Westbourne Hotel, Brighton

Westbourne Hotel, Brighton

==Introduction==

This hotel is located to the east side of Kemptown in Brighton city centre. It is fairly easy to get to as it is ten minutes walk to Brighton station and Brighton Marina, where there is extensive shopping and leisure facilities such as ten pin bowling and pool. It takes two minutes walk to the sea front and Brighton pier, and other local attractions and shops are all nearby. ...
...hotel. You will be sure to find something to interest you whilst on a short stay here. This hotel has eight or ten bedroom set over three floors. There is a step access to the hotel only which makes it difficult for disabled people to use this hotel. The road itself is on a downward slope towards the sea front. The road also is not a main road, though is quite a busy single carriage road.

==Booking Process==

We found ... more

Westbourne Hotel, Brighton

Introduction

This hotel is located to the east side of Kemptown in Brighton city centre. It is fairly easy to get to as it is ten minutes walk to Brighton station and Brighton Marina, where there is extensive shopping and leisure facilities such as ten pin bowling and pool. It takes two minutes walk to the sea front and Brighton pier, and other local attractions and shops are all nearby. There are many restaurants, supermarkets, pubs and bars around the hotel. You will be sure to find something to interest you whilst on a short stay here. This hotel has eight or ten bedroom set over three floors. There is a step access to the hotel only which makes it difficult for disabled people to use this hotel. The road itself is on a downward slope towards the sea front. The road also is not a main road, though is quite a busy single carriage road.

Booking Process

We found this very straightforward process as we used the website www.booking.com. The hotel was chosen on balance of the location, the price, as well as the favourable reviews based on people that have stayed at this hotel. We went through the purchasing and payment stage of the booking very easily, and we proceeded to the card payment section. We entered our credit card details as a guarantee, and we paid the hotel in full upon arrival. There were no added extra's or booking charge fees in using the booking.com website. After one minute I received an e mail confirmation which included the terms of the stay and other details regarding the cancellation policies as well as directions on a map to the hotel.

Initial Check In Process

Once we were let into the hotel we were led into the breakfast area. A young man checked over our reservation form and confirmed the price to us. He seemed very happy with us and was very friendly. He asked us if we had any questions regarding the room as well as the local area, and he seemed generally helpful. Once we had paid the hotel cost, he then gave us the keys to the room as well as the key to the front door, and he said that there was no curfew and that we could enter and exit the hotel as we pleased. He directed us to our room which was on the first floor and off we went to find it. The rooms were very easy to find and were well displayed by numbers accordingly.

Decor and Ambience

The hotel was well decorated in traditional Victorian style. At the same time the decor is in good condition and new wallpaper looks as if it has been put up on the walls and it certainly keeps up to the Victorian style of the building. The hotel has a small breakfast room with around eight tables. The layout of the hotel is Victorian house converted into a hotel and on the ground floor there is just a breakfast room and a make shift reception area. Downstairs is where the hotels owners live in the basement who are a Caribean family. As you come from the front door, the rooms are located on the first, second and third floor and there is about three or four rooms. There is no shared bathroom facilities only ensuite bathrooms. The walls are papered in a beige coloured and the carpet was red. I found this to be a nice and well decorated place to stay and the appearance was very welcoming and inviting. The porch area had doors one being the front door and a security door, which makes it difficult for disabled people to access the hotel. There is no lift inside the hotel. There was wooden furniture and a sofa in the breakfast room. Overall it was a nice and very cosy place to stay, set in traditional style it is certainly not pretentious. I found the building to be well maintained inside and outside. There were no signs of wear and tear of this property that you could expect for a property of this Victorian era, which gave us the impression that the owners take care of the property and maintain the facilities to a good clean standard. The hotel by category is a three diamond hotel which has been rated by the AA. Outside the hotel is painted white, with a green canopy. There is some grass with a tree at the basement level which is used more for decorative purposes though guests can not access at that level as this is the owners level.

Bedroom Details

We found our bedroom to be quite spacious, full of light which came through large bay windows. The bedroom had a good seating area as it was by the window, which was where the kettle was. Free tea and coffee was also provided in the form of sachets which was also a hygienic practice. The chairs were Victorian, and they were made from wood, and they had red padded cushions. The chairs had additional pillows which increased our level of comfort. The carpet was beige and the walls were beige with red patterns. The ambience was very pleasant, and the first thing we saw when we entered was a four postered bed, which took us by surprise. The linen and bed sheets were white and clean. We were provided with four pillows. The bed itself was a sprung mattress which was quite soft and very comfortable. This was also important in helping us to get a good night sleep. The only negative thing we found with this bedroom was as the windows had blinds, this let in artificial light from the road. There was also a flood light from the basement level which was shining on to the window, and this also let in some light into our bedroom. Also because the hotel was located on a main road, we could sometimes here some passing traffic, and cars sounding their horns from other areas. At night also because this hotel is close to pubs and bars, we could here some background and distant noise, though this was from the neighbouring roads and not from the hotel or from the hotel surroundings. The light inside the room is very bright and there is no dimmer switches and this did not provide a relaxing ambience because of the brightness.

