Unser kürzlicher Aufenthalt im Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp sollte eine besondere Auszeit zu zweit werden, und obwohl es ein paar unvorhergesehene Ereignisse gab, hat das Hotel letztendlich bewiesen, warum es seine Sterne verdient.

Von Anfang an waren der Parkservice und die Rezeption trotz unserer frühen Ankunft äusserst zuvorkommend, kümmerten sich um unser Gepäck und Auto, sodass wir die Zeit bis zum Check-in entspannt mit Shopping verbringen konnten. Das Zimmer, obwohl für den Preis etwas klein, überzeugte durch seine hochwertige Ausstattung und ließ uns die ersten Stunden unseres Aufenthalts wirklich geniessen.

Eine unerwartete Wendung erlebten wir am nächsten Morgen, als wir durch Baulärm geweckt wurden. Die Situation wurde von der Rezeption, trotz anfänglicher Unkenntnis über die Bauarbeiten, professionell gehandhabt. Nach unserem Feedback beim ausgezeichneten Frühstücksbuffet, das in seiner Vielfalt und Qualität keine Wünsche offenliess, bemühte sich das Personal um eine schnelle Lösung. Uns wurde ein signifikantes Upgrade für ein anderes Zimmer angeboten, das unsere Erwartungen bei Weitem übertraf, samt einem diskreten Umzug unseres Gepäcks während wir das Spa-Angebot genossen.

Die professionelle und sorgfältige Behandlung der Situation, einschliesslich eines angebotenen Discounts und mehrfacher Entschuldigungen, zeigte das hohe Niveau an Gastfreundschaft, das wir von einem Hotel dieser Kategorie erwarten.

Trotz der unerwarteten "Weckrufe" und der vorübergehenden Nichtnutzbarkeit der Saunen, die eine kleine Enttäuschung darstellten, bot der Aufenthalt im Botanic Sanctuary viele Highlights. Der wunderschöne Poolbereich wurde zu unserem Rückzugsort, und die gesamte Erfahrung bestätigte, dass dieses Hotel sein Versprechen eines luxuriösen Aufenthalts wahr macht.

Fazit: Das Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp bewältigte die unvorhergesehenen Herausforderungen mit einer Mischung aus Professionalität und Großzügigkeit, die unseren Aufenthalt letztendlich zu einer sehr positiven Erfahrung machte. Trotz einiger Holpersteine bewies das Hotel, dass es seine Sterne verdient hat. Wir freuen uns bereits auf unseren nächsten Besuch, in der Hoffnung auf eine noch entspanntere Auszeit.

As a regular guest, I can only praise the achievements of the hotel and, more importantly, its staff. Beautiful buildings, extraordinary rooms and exceptional service blend together for a near perfect luxury experience. The spa and breakfast room deserve special recognition, so beautiful!

The staff always goes beyond par to make me feel at home and I can truly say that the hotel has become a second home to me.

It's unbelievable, knowing the history this place has and then realizing how it has been turned into this beautiful hotel. Breathe in the history of the venue as you walk around the gardens or discover the historic buildings.

Also, great bar and bar food!

Can't wait for my next visit.

Beautiful gardens you can stroll around in for a short time, really enjoyed taking a break from the big city feeling and being able to walk trough the calm park with flowers and water for a time, and all of it for free. Definitely a hidden gem you can visit if you have some extra time!

I received a cheque of 100€ for an event or stay at Botanic and booked one via the website. However via the website you can not deduct your cheque, so I payed 100% of the stay. I took the cheque to the event to have the 100 € back. However they said it was not possible and I had to use it for another event. A scam! Now my cheque is expired!

The room and spa were really beautifully renovated, but we were quite disappointed with the service, which was disjointed and everything felt difficult.

We were called a couple of days before our stay to upsell their Easter brunch. When we saw it the day before we asked to cancel (old fashioned, very elderly crowd), where they then informed us that the cancellation period was 48 hours (which wasn’t mentioned). We were cancelling 26 hours beforehand, which we think is fair if not informed otherwise. They initially told us we would be charged 100%. They then told us when we were back at reception that it was sorted and not to worry, for which we were grateful. We then receive missed calls through our afternoon out, to be told that actually no, they will be charging 100%. All just unpleasant and generally poorly handled by management.

This just isn’t a five star hotel, which showed through:

- The bar menu lists only a €35 and €65 cocktails (not representative of the actual full menu online). This kind of obnoxious pricing should be accompanied by good service, but we didn’t get asked for an order for 20 minutes, so decided to leave again.
- They charge €50 per night for parking on top of the room.
- They wouldn’t let us use the spa on the day we were leaving. They said they would check, but then just didn’t bother.

