Bristol Grand Hotel By Sunday

I hate leaving bad reviews, but this place felt like two or three stars at best, not four. The hotel is dated, the carpets were dirty, the beds were painfully uncomfortable, and the mattresses seemed ancient. The lights kept flickering in our dark room, and the thin walls made it really noisy. There was no real customer service. Nobody greeted us, checked whether everything was okay, or gave us the Wi-Fi details. The windows were broken and wouldn’t close, and had no locks. The room door lock felt flimsy too. They also charged £19 for parking, which wasn’t mentioned anywhere. I won’t stay again. The Harbour Hotel or Future Inn have free parking.

What shocked me most was a man letting himself into my room in the middle of the night. As a woman travelling alone, I found that frightening. Reception later came up and knocked to confirm our booking and ask for my email address. It seemed the evening receptionist had given a stranger a key because they had no record of our booking, even though I’d been checked in only a few hours earlier. When I reported it in the morning, the first response was a weak excuse and another request for my email, not an apology. The hotel was booked for a company trip, and there was nothing grand about it: shabby rooms, curtains coming down, a dirty bathroom and very basic facilities. The cooked breakfast was cold and the coffee was disgusting. I wouldn’t book here. They showed little regard for guest safety or for putting things right.

All the staff were lovely, with no issues there. The room, though, was freezing. I couldn’t get the air conditioning to blow anything but hot air, and the heated towel rail didn’t work, so it couldn’t help warm things up. There was only one clothing rail, positioned above the kettle station, which was a strange choice. The bathroom window looked out toward several other rooms and buildings and had no blind, so using the toilet felt awkward.

We came for one night on 5 April 2026 to celebrate my birthday, and left after about ten minutes. The room was tiny, with mould by the windowsill, dents in the wall, grime around the bath, and dirty mirrors. The light worked for about five minutes, then flickered and stopped. Under the sheets, the mattress had hair, sweat stains and period blood marks. The other side had more sweat stains, and the whole mattress was yellow. It was awful, especially after a long day of driving when all I wanted was somewhere nice to rest. We’d paid £70 for the room and had to spend another £70 on a last-minute hotel that night. We also used fuel driving around Bristol looking for somewhere with free parking, and the only place we could get was outside the city. At this hotel there was no free parking either. The narrow access road barely fit two cars, so we had to reverse back out for traffic. The nearby multi-storey cost me £19-£20 for the night. At reception, another couple were already complaining about their room, and an older woman stopped us on the way up to say she was leaving because the lift wasn’t working and she struggled to get to and from her room. She said her room was unpleasant and loud. The reception area wasn’t dirty, but it was very dated and crowded on Easter Sunday. I showed the photos to the man at reception and complained. I appreciated his offer to refund the parking straight away, but didn’t feel his apology was good enough. He gave me several email addresses to contact about the room refund, but they all said we had to go through Booking.com. From 6 April to 15 May 2026, we still hadn’t received the full refund. Booking.com eventually said they couldn’t reach the hotel and offered £8.64 as a goodwill gesture. We’d paid £70 for the room and another £70 for a replacement hotel, so that felt like a joke. £8.64 won’t even buy a bar of fuel. Booking.com says it makes exploring easier, but this refund has been a huge hassle. They were no help, and I won’t use them again. The Grand Hotel isn’t what it claims to be, and it was disgusting. Read reviews carefully. My partner and I won’t return, and Booking.com’s suggestion that I review the hotel doesn’t change the fact that we still haven’t got our full refund. Photos of the room will be attached.