East Walls Hotel Chichester — Hotel in Chichester

It seems from Tripadvisor reviews that East Wall’s party piece is subjecting a guest to a finger-wagging tirade of accusation and abuse the moment they cross the threshold. This is very possibly due to overbooking on their part - airplanes do it, as do hotels, to compensate for no-shows. It works, so long as there are actually no-shows. If not, most hotels - but not East Walls, it seems - have a reciprocal deal where they can suggest alternative accommodation, fine for any routine business traveller. East Walls seems to have no such deal in place, and besides, it sells itself on its individual boutique appeal. So it seems that if your room at East Walls is no longer available, your custom is no longer required, and you’ll be sent packing. ||||But that’s not the worst of it. If you booked via a website and opt for a refund on your credit card, bear in mind that East Walls now have your credit card details, and can simply withdraw the same amount from your account the following day or any time, without your permission, as they did with my sister's card - unless you put a stop on the card immediately after the refund.||||Now, if they do this, the card company may cover your loss but you won’t be able to use that card again and you’ll have to go through the hassle and stress of cancelling it. (Know that if you stop the card, money can still be paid into the account but not taken from it - at least, so it proved with my sister’s First Direct account.)||||Now, I suggest readers check out Tripadvisor's one-star reviews of East Walls. Even the best hotels get the odd bad review but here you get the same story time and again - a hostile couple taking it in turns to be thoroughly unpleasant to a new guest, sending them away with a flea in their ear, in a way that is hard to square with the more complimentary reviews on this site.||||Be aware that this hotel has changed hands since it was shown on Series 14 of the Channel 4 show, Four in a Bed, six years ago.||||One reviewer suggested that East Walls has a problem with the website booking.com regarding delayed payments, and take it out on guests who book via that website. So do not go to East Walls via booking.com, do not book a single room there going by other reviews (single male visitors seem under suspicion), but most of all, just don’t go.||||In our case, we’d phoned ahead to let them know we’d be arriving in the evening; my sister had booked the last room at Purchases Hotel in North Street, Chichester, and booked me a single at East Walls. On arrival, we had to ring the bell to be let in. The woman co-owner looked concerned and very put out, then talked non-stop, no welcome smile at all. as she led us along the corridor to reception, A problem with dealing with, erm, eccentric folk is that as you descend into a mad situation, any argument will be on their home turf. Did she really just say, in our first minute of being there, ‘And if you don’t like it, you better leave, we will refund you, that is no problem’? Why did she point out the CCTV cameras, as if we were criminals to be warned off in advance? Why was it necessary to inform us how the hotel looks after elderly women in their 90s, somehow implying we were a menace? I mean, we’re both conventionally dressed, over 50, we’re wholly middle-aged. We don’t get this rubbish anywhere else.||||Eventually she gave us the key to the single room, oddly and unappealingly located on the ground floor right on reception. My heart sank a bit when I entered. It was clean, but brown and pokey with no bright flourishes. The small bathroom looked stunning, but you don’t spend your time in there, do you? The dealbreaker came when I came to sit down with my sister - and Madame Proprietress rudely ushered her from the room. ‘What, you mean I can’t even sit with her for five minutes?’ I asked incredulously. Apparently not - Madame Proprietress scolding ‘No monkey business!’- implying my sister was on the game, and we were about to get down to it! Charming!||||By this point, her offer to refund us and kick us out seemed less a threat, more an opportunity to be seized with both hands. Meanwhile, her older husband Jorg silently watched on; we thought he might intervene to bring a note of civility, but no. By now, Madame Proprietress had ratcheted up her spiel, seemingly to provoke us while we had said nothing, and threatening to call the police - a common tactic of hers, according to reviews - pointing out that everything was being recorded on the CCTV cameras. ‘That works to our benefit’, I replied. Envisaging having to find a new hotel thanks to her antics, and as the refund went through, I called her ‘mad’ - though if it was all a ruse owing to the room being double booked, there was method to it, I suppose.||||Some reviewers have talked of walking away from East Walls traumatised - and I can vouch for that. It actually reminded me of some of the awful Surrey care homes we’d had to place our mother in all those years ago, the very same quick-off-the-mark counter allegations and threats to call the police. Even Madame Proprietress’s allegation of ‘monkey business’ - coming from a woman of colour - might be a typical ruse to bounce the unwary into a response that could be wilfully misinterpreted as racist. (Indeed, the pair themselves face allegations of racism in one review on this site, so it may be a ‘You call us that, we’ll call you that’ thing.)||||But you don’t book a day trip away to be reminded of past traumas, quite the reverse. We got a refund, having been at East Walls for all of roughly five minutes, heading to The Ivy Restaurant to laugh it off, after a futile search on my part for a free room in Chichester at very short notice. I had to kip down on the carpet at my sister’s room at Purchases, it was that or the street.||||Don’t expect the police to intervene on your behalf if you are left out of pocket. After my sister got refunded on her card, a day or so after, East Walls coolly withdrew the same amount of money from her account, having accessed her details. When she found out and complained to the hotel, they said it was a matter for booking.com, not them, ending the correspondence with an abusive email (‘Pimp time is over!’), which you can see attached. Are these really the same people praised in other reviews for their friendliness? The matter is now with First Direct’s Fraud Department. First Direct has not contacted the police, as apparently this is not regarded as a criminal act but a ‘dispute’. So now you know how and why East Walls behave as...

This is not a hotel, it is a bed and breakfast at best. ||We arrived and a man opened the door and walked away. His wife checked us in to a tiny room with junkshop furniture and hideous lights. We had to request a bedside table and lamp, eventually brought in unceremoniously by Mr. Grumpy. ||The following day we had a lovely breakfast in their walled garden, but no sign of any other guests. The owner cooked and served our breakfasts in virtual silence. His wife was charming and helpful. ||However, On checking out yesterday, in the main reception with other guests present, we were loudly and rudely accused of soiling the sheets, and there would be a charge of "up to £100" . I was so shocked and mortified as this was a public place, and denied any knowledge. At which point the owner became threatening and vicious, shouting that if we had to "sh*t" the bed then we should have gone to Boots first. By this time I was shaking and my husband said this incident would get them a bad review, at which point the owner became apoplectic, threatening to publish our names and photos and "we know your postcode". We refused to pay and were effectively thrown out. We returned home to an e-mailed Bill for £300!!! ||We are in our 70s, and this was our first time away in a year, due to ill health Thankfully we had a wonderful time in Chichester and met some lovely people. P!ease read the other bad reviews, which I should have done first....

What a terrible experience! |I booked through their own website for 2 rooms ready for June 2026 for my son’s wedding. I had email confirmation of booking and then went onto advise friends and family to book too as had limited rooms and thought it would be lovely to have us all together in a small hotel close to venue.|However on ringing them today to ask if I could extend a couple of rooms stay was told extremely rudely that it was “impossible” that I had booked any rooms for those dates as Goodwood race course could possibly be on and that the rooms would not be available! The lady (owner) wouldn’t allow me to speak as interrupted throughout the telephone call and spoke over me! She insisted that no bookings had been made although I had the booking references and then hung up! I then rang straight back and phone put down again after hearing another male voice to tell her to hang up again !!! I rang back again…this time she answered and I asked her to please not hang up as I wanted to know what was happening with all my families bookings! She then told me I was not allowed to stay there after not even getting a word in and put the phone down on me again! |Coincidentally I then get an email cancelling my bookings she originally said was “impossible” that I had made?!!!|I now have to inform all my family to find accommodation elsewhere due to their lack of professionalism and customer service!!! A blessing in...