Harbour Hotel Brighton — Hotel in Great Britain

My bridal party surprised me by booking this hotel for my bachelorette weekend 24th-26th June.

Customer service: 2/5 (except cleaners and reception staff who were great) Vegan-friendliness: 2/5 Allergen-friendliness: 1/5 Comfort: 4/5 Cleanliness: 4/5 Value for money: 2/5 (Overpriced, paying for location and the spa) Location: 5/5

The Good: The hotel was very well presented and clean. Everything was modern. The beds were super comfy - such a great night's sleep. There was every facility in the room (ironing board and iron, a fan, tea and coffee-making facilities and even gin and sherry decanted). The lounging areas in the spa were nice as well as the hydrotherapy pool and hot tubs. They allowed my bridesmaids to decorate the room and the reception and cleaning staff were super friendly. Staff were willing to adapt breakfast to suit vegan diet. Discounted parking.

The Bad: My main disappointment: one of my bridesmaids is allergic to dairy, eggs and nuts. At the breakfast buffet, she took milk from the milk bottle labelled 'Soya' to eat her Weetabix with. Instantly she knew something was wrong and became ill. The milk labelled 'Soya' was actually dairy. This mistake could have cost someone their life, luckily my friend reacted quickly and she was ok. What stunned me was the lack of proper apology from the restaurant staff. They did not seem to realise the gravity of their mistake. They are lucky we're not suing. Playing with someone's health is not to be taken lightly which is exactly what they did. They didn't offer her a free breakfast, discount her room or offer any other form of compensation, which I find terrible. Furthermore, the spa was a health and safety inspector's nightmare with lots of tiled steps down into different areas, a labyrinth. There were rubber mats and warning signs but it seemed a bit dangerous. The main pool size was disappointing, could have been a bit larger. The spa was not very accommodating when our booking had been messed up, we were not sure who's fault this was. We accommodated them and not the other way round. After paying £60+ for one treatment, I don't think this was very nice customer service. They managed to amend one of our bookings which was something. Also, flip flops were not free for hotel guests, only for those paying for a spa day. I found this really stingy, I mean they are just flip flops! The bedroom (twin room with sea view) was a bit small which made it awkward to get around. I can understand if it was one of the cheaper rooms. But after paying an eye watering £318 per night for a twin room with a corner sea view, it could have been much bigger! Our bridal suite in Scotland is only costing £149 per night and that's a spa hotel too and the suite is enormous, with a four poster bed, roll top bath, balcony and sofa. I guess the North/South divide is bigger than I thought! Food is overpriced in the restaurant, no vegan options (I left lunch to go and get food elsewhere) - in Brighton of all places, I think they should get with the times and have a vegan menu or at the very least, options. No non dairy milk in the bedroom either. In summary, I think it was ok, but overpriced for what it was and I've paid much less for better hotels/spas in Surrey and London and B&B's in Brighton. I will definitely not be returning or recommending this...

We had a lovely 2 night stay at The Brighton Harbour Hotel. On arrival, and throughout, the staff were nothing but helpful and courteous. Unfortunately the lift was out of order for our entire stay, and we were placed on the 2nd floor. Whilst the reception staff very kindly offered us the use of the service elevator, this was not always easily accessible due to the busyness of the hotel. We were informed that the lift would be repaired ASAP, but this did not happen during our stay. The room was well presented and clean (if a little small for two people). We were greeted by a Happy Birthday helium balloon, nice chocolates & a hand written note. The bathroom was small but functional, and of contemporary design. There were a couple of oversights from the housekeeping department, as the empty tissue box was not replenished etc, but overall the rooms were cleaned to a very high standard. The hotel has a convient central location, however the downside of this is that there is a lot of noise from the party goers in the street downstairs throughout the night. The evening we spent in the hotel bar was very nice, with helpful staff & tasty drinks. There was quite a lot of noise due to a wedding party going on in the hotel, but we were pre warned about this by the staff. The mornings in the hotel resturant certainly provided breakfast with a view, as you look straight out onto the promenade & the Seafront. The large windows allow lots of sunlight in, and the decor with nods towards the fairground theme, provided a pleasant setting for our meal. The breakfast provided was exceptional, with a lovely buffet with a wide variety of choice. This was followed by food from the kitchen, cooked to order, that was wonderfully fresh. The staff in the resturant were friendly, professional & efficient. A particular mention to the gentleman waiter on breakfast duty this weekend just gone, who was around 5'7" with dark hair tied back, wearing a waistcoat. He was smiley, approachable and willing to do anything to make our experience more enjoyable for us. Unfortunately we didn't catch his name. We both thoroughly enjoyed our lunch in the hotel resturant, especially the banana cream dessert- highly recommended!

The spa facilities provided are in need of renovation, as they look grubby and unkempt (particularly the tiling). The swimming pool was cold, and many of the decorative light features in the pool were not working. The hydrotherapy pool was disappointing, and felt like a cold jacuzzi. Heading downstairs, the two hot tubs provided were wonderful. The subtle lighting features and the hot water temperature, alongside the authentic architecture created a magical experience. The sauna & the steam room were very nice, with perfect temperatures, not too overwhelming. We thoroughly enjoyed our couples massage, and would happily return. The massage therapists were very professional and thorough, and provided a truly relaxing experience, that made...

Me and my partner stayed at the hotel for two nights mid-week and although it was a decent experience it could definitely be improved.

Firstly, our room was almost 2 hours late which meant we had to wait in the bar/restaurant for this time after 7 hours of travelling, and to make up for it we were given a voucher for a free prosecco each, which we aren’t personally fans of so we had to pay for our drinks anyway. When we eventually got the room we were initially impressed by the large bed and excellent sea views, and triple glazed windows that block almost all the noise from the beach out. However, when I went to unpack, I found a small packet that seemed to contain the remnants of a white powder in one of the desk drawers. This was obviously an alarming and disappointing discovery as we had waited so long for the room, and it is not what you expect from a 4 star hotel. We immediately contacted reception and asked for it to removed and were told housekeeping would be sent up immediately. We were not given anything to make up for this serious blunder, even after asking politely. We waited around 20 minutes for housekeeping to remove the packet but we ended up having to go down to reception to request for it to be removed a second time as we were about to head down to the spa and didn’t particularly want to return to it not being cleaned.

The spa itself is nicely decorated and smells lovely, although the main pool is not that clean and there seemed to be small piles of sand and pebbles that have accumulated in the corners. The tile floors were also sopping wet both times we went to the spa, which would be dangerous for people with impaired mobility. Furthermore, only one of the hot tubs was working and the sauna was out of bounds both days, and outside the steam room were workmen loudly chatting with the private office door open letting cold air in which wasn’t the most relaxing thing to encounter in your swimwear.

We paid for breakfast for both mornings we stayed but we only went down once, the service was quite slow considering we only ordered simple breakfasts, and my partner’s eggs benedict were overloaded with so much hollandaise sauce to the point they felt ill before they could finish it. I ordered poached eggs on avocado toast and unfortunately both our meals were cold.

The hotel itself is in a brilliant location (2 minutes from the beach) and the decor is interesting and modern, the staff are pleasant and it does seem mostly clean and airy, and the bed was extremely comfortable and large, however we just felt let down in areas, especially as we booked the trip for my 21st birthday and wished it to be as perfect as it...