Imposing Grade 1 listed building, saxon moat, Very romantic gardens, amazing staff........ah, better hold the press on that one for a minute.
This hotel is truly "Great", the architecture and interior of the main building oozing traditional England. What the owners need to do is put some english tradition into their staff.
The porter cracked a couple of jokes and a smile when we arrived at around 5pm - the next was from the breakfast staff! Between then we got a couple of grunts from bar staff, most of whom i presumed had no teeth as they could not force a smile out. And, if you can't smile, then at least be professional - you are in customer service after all. One final thing on the service......whoever was working in the cocktail bar in full uniform on Sunday 5th August, try wearing shoes rather than black Nike trainers! How scruffy for an "SLH" venue!
We were staying on a Sunday for a wedding reception, getting a double room called the "Tintern" in "The Cloisters" (seperate building about 20seconds from the main house). Room was well furnished - not very big - but we only needed it for one night anyway. Comfy bed, nice bathroom with molton brown products, sleek looking bang+olufson TV.
Wedding reception was lovely - barn style room with exposed beams, but guess what - the bar staff were totally uninterested.
Breakfast was included as it was a weekend - tasty, but not sure if i would pay £15.50 for it. Best member of staff was in here - attentive and smiley!
Overall, such a romantic place, we had a lovely walk around the 50 acres of grounds to shake off the hangovers in the morning. But......please, please Great Fosters do something with your staff as it would be the difference in me staying again or not.

Stayed at the hotel as part of a wedding party. Room was very small and hotel were aware we had a baby as we had requested a travel cot. Hotel room only had a shower in wet room style. Requested a room with a bath as more suitable to wash a 7 month old baby in. Was told hotel fully booked but can't we bath her in the sink!! Also the wet room floor is wet after using the shower so again not very good for a baby who whats to crawl round the room.
When attending the wedding the receptionist took us (well pointed to a room and told us to enter) to the wrong wedding. Had to return to the reception to ask to be shown where the wedding we were attending was being held. Were told to wait for a porter and the receptionist left the reception area. After a 10 minute wait another receptionist took us.
Hotel room was also very dark, we not be returning.

We recently stayed at Great Fosters as an extended visit due to a family wedding and whilst we weren't over keen initially on staying due to the price, we decided it would be easier to stay in the one place where the weddig was rather than rushing on the morning. We were not dissappointed in the slightest!!
Originally we had booked to stay in an Executive room within the Main House, but the receptionist advised us upon check in that we had been upgraded to a room call Italian. She then took us up to the room and showed us through the room, including all the nooks and crannies where everything is hidden that make this room so unique. It was starting to turn out better than we had been expecting.
On the first evening we had booked to eat in the restaurant rather than going out with the rest of our family, it was a good decision as we then didin't have to worry about how we were getting back from where we would have gone as the hotel isn't exactly walkable from Egham or the train station. But the meal and the service were fantastic, we had a great waiter who seemed to anticipate everything we wanted and were really were enjoying ourselves, the food was a mixture of delicious flavours.
Breakfast the following morning was busy but we didn't notice, we met the rest of our family and started getting ready for the "main event".
The wedding itself was suberp, they made all of us feel as though we were the only guests in the hotel even though there was another wedding in the next room.
All the staff were there whenever we needed anything and the stay we had made us feel that, although we only live an hour away, it would definitely be somewhere we would return when we wanted to treat ourselves.

I booked this hotel as i was attending a function one evening at the hotel, so thought i'd treat my girlfriend and I to a night in what looks a really impressive beautiful hotel on their website.
We then had some friends over from South Africa and decided to stay two nights in total - even though we had to change rooms and pay nearly £400 for a suite on the first night - ouch! haha
We arrived late as we advised them excited about a night in the Italian Suite. Recetion really coudn't have cared less on check-in. The porter was pretty useless and didnt show us anything in the room - no tthat that mattered to us really. Its a very elaborate room but not a suite in my book. Its very dark - needs more windows. And its all really very false to be honest. The rooms had no details about the suite and why its decorated in this way. The shower runs hot and cold, the water is £4 a bottle - and we paid £400 for this and they wanted to charge for water too!!! The bed is also small.
Room service breakfast was appalling, really bad - wrong order brought, then not what was requested. gave up on it aftrer 3rd call.
We then moved for the second night into the Waterloo room. This is nearly half the price of the Italian Suite and 20 times better! Much brighter, better facilities (although still no tea/coffee facilities). Nice bathroom and at last a view - well sort of!!
I'd stay in this room again but never the Italian Suite.
Having said this i doubt id return to this hotel as the service, barring one or two individuals, was pathetic. Bar service in particular was tedious. The cleaners leave all their stuff along the corridors including service trays. Our room afternoon tea was still in our room when we returned at 11pm too.
The hotel looks really impressive and i think under the right management could be great. Sadly our visit left us feeling ripped off.