Southsea Rocks Hotel

Being close to the seafront is the main plus, and the location is good. It was fine for a short stay, though service could’ve been better. They wouldn’t let us check in early, which was annoying, and there weren’t enough bathroom supplies.

We left as soon as we arrived because we weren’t comfortable being on different floors from the kids. My family had been put in separate rooms on separate floors, and the bathroom was shared. The listing felt like clickbait, and the rooms looked nothing like the pictures. Wouldn’t recommend.

Our room wasn’t en suite, but it was right beside the shower room, so that wasn’t a problem. It’s a clean, comfortable budget hotel with pleasant staff. I’d visit again.

For the price, this was the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in. It’s an overpriced hostel, not a hotel, and the location near the ocean and plenty of things to see and do couldn’t make up for the experience. It was also a terrible introduction to England for first-time visitors. The trouble started while we were out sightseeing and spending time with friends. An employee named Honey repeatedly contacted one of my travel companions, demanding her payment card and passport even though the card had been provided when we booked months earlier. The three of us were arriving separately, and since my friend had made the reservation, the other two couldn’t check in until she arrived, two hours after us. We were told to either leave our luggage in an unsecured common room or wait there. It was freezing outside, we had heavy bags for a 10-day cold-climate cruise, and didn’t want to drag them around or sit on hard plastic chairs, so we reluctantly stashed them in a corner and hoped they wouldn’t be stolen. When my friend got there, a man did let us switch to a downstairs room to avoid carrying all our luggage up as many stairs. That was the only good part. The room was plain and drab like the rest of the building, nothing like the advertising. The shared bathrooms were awful: motion-sensor lights went out every 20 seconds, the shower floor was dangerously slippery with no anti-slip protection, and its push-button water needed dozens of resets for one quick shower. There was a tiny, loaf-sized sink and an excessively loud hand dryer. Worst of all, another guest had left diarrhea all over the toilet. The beds were even worse. I travel often and have stayed in hundreds of hotels, but I’ve never slept on anything harder. It felt like concrete under a thin duvet. The useless, flat pillows were no thicker than the sole of a walking shoe. I didn’t sleep for a second, lying awake in pain and regretting the choice that brought me to this nightmare. There were no chairs, so I couldn’t even get out of bed and sit somewhere else. I have chronic back and neck problems, and that bed caused enormous pain. The hostel should pay my chiropractor bill. There was a tiny flat-screen TV on the wall, but no remote and apparently only music channels. The building made noises all night, maybe plumbing or heating, gremlins, or the souls of people who died on the torture beds, who knows? The fridge smelled of mildew and rotten food, the sheets weren’t very clean, and the room was blazing hot. The radiator never seemed to stop suffocating us, however much we adjusted it. I could go on. Come here if you want to be hassled for booking details, sleep on granite, risk slipping in the shower, dance around the toilet every 20 seconds to keep from doing your business in the dark, keep pumping a shower button like one at a public pool, stand on the bed to operate the TV, and hear weird noises all night. If you’d rather book a hotel, avoid this place as if your life depends on it. Zero stars.