Canterbury Hotel and Apartments (formerly The Ebury) — Hotel in Canterbury

Had a really unfortunate experience at the hotel, which just highlights that the little things do matter.

We arrived and waited for probably 10+ mins for someone to help us. I had to start scouring the hotel to find someone to check us in. Granted, the person was busy dealing with an issue at the back of the hotel, but you need to ensure that you're staffed.

We were shown to our room - one of the apartments. Firstly the good - it was very clean, white sheets etc - cannot fault that. The location is also good - about 10-15mins walk from the cathedral. But unfortunately that's were the positives stopped.

There is virtually zero cellphone reception at the location (especially Vodafone) - not hotel's fault of course. We asked for hotel WiFi (which they do have), but it was unusable - extremely poor signal and when you did connect, not usable. If you're in a area of really bad connectivity and advertise WiFi, you need to ensure that it's up to standard.

We then checked the TV - not working. A manager/ staff member was standing outside and simply said "it's OK if the TV doesn't work, right?". We had 2 small kids and although we brought books we didn't expect to spend the evenings with no connectivity, no TV etc. If you're there for a party night, these things may not matter that much, but a family with kids is a different affair.

They said they will "check on the roof". But when we came back after a day in Canterbury, nothing had been fixed - no note, nothing.

Thus far we decided to just deal with it. But then as we started talking in the evening, there was a massive commotion on the ceiling - wild animals, we assume squirrels were running around, fighting etc on the ceiling (not outside - inside the roof). It was so loud that we were woken up numerous times at night by the loud banging noises.

The next morning we tried to shower - the water pressure was extremely poor - spent ages washing shampoo out of our hair.

We checked out early. The hotel did refund the 2nd night's fee, so hats off to them.

Overall the staff was polite and apologetic and as mentioned, the rooms were clean and the location was good, as was parking. My advice would be: make sure your WiFi, TV, shower etc works properly. If something is wrong please inform the guests beforehand. This could of course be an issue with just that one apartment, but unfortunately...

I figure the management of this hotel will probably come back to this review with a sarcastic comment given the responses to other reviews however, I am really disappointed with how the hotel portrays itself.

We booked in advance as we're on a local project the rooms on TripAdvisor and other sites looked brilliant, a quaint modern offering, however looks can be deceptive. The building is great from the outside, and the reception / bar looks to be modern but this is where the hotel falls down, we were given room 14 on the top floor of the building, there is no lift to this floor or it seems to any part of the hotel so this made taking luggage difficult to the room.

Once we opened our door we were greeted with a tired looking run down mis match of 70's, 80's... well I don't think it even entered the 90's furniture, The room had a distinct odour of mold which stung the nostrils in a bad way not what you really expect from what is portrayed in the pictures of course. The wall paper was tired and peeling away from the walls and the room was particularly dusty. However the bed sheets were clean. The lamp did not work and the tv didn't hold a tune to channel it was on due to poor aerial implementation. There are no at height plug sockets to plug in the kettle so you're forced to boil the mini kettle on the floor "AWESOME" This hotel seems to be run more like a B and B, the reception closes at 11 and front door locked, something to akin that a bed and breakfast setup would be, so we actually didn't have an opportunity to speak with anyone at the time to express our displeasure. We ended up staying the night the beds very uncomfortable. Come 7am we ended up just checking out, leaving without breakfast, I wasn't to write the review however the "Manager" couldn't even be bothered to address our concerns, we got a refund for the second night we had booked and was offered a partial refund for the first night which we will be pursuing for a full refund. This is a run down joint, run on skeleton staff by the looks of it, one guy on reception, no other guest seemed to even be there.

Don't believe hype. Looks...

Checked in late evening 8/9/25, warm and welcoming man on the front desk.|Checked out the room, clean and tidy, clean linen, smelled fresh but not overpowing.|The bar was small and cosy, perfect for couples or a solo traveller, small but decent collection of bottled drinks, spirits and wine available.|Breakfast was varied from cooked, cereal, yogurts, toast with jam and other spreads, juice, water, tea and coffee.|I've seen a few reviews saying this hotel is outdated and needs updating, that there is wear and tear, however from the room I stayed in (11) it was fine, it's an old building so modern decor would probably look out of place! The only thing I saw worn was the carpet in high traffic areas, and that was only slightly worn.|Bed was comfortable for the night.|Came coming up to checking out time, this is where I stood up to put my shoes on and somehow managed to dislocate my knee! Absolutely nothing to do with the hotel, I didn't trip, fall or have an accident, my knee just literally decided to hate me this morning.|A member of staff called me an ambulance, came up to my room to check I was as comfortable as I could be and offered her help anyway she could whilst waiting for the ambulance, all staff were really lovely, but this lady needs a special shout out, I didn't catch her name as I was in a lot of pain, but she was working the morning of 9/9/25 and around 9-9.30am was replenishing food and drink in the dining room. (I hope management see this review and can pass on my thanks to her!) The only suggestion for the room I stayed in would be maybe a mini fridge under the tea tray to cool water in, and perhaps a wall fixture to use for the bath shower hose and curtain so it could be used...