Colson House

I would definitely love to come back to Coulson House. It's an excellent spot, just a short walk from the beach and city centre, and the place felt welcoming and well cared for. The staff were extremely friendly and my room was spotlessly clean. One of the loveliest places I've stayed.

Great location, and the single room looked like the pictures. The floor slopes, which felt strange to walk around on, but it was doable for one night. The kettle was filthy, and the staff could have been kinder when I asked for help. It's advertised as allowing check-in at any time, but I asked about arriving between 10 and 11am and was told by email that check-in started at 2:30pm. Not ideal. There's a ventilation gap by the window, so it can't be shut, and I could hear a lot of outside noise in the evening.

Our late June Saturday stay at Colson House was a very bad experience. Room 1 was OK and the location is good, but a couple somewhere upstairs argued and shouted all night. It was loud enough that we could follow the drama about one of them being unfaithful. They played music through the night too, and we barely slept, maybe an hour at most. There was no staff on site. The only number provided was described as being for emergencies, and I didn't consider an argument an emergency, so there was no clear way to get help with disruptive noise. Someone arrived in the morning and asked the couple to leave, but by then our night was ruined. I contacted Colson House afterwards and got no reply. I tried again later and still heard nothing. Make of that what you will. The reviews generally say it's a good place, but after our experience and being ignored, I can't recommend it. It seems whoever runs the place doesn't care and relies on the location to bring in paying customers. Other places nearby have staff present, so this kind of thing wouldn't happen in the same way. If the response to this review is that we should have called the emergency number, the wording on the guest information sheet needs changing. A couple shouting at each other all night isn't an emergency, but it was more than enough to ruin our stay. Added much later: they never responded to this review either.

The booking and self-service check-in and check-out were easy, with the building and room codes sent to my inbox before check-in. Even the basic double rooms were spacious and nice, with a decent bathroom and a good-sized shower. The only complaint is that the walls are a little thin, so you can hear other people sometimes. It wasn't a huge issue.