Hotel Balmoral

Avoid. Not near to anything. Hotel is locked until 3pm so we were left in the cold and rain. When we were let in and wanted to check in, the reception girl was too busy talking on her phone!!. Eventually got our key and got into small, but clean room. Awful old window that was drafty and not secure. Nowhere to hang coat. No complementary water as stated. Then went downstairs to wait for taxi to go to quayside and the receptionist was letting lots of very dodgy looking men in with hoods up and made me and my friend very uncomfortable. They obviously didn't work there as didn't know code to get in. Once in, looking through drawers to store cupboard. When we arrived back few hours later, they were all in reception with lots of crates of alcohol. All very strange and not at all welcoming or comfortable. Avoid at all costs.

Would not return. Bed was rock hard, not comfortable at all, it was very noisy outside the hotel and also inside - people playing knock and run on our door, absolutely sweltering in the room, the water system was running all night so was really loud. Spent 1 night here and then changed hotels for the other 2 nights of our stay, it was that bad.

Very comfortable The room is spacious and comfortable. All amenities available. Just two things: no laundry service and no breakfast. Otherwise everything perfect.

Good value for money, everything you need. Only complaint is there is no air con but the window opens really wide

Lovely clean hotel hospitable friendly welcoming staff . Rooms are very clean and comfortable would definatly recomend Close to all attractions all in walkable distance close to leazes park , football ground only 10 min walk, walkt to town 20 mins

We had a "Best Western" special sale offer of buy one night, get one free in December 2023 which was excellent value. The male member of staff on reception gave us an underwhelming welcome and didn't look very smart so we were a bit apprehensive as we made our way to our room. However we were pleasantly surprised as the room was clean and pleasant. The parking was free. It was a 10-15 minute walk downhill into the city centre or you could hop on the bus outside. We did both. Both nights we were there we got an Uber back which was £5-£10 and worth every penny as the hill back is steep. Breakfast was included but it was continental only and consisted of toast, drinks and some unappealing prepacked bakery items. The ones we tried we didn't enjoy. We opted for some toast and tea and ate quickly as we were the only ones in the restaurant and there wasn't any music. As a consequence we felt like we had to whisper and didn't feel very comfortable. For these reasons we didn't bother with breakfast the next morning. There was an onsite indian restaurant (also where you ate breakfast) and it did feel like the business was an independent restaurant with rooms rather than a chain hotel with a restaurant attached. We did experience some noise presumably from customers leaving the restaurant and waiting for a taxi and for quite some time there was loud laughter and talking and this stopped us sleeping as our window was just above the reception. At one point I looked out and they were almost leaning on our car which alarmed me at first as I thought someone was trying to break in it. All in all a pleasant experience and a great price but unsure if we would return without a special offer. I'd say a rating of 3.5 but doesn't make a 4.