Royal Clifton Hotel Southport — Hotel in Sefton

Thinking of a hotel stay in Southport or in a BRITANIA HOTELS GROUP establishment, you may want to read this?

We do not normally take much notice of hotel ratings or read much into the feedback, however after our stay at a BRITANIA HOTELS GROUP residence, we felt duty bound to notify our fellow travelers what we received!

My 87-year-old mother suffers from Dementia, so after a long COVID isolation period we decided to take her and her partner to our old hometown of Southport. They wished to stay at the Royal Clifton Hotel & Spa, it was their favorite hotel in Southport and they had stayed many times before when visiting friends & family. I remember it well as a young man, an impressive, white building on the promenade. Formally owned by Great Western hotels group, it has been recently been taken over by the BRITANIA HOTELS GROUP. Although we made our booking through Booking.com, we where never made aware of this change! To the concern of many residents of Southport, BRITANIA HOTELS GROUP have also purchased the Prince of Wales & Scairsbrick hotels, all grand, old Victorian hotels, needing many thousands of pounds spending on them to bring them up to an acceptable standard today.

The BRITANIA HOTELS GROUP website states the following about the Royal Clifton Hotel & Spa: -

The Royal Clifton Hotel & Spa in Southport is noted for its exceptional range of facilities and excellent standards of service. Over recent years it has been thoughtfully refurbished to offer you the comfort you expect in the best location for a hotel in Southport.

Here at The Royal Clifton Hotel & Spa, we offer a variety of dining options. We are sure that you will enjoy the quality and selection of food served in our Conservatory Bar & Bistro & our Chatsworth Lounge. Our range of bars are specially designed to give our guests a choice of different environments with a choice of formal or informal drinking and dining facilities to suit your mood

Nothing could be further from the truth! Using the excuse of the COVID restrictions, a building site with no facilities would be a more appropriate description, even staff members (who where excellent) advised us to eat else where because the food was inconsistent, with the choice of a simple “pub grub” menu!

On our return home we used the company feedback system to raise our concerns, which states the following: - “Got something you'd like to tell us or discuss? Good or bad, your feedback is always welcome”. We also wrote to the Managing Director in person at head office regarding our stay. A week later, no reply or acknowledgement (except the usual automated receivable email). We wrote again, this time sending our letter via recorded delivery. A week later, NOTHING! If this is the standard of Customer Service, by BRITANIA HOTELS GROUP, then it is in need of serious review! We had a very enjoyable stay in Southport visiting old haunts, family & friends, unfortunately ruined by our accommodation supplied by BRITANIA HOTELS GROUP! There are many fine hotels in Southport and for that matter the UK. However if what we received from the BRITANIA HOTELS GROUP is what they call any form of service, be very careful in your choice before you part with your hard earned money!

What is so sad about our visit, is as my mother wandered through the hotel each day she kept repeating, “how sad, it was such a wonderful hotel, we had so many happy times here”. I hope the Managing Director of the BRITANIA HOTELS GROUP treats his mother with a little more respect and civility than he has treated mine, and other...

Will start with the good points.. Nice food. Great shower. Clean bath, sink and toilet. Good location... Bad points.. Worst bed i have ever slept in by far. Dirty woodwork in room. really old decor. Damp on wall in bedroom and on ceiling in bathroom. Rotten window frame. position of bed light directly above head so if you sit up your head was in the shade of light. Now what will stop me ever going back not only to this hotel but also to Southport is no advice about parking.. Couldn't park in the hotel car park but could get a space outside along the road from the entrance. Checked in was asked if i had parked in the car park and replied "No couldn't get a space so have parked on the road outside and fed the meter until 6pm and then it is free." and that is where the conversation ended. Got up the next morning went down had breakfast then proceeded to feed the meter for the next days parking still on the road. walked to the car to put the ticket in the windscreen only to find a parking ticket, paid £7 then found a parking ticket for another £50 or if you pay within 14 days £25. Went to reception to see if there was any reason they did not advise me to set my alarm to be outside by 8am on a saturday to buy a parking ticket before a local council traffick warden decided to spoil what may have been a pleasant weekend in their town helping tourism.. the answer.. "I don't know".. Do the staff know there isn't a hope in hell you will be back so are trying to help the council by having their customers off?? If this is not the case would it not be a simple customer service idea to advise anyone parking on the road to ensure they buy the ticket before 8am And yes the sign does say parking is free between 6pm untill 8am but who wants to run around paying for tickets at that time on a saturday morning?? when you are supposed to be away enjoying your weekend?? Why can you not pay for the following days parking and enjoy that time either having a bit of a lie in or using the spa of the hotel. talking of which the offer i got to stay here included a voucher for the hotel which we never got .. however the weekend was ruined so wasn't really bothered but we were entitled to this voucher. Left this "spa" hotel stressed, upset and with a aching back. We stayed in room 130 and if the hotel staff read this review go take a walk around this room and answer honestly would you...

A carefully considered 3 star rating. If I was just rating the room it would be a generous 1.

When I arrived I noticed the room was very warm. There was no air conditioning, only a sash window and a heated towel rail that was turned on... On a hot, humid day.

The bathroom was extremely narrow and by now also very hot and humid. Note, letting water out of the bath makes the sink gurgle.

I was woken up several times in the night by noise outside, I had to keep the window open to avoid overheating so there was no escape from the mating calls and territorial marking by Southport's night-time denizens. As an anthropological investigation it is enlightening but if you're working in the morning it's not ideal. Also the TV is very poor quality piped via dodgy distribution amplifier into the aerial socket.

Breakfast is dangerous. The plates are under a heat-lamp set to "immolate" and the utensils for serving the food items are not isolated from each other meaning cross contamination of vegetable to meat items and vice versa is very very easy and probably happens a lot. Probably best to avoid if you are a vegetarian, or a food hygeine inspector.

The bar is good of an evening, if a little pricey but then that's the times. The barman who served me took a lot of grief from my newly-found single-serve friends and I at the bar yet continued to make his customers happy. On my second night there was a guy singing in the bar to a backing track... Standard advanced karaoke crooning business, ok if you like that sort of thing which to be fair a lot of the clientele do.

The general layout of the place feels like something out of Ghostbusters or The Witches and you can easily get confused if you're an idiot.

Parking on the premesis is £5 a night, this does NOT cover outside on the road as well (people have complained about being fined)

In conclusion, if you are over 80, want to re-live the 1970s, are a lizard requiring constant heat then this is a great stay. If however you are a human expecting a relatively comfortable stay in a hotel up to modern standards then DON'T DO IT. Stay in the Premier Inn, you won't wake up several times in the night and/or become a...