Fine Fleur was fantastic, as was the spa treatment, but would give the hotel a miss.

Not LHW standard as you’d expect.

I spent a relaxing day at you spa. Definitely, will come back :)

Dear Team,

I surprised my mum with this visit and really saved up money for this. We were super disappointed with the room, because it was located next to the rubbish disposal - between 6-8 in the morning every morning the rubbish was emptied which was super noisy. The room we had was officially 600 dollar a night. So that noise is unacceptable

Furthermore we were forced to pay 100€ for parking because your normal parking garage was under construction… why does the guest have to pay more only because you are under construction?

Let’s of course also mention some great points. The hotel it self’s is super beautiful and staff was friendly. Our highlight was the breakfast, but on the bottom line considering the price for the stay the price value is not fair. At least not - when you get such a bad located room…..

Dit niveau van service, is echt wel heel uitzonderlijk.
Wij zijn terugkerende gasten en verblijven hier regelmatig, elke ervaring is TOP en ongezien.
De lat ligt hier zeer hoog en je ziet dat het hele team deze waarde meedraagt, iedereen is hier en het hele team mag heel fier zijn op wat ze hier neerzetten, dit is uitzonderlijk en vele hotels al zeker binnen België en ver daarbuiten, zouden hier eens moeten overnachten, want wat ze hier neerzetten is uitzonderlijk ♥️

Wij komen maandelijks naar de botanic!
Het is en blijft TOPKLASSE.
Voor mij is dit absoluut het beste hotel.
De aanpak - service - welness - fitness en ga zo maar door!
Wij worden steeds herkend en super goed geholpen!
Natasha ( dame van het ontbijt) is een van onze favorieten! Zo vriendelijk.
Ik heb bepaalde favoriete kamers dat ze me steeds in assisteren!

Voor ons is the botanic een droom!

We had a wonderful stay. Everything just flows beautifully.

Was relaxing, clean, and amazing service all around. Highly recommended.

Checked in for a long weekend Friday to Monday into a deluxe room which was upgraded….The room was very very average and lacked a 5 star finish. Felt very much like a holiday inn in terms of standard.

The hotel is trying very hard to be soemthing it really is not which is a great shame. For sure more of a 4 star property. The ground floor amenities such as the bar etc have a decadent atmosphere however all Resturant’s in the hotel are completely disconnected from the hotel services…. The room service menu is one of the worst I have ever witnessed (lack of options) and nothing from the bar such as cocktails etc can be delivered to the room.

The hotel also seems to be over staffed considering the lack of service and experience.

Very good and calm location - a peaceful oasis in the city. But the rooms were dirty, the carpets, furniture and armchairs full of stains. Towels were changed daily - even though we didn’t throw them on the floor but hung them up nicely. The receptionist didn’t know why when we informed ourselves about the procedure. An environmental stupidity. Also the bed sheets were changed on a daily basis. Breakfast buffet was ok, but the fruits half rotten..

Last Sunday, my friend and I decided to last minute check if there would be availability for a day pass to the spa. We called the hotel on Sunday evening and they put us through to the spa. The lady informed us that, since we would be two people, we’s have to spend a minimum of 250EUR. She explained that this could be used for treatments, as well as lunch/drinks/bar bites at Henry’s Bar and for products at the apothecary. We confirmed Monday morning by phone and booked the last two available treatments (Full Body for 95EUR and Back Massage for 60EUR) for a total of 155EUR. This meant we still had 95EUR to spend which we decided we’d like to use at Henry’s Bar. Normally they have a Spa Bistro, this one was closed due to renovations - but since the lady on the phone mentioned to us we could head over to Henry’s Bar with our remaining 95EUR, we thought this was their temporary “replacement” for the Spa Bistro. During the day, we ran into one of the receptionists of the spa and we told her that we were informed we could use our remaining budget at Henry’s Bar - she said she’d check for us and in case there would be availability she’d book us a spot and confirm this with us. A couple of hours later, we went down to the spa reception since we hadn’t heard anything back. At that point, the person present at spa reception told us it’s not possible to spend our remaining 95EUR at Henry’s Bar. We were completely confused since we’d been told twice that it would be possible once a reservation would have been made for us. We said we hadn’t eaten all day since we thought we’d be able to go to the bar in the evening and use the remaining “budget”. The only thing she could offer us, was to spend our money on products at the apothecary. We thus spent 95EUR on conditioner and house spray (for which the bottle leaks) and had to basically decide in 5 minutes what we’d like from the apothecary since they would be closing. If we would have known that we wouldn’t have been able to spend the remaining budget at the bar, we wouldn’t have booked a spa for 250 euros since we already settled for two treatments that weren’t really fully what we’d preferred. We decided to book since we thought we would’ve had a nice spa day, a treatment and then a nice drink/dinner to end our day. Sadly this thus wasn’t the case since we were misinformed multiple times. We would have never spent 95EUR on conditioner and house spray if we didn’t have to.