Facilities

The room contained a flat screen lcd television which was about twenty eight inches. The remote control at my room did not work, so I had to use the manual controls on the television which was not so convenient but was well placed opposite the bed. Next to the television was a couple of mirrors as well as space to put our cosmetics and make up accessories. To the left of the television screen, was a mini bar, which allowed us to get drinks and snacks at reasonable prices. For example, you could get a bottle of beer for £1.60, a bottle of water or fruit juice for £1, which is very good value for a hotel establishment. A bag of Mccoys crisps cost just sixty pence. Next to the mini bar was a storage, open wardrobe unit which had a hanging rail with several hangers, and space to put our bags and small suitcase underneath. The bedroom also had a spare blanket in the wardrobe which provided extra comfort if needed. When we got to the room, the radiator was quite turned down in terms of heat and it did feel quite cold to begin with, though we decided to turn up the heating control and this made the heat inside the room a little better. Other facilities included the bathroom, the hotel provided two complimentary miniature bars of soaps and two sachets of shower gels. We received two bath towels, one hand towel and a towel which was placed just outside the shower floor. By the washbasin was a mirror with a small shelf which was used to place our toothbrush and other washing accessories. The shower was like an old Triton electric powered shower, and above the toilet was instructions as to how to use the shower. To operate the shower we had to press a switch from outside the bathroom, which would then switch on the power supply for the shower. The shower itself was not very powerful and seemed to have a small problem with the shower head, which did leak slightly. Consequently, the amount of water pressure was low, the shower experience was not very luxurious. Also the shower kept on changing temperature on its own, maybe because other guests were either having showers at the same time, or using water. Overall the bathroom was basic and functional, the shower was a small unit to the corner of the bathroom with a plastic screen which made a lot of noise when it was closed or shut. The bathroom also had a vinyl floor with a wood effect, and the walls were wall papered that looked like tiles which were peeling off above the shower.

The breakfast menu included traditional breakfast, vegetarian options, scrambled eggs, poached eggs on toast and people can help themselves to cereals including Shredded Wheat, Rice Crispies, Weetabix and Cornflakes. At the breakfast area there was also toast with jam and tea, coffee and orange juice available. There was also a minimal selection of fruit on display including tin grapefruit segments and prunes. The breakfast which we ordered was good value overall as this was also included in the price of the hotel stay and was freshly cooked. I was pleased in getting such a great deal as most other hotels charge extra for a cooked breakfast which started our day much better. The breakfast service was really good and the food arrived quite quickly, at the time there was only three other diners at the breakfast area. The tables were layed out nicely with red table cloth cover and nicely presented cutlery and the small bread plate, as well as having salt and pepper at every table.

We were also provided with information about the local area and maps and information about what Brighton had to offer was also provided. We found this most helpful in making our stay in Brighton even better especially as we wanted to go out to a nice restaurant. Also in the room by the television there was a welcome and visitors information guide which provided us with the rules of the hotel as well as other information such as what time the breakfast is served which is between the hours of 8am-9am on the weekdays and 8:30 and 9:30 on the weekends.

Conclusion

We felt that the price of £39 for a double room with breakfast included was excellent value for money. We also tried booking at a local Travelodge which also was shown as £59 for the same day that we decided to stay. We also booked this hotel at short notice which also made our purchase even more better value. The breakfast was good quality. This hotel we felt had a good central location which was close to all the local attractions such as the Brighton Marina, Oldsteine, the Royal Pavilions, Brighton pier, and the shops and restaurants, bars and pubs. It was also good in that there was only a short walk to the Brighton rail station and nearby bus stops, which served a wide area. We also felt that the hotel was a nice building on our overall impressions, and that the rooms were spacious and clean. The tones of the decor were also nice in that they were neutral which made the place nice and bright. We had a good start to the day with our breakfast and we were pleased to have booked and to have stayed at such an excellent value hotel. The proprietors also provided good service throughout our stay. The breakfast was good quality traditional english breakfast. 

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