We booked 3 rooms in December 2007 1 room for 2 nights and 2 rooms for 1 night. Due to unforeseen personal circumstances we had to cancel, gave 3 weeks notice but, guess what, once you make the booking they automatically deduct one nights stay from your credit card. This is non refundable if less than 30 days notice given(read the really small print on the cancellation policy). Mr S Hipwell, Proprietor, must be really pushed for finances and be quite unique and archaic with his 30 day cancellation policy. So what did we get for our £241 - absolutely nothing, Mr Hipwell however, got the 7 breakfasts, 7 hospitality trays, our unused heating,lighting,water,laundry,room servicing vat etc - not a bad bit of business- may even have re-booked the rooms for a double whammy!!

I booked the Japanese room and was initialy worried because I had read a bad review on that room. However, all was good. The room was a good size with a view of the sea and was clean. The decor is getting a little tired but the location is great, the staff were friendly and helpful, the breakfast was tasty and the price was right so I was a satisfied customer and would stay there again!

My boyfriend booked a romantic night away as my Christmas present and he couldn't have got the hotel more right. On arrival we were greeted by friendly, welcoming staff who made it clear that anything we wanted was only a quick call to reception away. We originally booked the West Pier room which looked fantastic and we were particularly interested in the jacuzzi and 4-poster bed, but were upgraded to the Balcony room immediately, apparently because we are "a nice couple". The room was absolutely fantastic and the bathroom was pure hedonism. The gentleman who showed us to our room brought us strawberries even though we brought Champagne with us rather than ordering it via room service. DVD library was quite good too and we managed to watch a film I really love.
Breakfast was lovely, staff were always happy, warm and friendly and provided an excellent service, room was fantastic. Would definitely stay at the hotel again if another special occasion were to come up. Boyfriend gets lots of kudos for booking :)

After being so impressed with the website my husband and I decided to book a weekend break, and opted for the Marina Room. We had very high expectations after reading lots of good reviews, and looked forward to a unique experience. When we arrived it was a freezing cold night, but we had to ring the doorbell and wait for attention. We waited for over 10 minutes and if it had not been for a guest letting us in we would have been waiting for a lot longer. There was no-one on reception and after riinging the bell on the front desk a few times, we actually rang the hotel on our mobile while standing in their foyer, and this brought someone to check us in. Not a great start but we thought it could only get better and looked forward to being suitably impressed with our room. When we got there our first impression was that it was alot smaller than it had seemed in the photos but nevertheless it was warm and cosy and inviting. The water bed was certainly different and we slept very well the first night. In the cold light of morning, it was a different story and we found the room to be very grubby and in dire need of decoration. The drawers in the wardrobe could not be used as they were too big and we could not get them open, the shelf on the wall was broken and when we wanted to boil the kettle we had to put it on the floor as it did not reach the plug from the table.
The ornamental globe fell apart when touched. When we tidied up the bed we discovered there was cardboard stuck all round it between the bedstead and the mattress which looked like it did not fit so they had done this to plug the gaps! On the second night we got very little sleep mainly due to the fact it was very windy and one of the windows was not double glazed, so the wind was whistling through making alot of noise, and the room was freezing. I know it is an old building and the windows add to the charm, but this was not just a draught but a hurricane! We had two completely different experiences at breakfast - on the first day the service was excellent and we couldnt fault it but on the second we did not get served until we called someone over and it was the total opposite. On the plus side its a great location and the view of the West Pier was spectacular. Nevertheless we were very disappointed as we had wanted to come to this hotel for a while, and the £118 per night we spent was a complete rip off. We felt we paid a 4* price for a 3* hotel room which was not even clean and in good repair.