Claremont Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

Sadly, an experience we have no desire to repeat. In hindsight, we'd have much rather stayed for the two nights at a lovely hotel like The Imperial up the road and used the additional money saved to eat, drink, and have a good time elsewhere.

The rooms are below what would be considered a minimum standard of acceptable. They are worn out, dirty, old fashioned and smelly. The additional cost for the sea view is hindered by the windows that are covered in years of dirt. The television, although functional, was a 14" example that was probably state-of-the-art two decades ago. The carpets, curtains, battered wooden furnishings, and en-suite were unlikely ever considered contemporary. Upon closed inspection, the wallpaper for example, must of been done on a budget, because whoever was employed to accomplish the majestic feat of drabness, gave up and called it a day once the paper had met where the mattress started. There was brew making facilities provided with a fixed cord kettle that you'd be too embarrassed to attempt to sell at a car boot sale.

There is absolutely zero means to secure your room from the inside. There isn't even a chain you can slide to ensure even a slight degree of privacy or security whilst inside. The cleaning staff entered the room twice during our visit whilst we were in bed. There is also no option at all to not be disturbed. No cards to hang on the door. Nothing.

There is a single elevator to accommodate the entire building, which takes an absolute age to have access to. At busy times, expect lots of uneven stairs and a long walk to your room.

The restaurant and downstairs bar aren't actually too bad. Decorated on a budget once again, but perfectly acceptable otherwise. Breakfast was cold, substandard and lacked several basic. If.you're partial to scrambled egg then forget it. Evening meals however we're actually the saving grace here, which were excellent the selection of drinks within the package are essentially cheap rubbish. The wine, etc. is garbage. I actually think you'd be hard pushed to reconcile a degree of value from what's on offer to the additional cost of the "all-inclusive", which is why I'd suggest a nicer hotel and utilising the additional money for better quality offerings elsewhere.

Something that was deeply frustrating and what became a repetitive source of great annoyance was the restaurant seating arrangements. I cannot convey just how much this particular point ground my gears! You essentially have a predefined place to sit. WHY?! Why are all tables allocated to a room? To a couple who had never been here before, we were allowed to wander round the restaurant only to find an endless string of reservation cards on the tables. I'm not sure if it's a "clique" thing for preferred customers or "people in the-know", but eventually we were seated at a pitiful table for two in a horrible location in a walkway where your seat is banged into constantly, then the arrogant restaurant host placed a card on our table and explained that this was our table for every future visit. Complete nonsense. The backward logic not only excludes any opportunity of being able to enjoy a better table, with a sea view for example, but also means that tables are reserved for an entire evening to one room. Who came up with that idea? Ok, reservations made on the day maybe, but at a particular time, then once vacated is then available for other guests. Why were we penalised for the entire trip by someone else's terrible idea? It should preferably be on a first come, first served basis to enable all guests to enjoy preferred tables.

Parking is terrible, you get blocked in, if it's available at all. If you do use the car park then you have to leave your keys with reception so who knows can move your car.

All in all, absolutely horrific. Avoid,...

This is my 2nd time visiting this hotel, this time for me and my wife's 7th anniversary, there was many little problems last year resulting in a very mixed review, however, this time, a huge improvement. Throughout the stay, I can only think of 2 small issues that are easily dissmisssble. The first was the room size, mainly the bathroom, you have to get a leg in the bath in order to wipe, theres just no space to spread those legs, not something the hotel itself can help since it's part of the layout, but still a minor annoyance. The 2nd was just a mistake made, nothing major, im vegetarian, my wife is similar but she eats fish ( well done resteraunt for knowing what a pestatarion is, it's rare someone understands the difference ) however on the lunch time, we went for lunch only to be told there was nothing vegetarian as it was a set menu, so my wife sat down with her fish and chips, very well cooked and very tasty apperantly. And I sat watching, however the staff then came out and told us that there was a vegy option, they just weren't informed, so they then bought out a microwaved quich, but that's fine, now my wife had to watch me eat, so I ended up rushing lunch as I felt bad. These were the only 2 issues I had this time around. So here is my review of the good aspects.

