The whole experience was fabulous

Do you

Staff and service exceptional

Run how hotels should be...

..

Classy

Excellent

Quintessential England

Could be better

Attentive staff.

A Touch of Class

Loved it...

Pleasant place.

Good venue

I was working

As expected

Vivo en frente de Grand Hotel

A rather grand, old-fashioned hotel.

Lovely place for lunch

Very nice

Very good

Excellent afternoon tea

Staff could not be more helpful

Nyc hotel

..... the jacuzzi wasn't working properly and apparently hasn't been doing so for a number of weeks. Only the upper, not the crucial lower, jets were working. So one could sit in it but one might as well go and sit in a warm bath as there were no bubbles. This was very disappointing as I wasn't using the swimming pool (which is fine) and just wanted to relax in the jacuzzi. The lady in the spa reception was unaware of the problem! A fellow guest said that the lower jets had in fact been switched off because someone had complained about them. How extraordinary - someone complains about a jacuzzi being a jacuzzi. It was, I thought, a poor show that a five-star hotel tells guests that it has a facility that does not in fact work. I note from other reviews that it is the spa area that gets the lion's share of any criticism that is going - an area for management attention, surely.

Otherwise my review is strongly positive. This really is a grand hotel, dating back to the Victorian era, very atmospheric and all the more so as there were beautifully decorated Christmas trees (we were there in the 'twixmas' period). The location, right on the seafront and a few minutes walk from the town centre, is excellent. I am surprised that some reviewers think it is dated. It might be old-fashioned, in the best sense, but it is certainly not dated. But if it is cutting edge modernity that one wants, one should maybe go elsewhere. For my part I don't think 2016 was all that great anyway. Go inside the Grand Hotel and one could almost believe that Brexit and Donald Trump were just part of a bad dream!

Staff are unfailingly courteous and helpful. We were particularly impressed that they reserve a car parking space, in the necessarily small parking area, for guests and by the immediate attention from the friendly doorman who came out to our car and straight away transferred all our belongings to our room. Walking around the hotel one is likely to pick up a smile or a 'good day' from staff even though one is not requiring their services.

Food was on the whole very good. I particularly commend the main course of goose breast enjoyed on the second of our two evenings. We dined in both restaurants, the Garden and the Mirabelle and preferred the former, which is more atmospheric albeit slightly the less expensive. A couple of niggles: we'd have liked the starter of goats cheese tart to have had rather more goats cheese and rather less pastry, and for the breakfast buffet a five-star hotel should surely offer a wider choice of charcuterie than salami (good as this was ) and a wider choice of cheese than Bel Paese and those virtually unopenable Austrian smoked cheeses. I was impressed though that without any fuss I was on both days able to order potatoes with breakfast, albeit they are not part of the buffet.

It was a lovely two-day break, the jacuzzi notwithstanding.