If you want a couple’s weekend in a suite, avoid The Lakes by Yoo. It’s eye-wateringly expensive with serious flaws, despite a few highlights. Yes, the fit and finish are high-end—furnishings, appliances, bathrooms, deck furniture—and the welcome pack and arrival impress. The site’s architecture, including the spa, is exquisite. That’s where praise ends. Our ground-floor suite sat in an apartment block. Its entrance opens onto a tiny corridor shared with two hotel rooms. Those rooms have solid doors; the suite doesn’t. Gaps around the frame let you see the corridor from the living space, so noise floods in and privacy vanishes. A stranger even walked into our suite, apologized, and fled—unsettling and hardly secure. Service felt off throughout. In the restaurant, staff were slow to greet us, the tent was cold, and small plates and salads were below gastropub level. Staff focused on packing down rather than guests. The spa looks great but execution wobbles: we booked the same treatment and got different focus areas; the pool zone was stiflingly hot. Overall, it feels like a stunning residential development trying—and failing—to bolt on a hotel. Almost nothing is included; even firewood and a high chair cost extra. Activities are absurdly priced. Cheaper hotel rooms don’t face the lakes, so why visit a lake resort with no lake view? I can’t recommend it—not for a suite, nor a day at the restaurant or spa. Many Cotswolds alternatives offer better quality, service and value.
