De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel, Southampton

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Fantastic rooms, friendly staff, great location
Disadvantages:	some of the other guests seem to think their a bit special !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I've stayed at this hotel twice now, once when i was 10 with my mum and dad and once when i was 20 with my boyfriend, both times i've had a fantastic time and the only negative thing being other guests there, but we'll get to that later in the review!

Accomodation:
The hotel has 173 rooms, this is made up of 93 standard rooms which are the cheapest and have either twin or a kingsize bed, an ensuite bathroom usually with a bath and a shower. A kettle and small sachets of tea coffe, milk etc and some very delicious biscuits! A mini bar (as with most hotels this is a little on the pricey side e.g £1.20 for a mars bar!!!!) a safe, an ironing board and hairdryer, a phone, internet access and Sky TV and the usual pre pay movies as well as pre pay games for the playstion. These rooms are mostly at the back of the hotel and look out over the town.
The next room up would be the Delux room these are exactly the same as the standard rooms except they also have a small seating area and a view over the harbour - the view alone is well worth the extra money!
You then have the Executive room which is the same as the the Delux just a little bigger, with the executive rooms you can choose between town view and harbour view.
Then there are the suites, there are junior suites, these are the rooms i have stayed in and although a little more pricey than the rest of the rooms the are well worth the extra money for a special occasion. They are very big rooms that have a kingsize bed, a seperate lounge area normally a sofa and a dining table and chairs, as well as a large balcony with patio furniture. You get upgraded toliletries in these rooms and the last time i went they were all from the very lovely Molton Brown and Espa, you also get bathrobes and slippers (although you can't keep them!) Half a bottle of champagne thats there when you get there on ice! Mineral water, chcolates and fruit. As well as having all the other facilities the smaller rooms have. There are four junior suites in the hotel and 've been in two different ones and found them both to be fantastically clean and spacious with great views from the balcony. The bathrooms in both of them were amazing, they have his and hers sinks, speakers so you can listen to the tv from the lounge a stand alone shower and showers over the bath and, and i have to say i thought this was great! heated mirrors so when you've just got out of the bath they don't steam up! Also the second time i went with my boyfriend we had a bath big enough for about four people! It had two built in pillows and jacuzzi jets all the way through - it was lovely i wish i had one at home!
And finally there it the presidentail suite, there is only one of these and having never stayed in it i'm not exactly sure what its like i know it has all the same amenities as the junior suite i assume its just bigger.

Restaurants:
The hotel has two restaurants an informal one called Number 5 which is based at the bottom of the glass pyramid, this is where breakfast is served and afternoon tea. The breakfat is probably the best breakfast i have ever had, everything anyone could want is avaliable, a huge buffet style full english breakfast with all the trimmings, a selection of every juice, tea or coffee you could ever ask for as well as fuits, yoghurts, pastries, cerals, and you can eat as much of it as you want, there's also a menu of this on the back of the door in your room and you can have it serevd to you up there. The room service in the hotel is amazing we had dinner in our room one night and it was as fresh and hot as it would have been if we'd gone downstairs for it and no more expensive.
The other restaurant is called Allertons and this is an A la carte restaurant, being a bit of a fussy couple my boyfriend and I did not eat in here however the restaurant itself is beautiful and secluded, nice and peacful and the food did look delicious, i did go in there when i stayed there with my mum and dad years ago, they said the food was fabolous and the staff in there were so accomodating they made me something not on the menu because i was only young and very fussy! i had chicken nuggets chips and baked beans lol!
Like i said before there is also an extensive room service menu all of which is very reasonably priced like the other restaurants in the hotel. Selected items on the room service menu are avaliable 24hours a day.

Facilities:
The hotel has a fantastic health and beauty area, its split over two floors the top one being the reception and changing rooms and a small gym. The gym has all the latest aerobic equipment and some anaerobic, although it doesn't have a very large free-weights section. On the bottom floor is the pool area the pool is fairly small (15meters) but never seems to get crowded, one end of the pool is housed in a conservatory so you can sit on the loungers round the edge, relax and watch the world go by. Also down there is a jacuzzi, a steam room which always smells of eucalypus and is always the perfect temperature, and a sauna. There's also a small pool for children just off the edge of the main pool, it really is fantastic down there only spoilt by the rather snooty health club memebers who seem to think that because your only staying in the hotel you shouldn't be allowed down there - that said its not enough to put me off! There are also beauty rooms where you can have various beauty treatment, pricelists for these are left in your room and at the reception, i've never used any of them but they look reasonably priced and you can have everything from massages, to waxes to haircuts!
The hotel also has many business suites which can be used for meetings and conferences which can hold up to 500 people. These rooms can also be used for weddings.

Hotel Location and nearby attractions:
The hotel has great road links and free car parking for hotel guests, it is also within 15minutes drive of rail and air connections.
It is located in the harbour and is alongside the walls that surrounded medieval Southampton. Its on the waterfront and on clear days you can see out and across to the isle of white. A five minute walk away is Leisure world which has a cinema, bowling alley, a selection of restaurants, and a few bars and clubs, its a really nice place to spend the evening because if one bar turns out to not be too good there's plenty of others to go to! Also a five minute walk away is the West Quay Shopping Centre which is open 7 days a week and has over 90 stores all under one roof, from here you can exit into the main town centre where there is more shops, restaurants and bars.
Slightly further away about a 15minute walk (bearing in mind i had heels on though!) is Ocean Village, an absolutly stunning marina with some lovely bars restaurants and shops around the outside.
A short drive away is Portsmouth where if you are really into your maritme history you can visit the dockyard and see the HMS Victory and The Mary Rose as well as many others, its a lovely day out but does involve a lot of walking and could be a bit boring for kids.
Also a short drive away are the following attractions; Marwell Zoological Park, Stonehenge, Beauliea motor museum and boat trips to the isle of white. I haven't visited any of those so i don't know exactly how long it takes to get to them but the reception always has maps and leaflets from the local attractions and there's always someone around to book your tickets for you and arrange transport if needed.

Some rough prices for the rooms are as follows although the hotelis seasonal so these do vary depending on when you go, i'm basing these on a friday and saturday night in february as thats the last time i went. Prices are per room not per person and these are bed and breakfast prices for the two nights correct from when i stayed there about a year ago, although i don't thik it'll have gone up that much;
Standard Double Room: £330 (Max 2 adults)
Delux Double Room: £390 (Max 2 adults)
Executive Double Room: £440 (Max 2 adults and 2 children)
Junior Suite: £520 (Max 2 adults)
Suite: £600 (Max 2 adults)
Given the standard of the hotel and the quality of the rooms as well as the great location i'd say these prices are great value for money. There are many other tariffs avliable sometime they have lesiure break offers which offer standard rooms at discounted rates and you then have the option to upgrade. You can book the rooms as room only, bed and breakfast, or dinner bed and breakfast. The hotel can be booked over the hotel groups website, by calling a central reservations number, by calling the hotel directly and most likely through your locale travel agents alothough i wouldn't recommend this as it will work out much more expensive that contacting the hotel directly.

I would definatly recommend a visit to this hotel especially for a special occassion, the staff are always friendly, helpful and willing to go the extra mile, for example several times they've made food for me not on the menu just because i enquired as to whether they did do it or not. Also if you have an american express card you can often get deals on buy one get one night free in de vere hotels, and sometimes a free upgrade (the reason i got junior suites both time!)