OYO the Southcliff Hotel

Location: Frequently praised for being central, near the beach, and within walking distance of town amenities.(based on 3 reviews)

The hotel is a little bit old, but the location is very good. You can see the sea from your window.

I booked through *******, paid £27 extra for a balcony room... but did not get a balcony room and the hotel is now refusing to refund me the extra I paid for this. When I checked in, reception told me they had spotted in advance that I'd booked a balcony room, despite no balcony rooms being available, and so would I instead like to accept a free bottle of wine to say sorry. Given they spotted the problem in advance, they had the opportunity to cancel my booking, or to at least message me in advance to highlight the issue, but they instead chose to proceed with the booking and hope that I would accept a cheap bottle of wine in lieu of the £27 I threw down the drain. And now they are responding to any contact from *******, so I cannot get my money back. I'm left wondering if this was a 'mistake' at all; do they routinely tell ******* they have balcony rooms available, dupe people into paying extra, then put them in standard rooms while pocketing the extra cash? The hotel itself was pretty dreadful - it's shabby, very dated and uncomfortable, smells really musty, and the room was unbearably hot with no air conditioning, and no way to prop open the window. So our only option was to sleep with a noisy fan on all night. Avoid this hotel. It's not very nice, and they may rip you off like they did to me.