, so every morning when the sun came out we had a magnificent view!
Rooms are clean. And spacious. But Cold. Overall, with the temperature outside ranging between 0 and -5, There was not one spot in the whole hotel I felt OK with the temperature.
And, the food was simply bad. Gave me the impression that everything was pre-fried/deep frosted.
Breakfast and Wifi access was OK.