The reason for this visit to the Holiday Inn Farnborough was to review the Spirit Health Club that is connected to the hotel, but I couldn’t stay in a hotel without taking a few photos of the hotel too to share with our readers… turn to page two and beyond for those.The Spirit Health Club is available to residents of the Holiday Inn and to non-residents by way of a club membership. It has recently had a £50,000 investment which has bought new equipment for the gym and a steam room and sauna for the pool area. The staff are friendly and you cannot fault the Health Club in terms of value for money, equipment or accessibility. As far as the interior design of the gym goes, it’s cream walls, blue carpet and inoffensive. The gym is located in the basement area so the ceilings are quite low and due to supporting walls, there are a variety of areas for the different equipment they have which means you do get a degree of privacy. It’s a shame that more hasn’t been done to decorate the walls as many are just left bare and uninspiring. Some areas do have televisions to entertain, but with the lack of natural light, it just needs brightening up – it would no doubt have a positive impact on the gym-goers.
The pool area has a Jacuzzi, brand new sauna and steam room which are great to sit and unwind after a day of meetings in the hotel. Whilst there are windows in the pool area, it’s not flooded with daylight and you’re not completely visible from the car park. I noted how one disused Jacuzzi area was filled with gravel which could have easily contained some artificial plants to liven up the area and provide a more impressive and luxurious environment.
Overall it’s a fantastic little Health Club that deserves a visit but will possibly need a little more investment in its interior design in the future to keep it competitive with other local gyms.
For a three star hotel, you can’t say you don’t get value for money with the free use of the Health Club. Even the hotel offering is excellent with free WiFi, large rooms and additional toiletries to those expected as ‘standard’. Join our debate on what constitutes luxury by reading our article, “Luxury Hotels: Myth or Reality?”
Copy and images (c) Lorraine Hakes/HotelDesigns Date of visit: 23/10/12.
Images of the hotel on page two and three…