Overall nice stay, but the temperature of the swimming pool was too cold, globally the spa was fine. At 4h00 there was a fire alarm for 5m, according to reception false, but removed the idea of a good sleep.

Gewoon waanzinnig! Het begon al met een heel warm welkom! Nog geen minuut op de rotonde aan de ingang gereden en er stond al direct iemand klaar voor onze bagage. Ook het personeel was kei vriendelijk en gaf ons de nodige informatie wat er met onze bagage en auto zou gebeuren en hoe we hem de volgende dag konden terug halen met het ticketje. Daarna bij het binnenkomen waren we een beetje te vroeg dus zijn we naar de bar gegaan en hebben we genoten van een drankje. De bar is heel gezellig en het personeel aanwezig was van top-klasse! Toen het tijd was om in te checken werden we begeleid tot aan de kamer en werd er de nodige uitleg gegeven. Sinds het onze eerste keer was in het hotel, werd er ook een plattegrond getoont met de nodige uitleg waar de spa was enzovoort. Goed geslapen propere kamer met uitzicht op een prachtige authentieke binnenplaats. De spa was ook mooi verzorgd en het indoor zwembad op het dak was echt een uitblinker! Tijdens het uitchecken werd al gebeld om de wagen uit de garage te halen dus minimum wacht tijd. Ook hebben we nog twee flesjes water gekregen voor onderweg naar huis deze kleine attentie had ik echt niet verwacht. Hier kom ik graag met plezier terug en zal mijn vrienden aanraden hier ook is naartoe te gaan! Juist 1 puntje was dat ik savonds probeerde om het raam open te doen voor een beetje te verluchten maar dit ging niet, voor de rest was alles perfect. Alvast bedankt Aan het personeel tot snel!

This is ONLY a review of service but still hopefully useful.
I was visiting Belgium for a couple of days and called the hotel to ask about day passes for the spa facilities. They put my call through to spa - no answer. 3 times. I asked if reception could tell me whether there was such a thing as a day pass. Was told it depended on how busy the hotel was but possibly. (Could reception not look to see how busy the hotel was?)
Called back 4 hours later having had no news as promised. Told by a different member of staff that I could just turn up on the day and get a pass for sure but he couldn’t tell me how much it would cost. Called AGAIN when I arrived in Antwerp and got through to the spa this time (yeay!) and was told there’s is never access to the spa at weekends because they are too busy. Challenged this based on what I had previously been told and was dismissively told that they understand but no sense of apology for wasting my time or the stack of misinformation at this point.
Then I receive an email. Oh yeah I had also emailed the spa direct to get info and was told - and this is a direct quote -

“Dear (they didn’t write a name)

Thank you for your interest in the Botanic Health Spa! YOU CAN BY A DAY PASS
1 PERSON 200 EUR
2 PERSONES 250 EUR

I’m looking forward to hearing back from you!”

Ohhhhh so u CAN get pass to use the facilities but only if you pay over 50% of the cost of a room! Wow!
So I don’t know about you but I think it’s bad service and also, frankly a bit of a rip off… but yeah, it’s probably lovely once you’re inside…who knows. Not me. :)

We had called the Botanic Sanctuary hotel to specifically book a room, none other, and they had assured us that this specific room was booked for us.
But when we arrived, they had given it to another customer and they had so-called “upgraded us”, without our approval.
The first “upgraded” room was on the ground floor, dark, with absolutely no charm.
The second “upgraded” room was a combination of two tiny rooms linked by a dusty brownish corridor with a terrible mouldy smell, a so-called 2 rooms suite.
They had deceived us, we leaved.
This behaviour is unfortunately typical of businesses thinking they are successful enough to not feel obliged to make efforts for their customers anymore nor to keep their word.
We’ll return to Antwerp which is beautiful city but we’ll go back to August, also an ancient convent converted into a hotel, where they still know what an impeccable service is.