Walter Raleigh Hotel

This hotel was a disappointment. We stayed for four nights and on two of those had to sit in the lobby at 6.30pm whilst our room was reluctantly serviced. We observed a guy complaining at reception that his room was not ready after checking in. We were on the second floor, room 212, and the WiFi was hopeless and TV had local channels only. Duty manager was apologetic about all these shortcomings but that was it. It would appear that any good reviews this hotel has received are in respect of private family bookings. Don't waste your money here.

Our room wasn't ready that afternoon when we arrived, we were happy to wait the 10 mins we were asked by housekeeping, when we entered the room there was a black mark on carpet, later we noticed on the side of the duvet a disgusting mark, I took a photo but will spare the reader. I called housekeeping to enquire where was a bar of soap in the bathroom, to be told no soap as stores were out of soap! No shampoo, shower gel etc. We attended an event, the upholstered chairs were manky. The public toilet had no paper towels, or hand drier working, every toilet seat was loose and askew. At sny time hygeine is vital, but surely after Covid things should be top notch. We chose to eat our evening meal in another hotel, The Old Imperial, food there as always was fabulous and the toilet was spotless with everything in order. We did wake up to a beautiful view, there was a fan in the room which we were grateful for as the weather was hot. The breakfast was fine. But overall for a 4 star Choice hotel we were not impressed. We didn't get much joy at checkout, just a sorry we weren't happy.

Unfortunately our stay was very mediocre! We booked and paid for a double with sea view. When we arrived at the hotel it was chaos as there was a very loud wedding on the go which took over the whole entrance and guest area. Our room 107 was disappointing. It overlooked the square/ park and one would hardly call it a seaview. We asked Michael if we could change rooms, he said the wedding had taken all rooms but the next morning he would show us another room, it was smaller but up to us. It was 23/24 degrees outside yet the rooms are hardly ventilated. The windows opened barely 5 cm and there is a pathetic fan that did very little in the room. No Aircon. No water in the room the first night but 2nd night we got bottled water. We asked for more soap and housekeeper said they had run out of soap and were expecting delivery on the Monday. Toilet paper wasn’t replenished either. The next day Michael didn’t contact us re the room change and when we saw him later there was no sign of any recognition or memory of showing is another room. He is clearly run off his feet, running every department and managing a very young and quiet stressed looking team. They were all very friendly and really trying their best. The breakfast was tasty but service lacking. The dining room was in a room on ground floor and not upstairs in restaurant with outside balcony and seaview as advertised. One dinner was included, served in the bar. Food was very tasty but absolutely massive portions , clearly lacking finesse and was quite off putting. The bed was very comfy, room nice and large and great powerful shower. All a bit of a letdown.