The breakfast and dinners ( not lunch as that was different staff ) were fantastic, the food was very very well cooked, full of flavour and great options, were as choice was a little limited, we were offered the choice to change anything should we not like it at the start off our stay although we did not need too as we enjoyed the food that we were offered. A special thank you to morgan who was the excellent young lady who was essentially tending to us through meal times, she was polite and professional throughout and collected empty plates almost as soon as they were empty, 10 out of 10 for her. The seating arrangement was also laid out very well with the seats not to close that you end up in someone else's conversation.

The hotel itself was clean and well kept, reception staff were friendly and helpful, answering any questions I may have had, always willing to help.

Unfortuantly for the 2nd time in a row, we couldn't see the in hotel entertainment as there was no seats left. But that's fine as we werent out anyway. The drinks were nice and the bar staff were friendly enough. Same issue as last time with the single spirits, but due to hotel policy rather than something they did wrong. We would have liked a bit more option on the all inclusive instead of just 1 beer, 1 cider, 1 stout. Other drinks had to paid for which is something I didn't understand as I thought all inclusive meant all inclusive, rather than all inclusive with the exception of snacks and 90 percent of the bar. If you dont like somersby, tetly or carlsberg, you werent getting a pint without paying. We were offered to upgrade to the gold package at the start of our stay which gave discount on paid for drinks, some drinks cost 4 pounds, some cost 2 pounds, but it was displayed at the bar. The amptosphere was very good and well lit in the bar area, staff were quick to serve and always friendly. There's not much else to review without starting to review other things we visited really. All in all, it was a good stay, for the 400 - 500 quid price range for 2 nights. Again I would have liked a little more such as a snack area and a bit more drinks selection, but these are small things that can easily be dismissed.

Would i stop here again, possibly but I would also consider other...

I have stayed at the Claremont numerous times, and have lots of fond memories there but this holiday was spoiled quite a bit unfortunately. The room was amazing, no complaints about the room at all, the view was fantastic! The best we've ever had, and even though I have a disability I was forewarned that there would be steps, so I was prepared for that. The problems were mainly at meal times. On previous visits, at meal times we had drinks served to us, which as a disabled user I preferred as then I wasn't at risk of spilling my drink due to being unsteady. This time we didn't have that luxery, drinks had to be ordered from the bar in the far end of the hotel and brought to the tables, aside from tea/coffee and fruit juice/water. I was so scared of spilling that I had to have the other members of our group fetch me drinks, this is their holiday too so I was really upset at the thought of them doing this for me. Also toast, this is something trivial I suppose to a lot of people but there was a toaster to use. Really easy to use, no problems there but we had to carry the toast, plus plates as they weren't on the table, plus any condiments we wanted. Again for an able bodied person this would be no problem but I struggled. All for an increased cost I must add, serving myself I would have imagined a cheaper price but sadly no.

The hotel does not advertise as a disability friendly hotel so I cannot complain about the stairs, or the fact that there is only one lift, or that the doors are heavy because these are things they cannot change, nor do I expect them to change. However having enjoyed the luxury of being served our drinks and toast I was very disappointed by this unfortunately.

All that aside, the biggest annoyance were the people "reserving" tables in the entertainment room. There are signs everywhere, it was repeated in the emails that reserving tables is not allowed and any items found would be removed and brought to reception. We missed 2 bingo games (which we had paid for) and 2 lots of entertainment which we had been most looking forward to due to lack of space due to selfish people.

I propose that the entertainment room go the same route as the dining room and have the tables pre reserved and everyone sit in the same place each night. Our party had two individuals with learning disabilities, trying to explain that we could not watch the entertainment due to lack of space was very difficult.

I really genuinely hate complaining but these things really did spoil those parts of our holiday.

I must point out that the entertainers we did see were absolutely fantastic! We have seen Carl Schofield before and he did not disappoint this time either. The food was so delicious, there was nothing at all at fault there, easily the best food I've had...