Best Western Palace Hotel & Casino

The sea views from both the room and pool were lovely, and the pool, jacuzzi, sauna and steam rooms were all modern and clean. The building looks pretty worn out, but the essentials are there. In the room, I appreciated the useful shelves around the sink and decent lighting at the bathroom mirror, things other hotels often overlook. The bed was a bit hard, though there were plenty of pillows. When I asked for more tea, they brought lots of extras. Really good service. Better than some five-star hotels.

On both visits, money went missing from my mother’s purse in our room. We stayed again about four months ago, after a visit the previous year. The first time, £5 was gone, but my mother thought she might have misplaced it and didn’t report it. When £50 went missing on the later stay, it was much harder to brush off. That shouldn’t happen twice. We had put up a “do not disturb” sign, yet someone still came into the room. When we raised the missing money with management, they didn’t believe us. We felt dismissed and very upset. We’re a large family, and it seemed as though they assumed we’d be too busy to notice. We did notice, and the lack of accountability made things worse. My father had stayed here for years with his family and remembered it fondly. He wanted to bring us, thinking it would still be as wonderful as he recalled. We’d also been here the year before. Sadly, it no longer lives up to that memory, or to the four-star rating it claims. Maybe it did years ago, but now it falls well short. Staff say nothing has ever been stolen here, but that doesn’t match our experience. While looking through other reviews, I found one from a guest who said their debit card had been stolen at the hotel. I’ll attach it for reference. It was posted only three years ago, which seems fairly recent, and makes me think there could be an ongoing issue that’s being ignored. I hope it’s properly investigated. I wouldn’t recommend this hotel.

The pool was lovely, and our room had a nice sea view. I was there for six nights on a work trip. After 12 hours of travel, I arrived on Sunday evening to a receptionist who was rude and unhelpful, especially since we hadn’t stayed there before. She questioned whether we had a meal allowance even though we had printouts, and didn’t mention that there were two restaurants on site. The room was okay, though the carpets were worn in places. I asked for it to be cleaned on Wednesday. They changed the towels and made the bed, but left the bin full. The carvery food was alright, but the locking bar was better. It’s never a four-star hotel.

The front desk team and the lovely woman who serviced our room were all amazing and went above and beyond. Parking behind the hotel was free while we were there, although the published fee schedule says there can be a charge. The beds were okay. The room was tiny, and the bathroom smaller still. The bath and shower mixer was stuck on shower, and there was mould around the tub. The liquid soap dispenser is mounted so high that someone in the bath has to stand up to use it. The vanity mirror is so low you can’t see what you’re doing while standing to dry your hair. There aren’t any sockets by the bed or a fridge in the room. The hotel feels old and tired and badly needs an upgrade. Passage carpets are threadbare in several spots, and chunks are missing from the walls and lift entrance. The lifts also need a deep clean, and there’s no sign from reception pointing to them. It all gives an impression of poor care. The hairdryer was confusing too: the on and off switches seemed reversed, and you had to hold a third button to make it work. There were no instructions. The TV choice was limited to Freeview. With the window open, we could hear the fairly loud air-con unit on the ground floor. Our Apple devices wouldn’t connect to the Wi-Fi. Fortunately, the receptionist helped us onto another network, which worked for the rest of our stay. Many of these problems would be cheap and simple to fix, but management seem not to care, which is a shame because the hotel could be worthwhile. I’ve stayed in plenty of UK hotels at about the same price that make this one look like a poor relation.