The Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel, which opened in August 2007, is in a resort area with man-made lakes and nature reserves, so offers an extensive range of watersports and outdoor activities.

The hotel is equally marketed to business and leisure tourists, and the weekend we visited, at the end of November, the hotel was at its full capacity of 220 rooms. The hotel also has self-catering accommodation, and buy-to-let holiday apartments are nearing completion.

One of the more remarkable architectural features was the two-floor height glass windows at the entrance. A lounge area in the atrium is furnished in neutral colours with natural materials such as rattan chairs complementing its natural surroundings, with a fire in the middle. The area was bustling with guests enjoying themselves, a welcoming feature itself in the hotel. The staff were helpful and the concierge knowledgeable.

The rooms are contemporary but bland, decorated in beige, birch and blue. They are equipped with free broadband, an extensive range of television channels, including free film channels, and basic tea and coffee facilities. There was no drinking water provided in the rooms – I woke up gasping in the middle of the night after a salty supper.

The bathroom was small but functional, with a generic range of toiletries, and a bath which wouldn’t accommodate much more than a small frame. The views from the room, however, were stunning, with full-height windows allowing views over the lake, with swans swimming round the edges.

There was no air conditioning in the rooms. Our room was standard, but there are more expensive suites, with little to differentiate them apart from their own balconies, a treat in summer, provided bath robes and an upgraded range of toiletries, which I didn’t use, but didn’t look especially deluxe.

The conference facilities are impressive, with capacity for 800 delegates, a range of large and small meeting rooms with hi-tech facilities, and a private bar and dining room. But neither my friend or I, both on different networks, had mobile phone reception, potentially offputting for a business user. The hotel is investigating rectifying this.

The restaurant had another of the hotel’s few chic design features, a stylish glass walk-in wine-cabinet lit by orange lights, and outdoor dining beside the lake is available in summer months. However, the food was the big letdown of this four star hotel.

The main course of the evening meal was from a self-service carvery. My gammon was tasty enough, but the choice of vegetables was uninspiring and my roast potatoes weren’t cooked in the middle. The vegetarian option was an unoriginal and overcooked pasta with tomato sauce and roasted vegetables. Like my starter, which was smoked salmon with capers, the bread and butter pudding I had for dessert was just a little too square and regimental to inspire me, although the salmon was well presented with a lemon half tied up in muslin with yellow ribbon. I felt like we were being catered for, to a pre-Jamie school dinner standard, rather than cooked for.

The breakfast range was reasonably extensive, with everything you would expect from a buffet, including the requisites for a cooked breakfast, pastries, yogurt and fruit. The tables had a selection of Bonne Maman jams, and the porridge I ordered separately came quickly.

However, for lunch, I struggled to find anything inexpensive that appealed from the bar menu, and the triple-decker ham sandwiches and ploughman’s lunch we finally ordered were so average that we actually borrowed the hotel’s umbrella and braved torrential rain the following day to go to the café run by the tourist information office next door.

The hotel has a spa, Spa 6, which offers a complete range of Decleor treatments, inlcuding the relaxing back massages we had. There is a spa lounge where clients can relax with herbal tea, although I was put off by the “tranquillity-inducing” scenes of waterfalls on the TV. The spa also has an 11-metre swimming pool, sauna, steam room, hydrotherapy pool, and a well-equipped but not overrun gym.

On the Saturday, we were turned away from the swimming pool twice, once because of high chlorine levels, and once because the swimming pool was overcrowded. This is not a destination spa; rather a hotel with a spa attached. If the spa is not the main purpose of your visit, and are you able to fit in a treatment or a dip when small children are likely to be otherwise engaged and not in the swimming pool, the spa is a definite attraction. The spa offers flexible treatment hours, with treatments up until 8pm.

Like the man-made lakes around it, this hotel is lacking in character, but the guests I spoke to all were enjoying their stays, praised the staff, and specifically commented that their break was good value for a hotel with a spa. Surprisingly, reviews on TripAdvisor.com gave it 4 out of 5, but the hotel review website does not have a separate rating for food, and there are some negative comments on the restaurant, with one particularly apt remark that Friday night’s dinner was akin to eating “in a service station.”

Clientele: Couples with money but no taste. The hotel does not offer special facilities for children but the guests I spoke to with children found them accommodating.

Best thing: the views from the rooms

Worst thing: the food prepared en-masse

Access all areas: the hotel has five rooms which are wheelchair friendly, with adjoining rooms for carers which are also suitable for families.

Need to know: From £98pp for two nights, including bed, breakfast and evening meal, but check for special offers. Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel, Lake 6, Spine Road East, South Cerney, Gloucestershire, GL7 5FP; tel: 01285 864000

Food: 4 out of 10

Service: 9 out of 10

Room: 7 out of 10

Value: 8 out of 10

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