Good Spa Guide Sold to Journey, Now Takes Spa Bookings

Five stories this week: the Good Spa Guide, whose ratings many spa-goers check before booking, has a new owner and now sells bookings itself; the closed Crazy Bear hotels have been sold; The Pig in Brockenhurst wants a sauna and wellness pods; and two big bathing projects in Manchester and Cardiff Bay moved forward.

The Good Spa Guide is bought by Journey and starts taking bookings

Journey, a booking and revenue technology company for hotels, has bought the Good Spa Guide, European Spa reported on 2 November. The guide, founded in 2006, rates spas through visits by its assessors, the “Spa Spies”, and gives each one a Bubble rating. The relaunched website now lets you book spas and buy vouchers directly, alongside the reviews.

For the first time the guide has published how it scores: every spa is assessed on five criteria, Peace, Practice, People, Place and Promise, and each spa’s profile shows when it was last assessed. Spas pay a membership fee to be assessed, and the guide says ratings are set by the assessment alone, with no paid placement. The Good Spa Guide stays a separate brand inside Journey, led by managing director Gregor Ritchie, and its 2026 awards take place on 16 November at Sopwell House in St Albans, with 361 entries across 20 categories.

What it means for you: the bubble ratings we and others quote are now sitting on a site that also earns from your booking. The new “last assessed” date is the useful part, so check it before you rely on a rating, and treat the guide as one opinion among several. Our best spa hotels in the UK list explains how we judge spas ourselves. Report at European Spa.

The Crazy Bear hotels are sold, but will not reopen as they were

Last week we reported that the Crazy Bear hotels at Stadhampton and Beaconsfield had gone into administration, with spa bookings cancelled and gift vouchers void. The administrators at BDO have since said the freehold properties have been sold to an unnamed buyer, who intends to carry out refurbishment, the Oxford Mail reported on 30 October. The hotels are expected to stay closed while that happens.

BDO’s joint administrator Kiri Holland said the sale had not preserved the hotel business itself. The brand employed around 130 people and most have been made redundant. The administrators repeated that all room, spa and restaurant bookings are cancelled and that vouchers, including those bought through third parties, cannot be used, and said they will contact affected customers.

The sale does not revive your voucher. If you paid by card, ask your card provider about a chargeback now, or a section 75 claim if you paid over £100 by credit card; our spa voucher rights page covers what to do when a spa fails. For alternatives nearby, see spa days near Oxford. Report at the Oxford Mail.

The Pig in Brockenhurst plans a sauna, wellness pods and treatment huts

Home Grown Hotels, which runs The Pig hotels, has asked the New Forest National Park Authority for permission to build a wellness area at The Pig in Brockenhurst, the Bournemouth Echo reported on 3 November. The plans show a Finnish-style sauna and steam building under a planted sedum roof, four private wellness pods, two shepherd’s huts for treatments, timber decks, and a new reception and changing area beside the hotel’s walled garden. The proposed opening hours are 9am to 8pm every day.

The Pig in Brockenhurst was the first Pig hotel, opened in 2011. Planning officers said in pre-application advice that the plans were likely to meet policy, though they warned the site may be reaching capacity for new buildings. Nothing is approved yet, so there is no date to book. For spas in the area now, see spa days in Hampshire. Report at the Bournemouth Echo.

Therme Manchester’s first pool goes in next week; opening is set for 2029

Therme Manchester, the £500m bathing and wellbeing resort being built on a 28-acre site at TraffordCity, has released new images as construction reaches a milestone, BusinessCloud reported on 5 November. Installation of the first main pool, in the northern part of the area it calls Relax, starts next week and should take about eight weeks. The resort is planned to have 10 pools, 18 water slides and 20 saunas and steam rooms, plus a 53,000 sq ft wellbeing garden, and is due to open in 2029.

A recent planning change drops two multi-storey car parks and spreads around 1,400 parking spaces across the site instead. Therme expects about two million visitors a year. It is a long way off; until then, our thermal spas in the UK page lists where you can bathe in warm water now. Report at BusinessCloud.

An outdoor pool and sauna complex is planned for Cardiff Bay’s old dry dock

The developer Nordic Urban has published plans to turn the grade II listed Mount Stuart Graving Docks in Cardiff Bay into a year-round outdoor swimming and sauna complex, the BBC reported on 2 November. It would cover 12,400 square metres, with a 25-metre heated outdoor pool, hot and cold pools, four saunas, changing and relaxation rooms, a cafe and a restaurant. It is modelled on, and named after, the Allas Pool in Helsinki, which opened in 2016.

The plans promise both a “premium wellness offering” and open-access public swimming, but no prices have been published. The scheme is at the consultation stage and has no decision date yet. Our outdoor spas in the UK and spa days in Wales pages cover what you can book in the meantime. Report at the BBC.