Carrington House Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

Having previously stayed here many years back, I had booked the hotel again for a little short break with my partner and child. This cost us £290 for 2 nights. (Not including breakfast)||Where to begin ... The car park is small, with limited spaces. I would recommend parking on the street in one of the marked bays, this is free to park as long as you are in a bay.||The hotel inside is dated in decor and has a lingering smell of stale smoke probably from when you could smoke in buildings.||The check in process was quick, but it was like the person on reception just wanted to get it over and done with.||We were given room 73 as a family room. There were 2 positives to this room. 1) it's size ( 2 single beds and 1 double). 2) the water pressure of the shower and that is it.||The room had mis matching furniture in it, the mattresses were hard and you could feel all the springs within them. The pillows were soft with hardly any filling, apart from 1 which may have been a rock.||One of the headboards (if you can call it that) was held on just about by screws in the wall which were coming out.||The bathroom was a health and safety risk with cracked tiles on the floor and mould. I would also like to note that the pipes for the plumbing are under the floor giving it a "heated flooring" effect. If you didn't have shoes on then the floor would be burning your feet.||The tea / coffee was basic and the kettle so low to the floor as there was a lack of plug sockets in the room.||This hotel also has NO A/C. There were 2 desk fans found hidden in the wardrobe (which had a broken door). And only 1 of them could be used as the other was also broken.||The view from the window was a direct view onto other residents balconies/rooms.||There was also q used plaster put over the "peep hole" on the door from a previous occupant.||It also appears the hotel is being used as temporary accommodation for locals who may not have a home. This meant some questionable residents staying here with us which left my teenage daughter feeling unsafe when outside of the room.|These residents would sitdirectly outside the entrance to the hotel smoking and spitting on the stairs into the building. Despite the 'smoking shelter' being a further 10 steps away from where they sat. The hotel staff did not move these people on to the designated area.|| No sound proofing to rooms, as could hear others tv's / music / conversation as well as the thudding footsteps of the residents in the room above.||The first night we stayed we were awoken abruptly by other residents having an argument where lives were threatened along with a lot of swearing. Again left my daughter feeling scared||Overall giving 1 star is being kind here and would strongly advise NOT...

Ok so I thought to myself. A 3 star hotel will be fine as I'm only there a night and need nothing fancy. So it can't be that bad right....Wrong. I arrived at the front desk and was greeting with what can I do for you? No hello, no smile but ok. I said I had reserved a room and was there to check in. I was asked my second name and she then muttered something under her breathe whilst she checked her system which I couldn't hear so I asked her to kindly repeat it. She responded with... I said that's a very British surname?? I was completely shocked by this. Didn't quite understand this welcome thus far but OK. She eventually found my booking and said that will be X amount. I said do you want me to pay now and not at checkout? I am happy to do either. She then bizarrely responded with 'how are we suppose to know you'll pay before you leave' but delivered this with an argumentative tone !? I said i didnt appreciate her tone and did not need her to get that way with me as I already said I'm happy to pay now and was only just surprised as they had my card details from the online booking and some hotels bill you at checkout. I then said I would prefer to pay cash and was told I need to do this with the person alongside her. They took my money, handed me my key card and fired off directions to my room as if I was a regular guest. I then turned and started to head towards my room and stopped to realise I hadnt been given a payment receipt / invoice. Feeling uneasy and not looked after I returned to the front desk and asked for my invoice. The response I got in return was ' but you paid cash for it'?? I paused, again shocked and responded - still need my receipt though. I waited while she fiddled on the system and eventually printed and handed it to me. Very strange. Another guest checking in at the same time also experienced bad service and approached me afterwards saying he was horrified they failed at 'hospitality'. FYI guys hospitality is defined as 'the friendly reception and treatment of guests'.

I would have left but my 5 year old was hungry and tired from the drive so stayed despite this. Room had a strong odor when entering. Room was very dated but expected given the 3 stars I guess. Evidence of smoking as the window pane was used as an ashtray multiple times. I took photos of this to show reception on way out.

Ow and there was a Bra (yes a women's bra) on the grass front of the hotel when I excited to take a stroll with my 5 year old son.

Enjoy your stay at...

We booked a family room in the Carrington House Hotel at the last minute knowing there were limited options for bank holiday weekend.

It served its purpose, as a base for a bike ride in the new forest and allowed us to explore Bournemouth. The hotel felt safe, we slept well and the shower was clean. Breakfast was filling. There was parking in site.

We did have low expectations of the hotel, based on other reviews, so weren't suprised when we arrived. Checkin was fine.

The corridors are tired looking with carpet worn away and walls dirty or have paint peeling off.

Bedroom carpet was worn and clearly hadn't ever seen a carpet shampoo so we kept our outside shoes on. Paint was peeling in places but there wasn't any mould.

Beds looked and felt clean (I checked under the bottom sheets and pillow cases) so we slept well.

Bathroom has some paint peeling etc but it was clean (most important thing for us!) and the shower was powerful and hot, so was fine to wash in.

There was a TV, which we didn't use, and kettle, which we did use with our own tea bags. There was no safe.

It was cheaper to order the breakfast at reception on checkin than online, so we chose to do that.

Breakfast was fine: cereals (rice crispies, cornflakes, mueslie), machine coffee, one type of tea (every day), cows milk and oat milk options, white or brown bread for toasting (no pastries), hot food was hot, freshly cooked, greasy but seemed good quality, juice (orange and apple) and bowl of apples, oranges and bananas

There was a small and tired looking games room with half the machines showing out of order and the rest costing £1 each. They was a £5 refundable bat deposit for the table tennis. We didn't use this room.

We swam in the pool once and showered back in our room after. It looked clean enough. It was 1-1.5m deep so our youngest struggled a bit but used someone else's float which helped. We used our own sinker toy which the kids enjoyed playing with and the water was clear enough to be able to see it.

There was lots of pool rules we had to agree to first, eg no inflatables, no jumping, no bombing etc. However we saw people coming out of the pool in front of us with inflatables and there was no lifeguard so I don't think the rules were enforced. To be able to swim we had to go to reception at collect a pool door card to gain access to the...