Booked a couple of nights away to take a look at Bournemouth and it surroundings. Chose the N-R as there was a deal on with Tescos...so a cheap weekend away! Hotel is well placed for the town centre, the gardens and the lovely beach. The car parking is a challenge if you have a large car. The underground car park is quite hard to manoeuvre around and the spaces are tight...we ended up with a 'ding' in the door where someone had smacked their door into ours. Check in was ok although the first room that we were given (basement rooms 1-9) was a nice room but smelled really off ( cross between old smoke and damp). We were moved to 108 which was a brighter room however it was right above the huge metal doors for the car park i.e. every time a car entered/left the car park the gates clanked open and clanked shut! The room was clean but the valance was really dirty and scuffed where the hoover had been rammed against it endlessly...little things like this let the place down. The hotel badges itself as 'period elegance' I would add 'faded' to that description as it needs a good re-vamp of the public areas (the first floor corridor was scuffed and the floor boards are really creaky and noisy). Breakfast was good and plenty of it and we didn't use the reataurant at night but it looked like a popular haunt. We had an electrical fault in the room that was sorted out whilst we were at breakfast which was good. The staff are polite and seemed efficient...its a decent hotel that tries hard to please.
- Norfolk Hotel Bournemouth
- Hotel Norfolk Royale
