Hotel Blue — Hotel in Lewes

Let me start off by saying… I made a mistake booking this hotel in that I did not realize children were not permitted. I actually called the day before arrival (about 30 hrs prior to arrival) with questions about the room because I was going to have my son with me. That’s when I found out. The website calls it an adult getaway on the main page but doesn’t say children aren’t permitted (I have never heard of this before). I think my exact comment to the manager was “oh s*it, what do I do?”. The manager told me that booking through Expedia isn’t the best and if I would have called it would have been made clear. I did not read my confirmation where it is clearly stated (as I found out later). I would have even paid a penalty of hundreds of dollars if I needed to cancel our trip. The manager told me it would cost $200 extra for my son to stay.

So, I decided to pay the extra money and stay. However, I was nervous about how we would be treated. Upon arrival, nothing was said about my son in the lobby and I said to the women working, “I must not be the only one who makes this mistake”… and she said “oh no, not at all” so that made me feel a little at ease.

Our third day (after the second night) at about 1:30 pm, my son cried loudly (he’s 2 by the way). It took us about 5 minutes to calm him down. We started getting ready for the night when we heard a knock at the door around 2:30 pm. The woman working told us she had a complaint about “the baby”. We said we were sorry, but what can we do? She then said “you are going to have to leave”. This was the first time anyone had said anything to us about my son. It was definitely the first time he had cried in the room. I also wasn’t told that if he cried we would be asked to leave. We were angry and nervous. We drove 3.5 hours to have this mom/daughter/grandson trip. I said I wanted to talk with the manager.

Then, the woman at the desk came up and said “Well, we don’t want to leave you stranded, so we can put you in a studio room downstairs”. Our room was the reason why I booked the place because it had a closed off room so my boy could nap and sleep while we were up. So, we had to move midday and to a lesser room for no money back, even though I paid an extra $200 and was given no warning that this is how our stay would be. Also the air conditioning didn’t work in the room and it was in the 90’s.

I asked them both if he cried again would we be kicked out, and Donna (manager) said yes if there is a complaint. I said I would gladly leave the hotel if I could get reimbursed the two nights we had left because we felt extremely uncomfortable at this point and were incredibly disappointed in how this was handled. I was told I would be given no money back if I left. So we were stuck. The rest of the trip I was paranoid for my son to cry, laugh, be silly, be seen…. What a place this is. They completely ruined our $1500 4 night vacation.

This hotel management made us feel so uncomfortable and unwelcome. Also, I know they claim cleanliness but both bathrooms had pubic hairs on the floors, carpets were stained, balconies need repair, and both refrigerators were broken (in both rooms). After our stay, I’ve read other reviews that say management only cares about money and not customer satisfaction and that seems 100% true. I hope In the future the hotel team can treat all of their guests...

I have very mixed feelings about Hotel Blue. It’s where my partner and I stayed on our first ever couple trip years and years ago, and for that reason it holds a special place in my heart. However, unfortunately, my recent stay did not live up to the memory.

Five years ago, it felt luxurious and special. Not so much these days. Random large stain on the carpet outside of my room. Small Carpet stains inside the room and random little items not vacuumed up. Dead fish in the koi pond. Things that add up to take away from the experience.

It’s within walking distance of shops, which is really nice (I personally wouldn’t walk to the beach though-it’s just a hair too far). The front staff, or at least the gentleman we mostly dealt with, was very nice. We had issues finding a charger for our electric vehicle and he was very accommodating and helpful in trying to resolve a stressful situation for us, which we appreciated it.

A big issue we had though was the Wi-Fi. We stayed in a downstairs room where the Wi-Fi would NOT work past the bathroom/hallway. My husband had to take a brief work meeting in our bathroom because the Wi-Fi does not extend beyond that. (It was not user error, just a very very bad connection.) Not having reliable Wi-Fi was a huge inconvenience that affected our plans (example: to stream movies on an iPad in our room) and made it a pain just to Google local places.

My husband tried to tell the young woman at the front desk about the internet issue (after another young woman the night before restarted it after we asked about it, so it wasn’t the first time we brought it up) but she was very obviously uninterested and gave us a blank smile and wished us well on our way. Condescending and disappointing, because if you’re paying for luxury, you at least want internet - or for the employee you talk to to care that there’s a huge issue in one of their rooms. Again, the male at the front desk is excellent, but both young ladies have the kind of bored demeanor that’s better suited to retail where no one is expecting, or paying for, a “luxurious” stay. Small thing, because I don’t typically care as long as people aren’t downright rude, but again, it all adds up. If I’m telling you that a room has a Wi-Fi problem to the point that if it stay in it, you have to accept being offline for your vacation, at least pretend to care and lie to me and say you’re going to pass the info on. (This was not an issue with phones. We have both android and iPhone, and my husband works in tech. We know how Wi-Fi works.)

Random thoughts: The pool is kind of depressing. I know it’s natural water though so it may just be a matter of personal taste. The coffee maker is a fun touch and I like the local art showcased in the lobby. The bathrooms are spacious and the sinks beautiful (though one would not drain normally, another small inconvenience.)

Still. As much as it pains me to say, it looks like my partner and I are going to have to find a new special place to stay when...

Kept trying to call my friend on her birthday who was staying at this hotel. There is no way for a person to automatically transfer their call to a person's room. I called numerous times for over two hours- both the local and the toll-free number and the front desk wouldn't answer the phone. Whoever was working that night put the answering machine on which said they would call you back if you left a message (which I did) but they never called back. If they can't even run their phones properly, I can't imagine how the rest of the hotel is run.

Update- First off, I never did get a call back from the hotel. I got a text from my friend the next day and talked to her a couple of days later (explanation forthcoming). This wasn't just about birthday wishes- I was also calling to find out out she was doing as her health hasn't been the best. Speaking of the devil, that night, she was in her room EXTREMELY sick and ended up going to and staying in the emergency room! She has a serious illness, is going through treatment, and was having side effects from it. She unfortunately could not get to the hotel phone because she was sick in the bathroom for an extended period of time.

I KNEW she was expecting my phone call and had I been able to call her and NOT get an answer, enough times, I would have tried to get her help. I could have called and seen if the police would check in on her which I absolutely would have done knowing what she was going through and that she was expecting my phone call!

It is amazing to me that the hotel does not have ANY way for people to get in touch with guests after hours. After SEVEN HOURS in the bathroom (I kid you NOT), she was finally able to crawl to the hotel phone to call the hospital. Thankfully she is going to be okay but her treatment is now affected. I might have been able to intervene earlier had I been able to call her. You people seriously need to fix this before someone really gets hurt! Not everyone has a cell phone OR there may be a situation where it isn't working and there is an emergency where that person needs to be reached after hours. What if someone has a sick or elderly relative that takes a turn for the worse after hours and your guest doesn't have a cell phone, it's dead, or not working? They won't be able to be reached because your hotel doesn't forward calls after 9:00 pm. There definitely has to be a better solution than the one you have...