Spires Four Pillars, Oxford

...in the Four Pillars Oxford Spires Hotel partially due to the fact that we had never stayed in a Four Spires hotel as they only have about 5 hotels all in the Oxford area.

The hotel is easy to find as it is located on the main road into Oxford, just off the A34 which is best go to from Junction 13 of the M4. The hotel is set is amongst a small amount of parkland close to the river Thames (more on this a bit further down), and its light ...
...attracted us to the Oxford Spires was its pool, gym and spa and I have to say they were great. You get given towels at reception to save using the ones that are put in the room. The pool is a nice size 15m x 7m and is the same depth (1.2 meters) throughout, and is a nice temperate. In the corner of the main pool is the spa (Jacuzzi) which is lovely and warm and relaxing, whilst around the corner is a nice sized steam room and a sauna (which to me ... more

My partner and I decided to have a few days away to celebrate our birthdays, somewhere nice and relaxing and peaceful. After a little think we decided on Oxford, so headed straight for the hotelclub.net website and booked 2 nights in the Four Pillars Oxford Spires Hotel partially due to the fact that we had never stayed in a Four Spires hotel as they only have about 5 hotels all in the Oxford area.

The hotel is easy to find as it is located on the main road into Oxford, just off the A34 which is best go to from Junction 13 of the M4. The hotel is set is amongst a small amount of parkland close to the river Thames (more on this a bit further down), and its light coloured stone gives it a welcoming feel. Just outside main entrance there are a few 'short stay' parking spaces which can be used when checking in / out to avoid having to carrying you luggage to far, which is very handy.

On walking through the front door, the reception desk was just on left hand side. The room is guaranteed to be ready for check in at 3pm, we arrived a little early (2 pm) but was happy to find that we could check in anyway. The process was handled smoothly, quickly and politely with the usual check in ritual being performed: write down address, contact number, car registration etc, then take a swipe of the credit card to set up an account for food / drinks to be charged to, and then get given a key, in this case it was an actual key on a massive fob rather than an electronic swipe card.

From reception we made the short walk the ground floor room we had allocated (the hotel only has 3 floor, 115 rooms). The room was quite large compared to others we've had, there was a double bed (a little soft but comfortable enough) with a bedside cabinet either side, a two seater sofa, a desk and a TV cabinet containing a standard TV (there were some extra channels such as Sky sports news and ITV2 but there was not the full set of 'freeview' channels that are starting to become the norm). There was also a built in double wardrobe in which there was an iron / ironing board, trouser press and a safe). In terms of décor, the room was largely cream / beige with dark blue contrasting elements and was clean and tidy although there were a few small tears in the wall paper and the coving was showing some cracks.

The bath room was also larger than normal, with the standard toilet, sink, bath with power shower and heated towel rail.

The hotel has two bars, 'The Library' and 'Martyrs' with the latter only being used for functions and the such like. The Library bar is the main bar, and although it has quite a comprehensive range of drinks the bar is rather small with only about 8 tables, which can make it hard to get a seat at busy times.

As for food, I can only comment on breakfast, which was included with our booking. There was a very good range of both cooked and continental self serve buffet, plus fresh fruit juices whilst toast and tea / coffee are brought to the table. The quality and quantity of the available items were also good.

One of the things that attracted us to the Oxford Spires was its pool, gym and spa and I have to say they were great. You get given towels at reception to save using the ones that are put in the room. The pool is a nice size 15m x 7m and is the same depth (1.2 meters) throughout, and is a nice temperate. In the corner of the main pool is the spa (Jacuzzi) which is lovely and warm and relaxing, whilst around the corner is a nice sized steam room and a sauna (which to me is slightly small as only 4 people can get in at a squeeze. The gym is also lovely, modern and well equipped, 2 treadmill, 2 cross trainers, 2 rowing machine and a range of dumbbells and machines for weight training purposes. The spa does offer a range of beauty treatments which are reasonably priced but was fully booked for the days we were there as there is only 1 therapist.

As mentioned above the hotel is situated on the main road into Oxford and a 15 / 20 minute walk will get you there. If the road is too loud or smelly etc then the hotel grounds joins the river side path which also leads into town and is a far more pleasant experience as you watch the rowers up and down the Thames, plus the couples holidaying on their long boats. Also on river path, only about 10 minutes walk from the hotel, is a lovely pub, 'The Rivers Head' which is where we ate both nights, as the food was lovely and reasonably priced.

All that is left to comment on is the check out - this was handled swiftly and politely, the bill did show a cost for the room (even though I had paid upfront via hotelclub.net) but this was quickly removed. I then paid for the few drinks we had had in the bar and that was it.

In summary the hotel is nice and well located, all of the staff are very polite and the gym / spa are superb. The bar could do with being a little larger and some rooms could have their décor renewed a little (this may be in the process of happening as the restaurant was being refurbished during our stay) and like most hotels the room could do with sound proofing. We paid £115 per room per night including breakfast which for Oxford is quite reasonable and Oxford Spires is somewhere we would consider staying again.

 

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