Sorted Stay - Serviced Apartments in Southend-on-Sea — Hotel in Great Britain

My husband and I stayed with our 2 children at Regency Apartments. Overall, we had a really great stay.

Access to the apartment was straightforward and Sorted Stay arranged for us to have one parking space for free at the local car park, which was really handy. Sorted Stay customer service was always readily available to provide assistance.

Our apartment was located at the front of the building and benefited from large bay windows providing a gorgeous view of the sea and greenery directly across from us, which was absolutely beautiful to see every day.

The apartment was decorated to a high standard and was very clean. The white walls and high ceilings created a lovely, airy space for the family. The dining table was nicely laid out on entry. However, we quickly packed everything away because we were worried that our kids would break the plate ware and glasses, lol. Although it was a self-catering apartment, there were some basic hotel provisions such as tea, coffee, towels and bathroom soaps and shower products, which were all really nice touches. WiFi was included free of charge and there was a large flat screen TV in the living room and bedroom.

The size of the fridge/freezer was excellent, and we were provided an excellent range of cookware, plates, bowls, mugs, glasses and utensils.

I hadn't quite realised this when I booked but we were really pleased to find out that the apartment was well-situated, right in the centre of town and directly across from Adventure Island. There was so much to do and we couldn't get through everything in the time we were there. We really enjoyed ourselves.

There were some downsides to our stay:

This may not be Sorted Stay's fault entirely but the FreeView was really poor quality. The reception was poor and the TV guide listings were all incorrect. The TV in the bedroom had no remote and we couldn't use it at all. The lack of remote is obviously Sorted Stay's responsibility.

The bathroom had zero counter space. They provided a bathroom cabinet to compensate for this. But it was still really inconvenient to have no place to lay out our toiletries.

The drainage counter in the kitchen was level rather than on an incline to facilitate drainage into the sink. So, anytime we put washed dishes in the dish rack, large puddles of water would form on the counter nearby, which was frustrating.

The flooring was nice to look at but not good quality. So it had scratch marks all over the floor under the dining chairs. Also, most of the chairs had loose legs and made you feel you were going crash to the ground any minute if you sat in them.

My husband didn't mind it but I found the sofa bed to be really uncomfortable.

There was a vacuum but we never found a broom and dustpan, which would have been convenient.

The bed room had 3 lovely lamps but only 2 of which were plugged in. One end table had an unplugged lamp and nowhere near to plug it in, leaving that side of the bed without light at night.

One of the end table drawers hung out of the end table and could not be pushed back in, rendering that drawer useless.

None of the time pieces in the apartment worked, which was really odd, lol.

This is small thing, but I don't know why they hung a ironing board up in the living room, lol. It was quite unsightly and could have been hung up in the hallway leading to the bathroom, which would have been more acceptable I think.

Overall, we were pleased with the accommodation and it was excellent value for money. They let themselves down with a few oversights but there were more pluses than minuses. We would definitely stay there again and...

In general we had a lovely stay, we flew from Belfast and it was our first time in mainland, we booked studio 3 for 3 nights.

Pros

Location- it is roughly 15 mins walk to the town centre where you can find lots of high street shops, further down towards the sea you’ll find adventure island absolutely brilliant lots to do for family and plenty of restaurants and souvenir shops around it.

Accommodation is very close to the Victoria train station which made it very convenient to get a train to London Liverpool Street and also handy for getting the airport bus we flew to and from stansted airport and travelled to and from accommodation with the bus X30 only cost us £25 for a return ticket that can be used within 30 days

The room was cosy, clean and tidy. Kitchen is equipped well though we didn’t use the kitchen much as we ate out mostly. There is a Marks and Spencer’s garage across the street and another small shop just down the road that we found was better price wise.

Easy check in and check out simple enter the code provided by the host into a safe box take your keys and enter, car parking on site although would fit only 2 cars and there was cars parked there the entire time we were there so it is quite limited, absolutely no hassle from other residents we could only hear them if they occasionally slammed their door a little loudly.

Tv in our room was massive had Netflix on it just remember to sign out when your done using it, Wi-Fi code provided by host it wasn’t very good but our signal in general wasn’t great in the area

Cons

Studio 3 bathroom needs a big TLC I really had to force myself to shower in that bathroom and avoided entering it as much as I could, there was something taken off the tiles under the shower maybe a shelf or sticker but either way it left a very nasty looking mark, vinyl flooring lifting up off the floor, toilet swinging from side to side, the ledge under the sink needs a paint job, we were greeted with an empty bottle of hand wash not a massive issue we bought our own but it’s not very pleasing to have a clearly used bottle of hand wash laying around with barely any soap in it.

If your looking for a double bed don’t be shocked to find the beds are zipped together as well as the duvets which makes it uncomfortable to sleep in the middle of however if you are opting for 2 single beds theres no issue. The plug on our side of the bed is busted needs changing major...

The Regency Apartment 2 was on the ground floor near the front door. It was very spacious with high ceilings. Cleaned very well, and was very comfortable with modern finish. Good kitchen facilities and good bathroom facilities. Quality TV and great choice of Netflix, Prime, Youtube and Freeview. I know we don't travel to watch TV but it makes a big difference for late night viewing, having a meal or staying in for bad weather. Property is close to the beach front and all attractions, activities, restaurants, bars and pubs. Nice and close to stroll around the Westcliff neighbourhood. Free parking also made the experience less stressful.

1, the video on using the key lock box needs updating and have an example demo. We were stuck outside in the dark fiddling with it for about 12 minutes, because we had no clue what we were doing or how to use it. 2. In apartment 2 bedroom would be enhanced with a full length mirror on the wall behind the door. 3. Windows in bedroom is a tricky one, as they are nice and large but the view is of horrible unloved back yards and overlooked by many flats, so if practical, some type of drop draw string blinds would be better to give you control over some privacy, but also allow some light into the room. I know you cant do anything about bird droppings on the windows, but it just made you want to puke and keep the curtains closed all the time. 4. A floor standing fan in the front room and bed room would also enhance the experience, as I am sure the idea of air conditioning may not be practical and costly. When we entered the property it was baking and we had to open all the windows for up to 1 hour to cool the rooms down. 5. Nothing much you can do about sound but when people moved around the build in the communal areas and upstairs, yes it was like a heard of elephants but I also got a bit scared late at night, thought someone was trying to get into our apartment. But the property is secure with Yale locks and CCTV on the outside at...