"Executive Double Room" A Horrible Space
10/06/2019 rosiepugh, London, United Kingdom
False advertisement of the website and far too expensive for what it is.
We went for a walk along the sea front and harbour and came back to check into room 221. At this point I had informed the rece... more
False advertisement of the website and far too expensive for what it is.
We went for a walk along the sea front and harbour and came back to check into room 221. At this point I had informed the receptionist on duty that we had an "Executive Double" room book, to which he sniggered and gave us the key card. We were directed past the Marco Pierre White restaurant to the lift. As we turned into the corridor of the lift it immediately became apparent that the time, money and effort had stopped there, with the dated carpets and very claustrophobic lift with carpet wallpaper. We arrived on the second floor where we found our room quite easily. It was what happened next that we didn't expect.
On going into the "Executive Double" room we were greeted with dated wallpaper, which was obviously so old it had started to peel off the wall. We put our belongings down and tested the bed. As I laid on one side and my partner laid on the other he quickly noticed the mattress was of no use as his back went straight to the base of the bed. As I turned over the other side we noticed more problems with the "Executive Double" room. The skirting board was breaking away from the wall and the carpet was also fraying and breaking away from the underlay. As we looked up we then noticed massive cracks along the ceiling that were attempted to be covered up by wallpaper. Now the sniggering of the receptionist made sense. Before heading out for dinner we both freshened up using the private bathroom facility. The bathroom had a broken door, dirty tiles, filthy grouting, broken bath mat, dirty taps, dirty shower head and overall an old bath. I felt dirtier when I got out of the bath than when I got in it.
We headed down for dinner at the in house Marco Pierre White restaurant where it picked up a little bit. We received fantastic service in the restaurant from Chloe and the food was delightful. We headed into the local town to a pub before returning to go to bed. As we walked back into the room and locked the door we noticed the hinges of the door were basically falling off. This didn't make us feel very safe when we were asleep. However we stayed for the first night and when we woke up on 7th June we went for breakfast before heading out for the day.
When we got to the restaurant for breakfast we waited around for five minutes before someone came and seated us. During these five minutes we looked at the options for breakfast. There was a great selection of hot foods that were kept warm and were very much enjoyable. However, as for the cold meats, cheeses and fruit it looked like it had been festering for weeks; dry, crusty and most of them out of a fermented tin. We set off for the day and returned around 3:30pm. At this point when we returned we still couldn't understand how our room was an executive room so we checked on the website at the "Executive Double" room which was very clearly different to the horrendous room we had been allocated. So we packed up and our two night stay came to an abrupt end.
Once we had packed up we headed back down to reception to check out a day early. The receptionists (there were three of them) took a while to notice I was there and when I asked to check out they seemed mildly shocked. As I explained to them how disappointed and upset we were with the false advertisement and how let down we were as we had still not yet been able to celebrate our engagement thanks to the disgusting room there was no offer for me to complain and quite frankly they weren't interested. less
Neil L, General Manager at Best Western Clifton Hotel, responded to this review
Dear Miss Pugh
Thank you for your review and the email direct to myself, your feedback is most welcome.
I full appreciate that some of the bedrooms are tired and in need of refurbishing, which is why, now that we have completely overhauled the ground floor & restaurant areas, we are now moving this project into the bedrooms to completely refurbish these to the same standard as the public areas.In a little over 2 years of owning the hotel we have already invested in excess of £2m bringing the hotel up to date. This process is still ongoing with the bedrooms as already mentioned, which due to the age of the building will take a considerable time to complete.
I genuinely wish that you had spoken to myself or one of my team whilst you were in the hotel that you were unhappy with your room as soon as this had become evident, as we would have tried to resolve this there & then, because letting me know of your dissatisfaction after you have left gives me, no opportunity to resolve the issues you had and make the stay better than you had.
In respect of your comment regarding the cold food items on breakfast, I will have to respectfully disagree. The restaurant has been exceedingly busy this year and as such, we are having to replenish all the buffet items with fresh food several times each service as they are being consumed so at no point would the food be sitting there ‘fermenting’. As a hotel, we have to abide by very strict health & hygiene procedures which set out by the EHO & our own internal procedures and these are checked daily, weekly and monthly by external auditors.
I am sorry your stay was not the pleasant experience either of us would have hoped for, as this is not what we set out to do, although it is my understanding that my front office manager did offer to look to address your concerns by looking for another room. I hope my reply to your personal email makes sense & I would welcome the chance restore your faith in us.
Once again, thank you for your feedback, it has been most helpful