We've been to The Grand twice now. The staff are welcoming and hotel very clean. We also had an evening meal in the Restaurant this time which was nice. Our room was sea facing, so we had a beautiful view too

We stayed for an office event. Nice hotel. Very large rooms with very large bathrooms. Nothing special about dinner and breakfast. Decent food. Nice walking paths around with beautiful view.

Booked in for lunch - party of 8. No parking available in the car park "residents only". Paying for on street parking only option. Error on bill (that was corrected when pointed out). Food excellent and staff attentive.

Checked with hotel and one round of sandwhiches 3 small pastries and a pot of tea was indeed £34. Overcharged in comparison to other afternoon teas I’ve had. You get more at the Ritz!

Beautiful building with great decor. Had cocktails in the bar, excellent service.

What can you possibly say about the Grand. Faultless in every way. Have just rebooked for the end of the month.

Great place for a quiet read and afternoon tea.

Lunch booked for the Garden Restaurant but, due to maintenance, we were shown to the Princes Suite. The suite was set up beautifully and we were given a very nice window table. We had a lovely lunch with excellent and unobtrusive service from Martyn and Amy. Thank you.

Perfect

Having stayed at a few establishments in Eastbourne I can confirm The White Palace is currently the best hotel in town. It rises majestically on the south-western side of Eastbourne, close to the Old Town.

Apparently, the last refurbishment took place in 1998 and, unfortunately, it is beginning to show; that coveted five-star ranking is increasingly feeling rather ambitious. The décor is starting to look worn out, both inside and on the exterior of the building. One must wonder why the enforced hiatus during the lockdown of 2020 was not used to spruce things up better.

There was sufficient parking space at the front although that might not be the case in the High Season.

The reception desk was located right by the entrance to the cavernous, lavishly decorated hall. The check-in was swift and efficient. Unfortunately, only one lift was in use (deliberately?) the whole weekend and, as we found out later, it was also used by staff to transport linen etc.

Our Executive Room with the Sea View was quite standard for its class, with a small double bed. Bathroom had huge bath tub and all the relevant accessories. It looked rather drab though, and who does separate hot and cold water taps these days?!

In the room was a spacious modern-looking wardrobe, tea and coffee making facilities and a safe box. TV had all the standard channels available. Bathrobes and slippers were also provided. There was no mini-bar or fridge.

We dined at the classy Mirabelle restaurant. The food was very tasty and well presented, we had salmon and deer Wellington but the wine list was rather limited for our tastes. Service in the restaurant was friendly and efficient but staff clearly required more training in the basics (knowing a little about the content of the dishes, how to use serviettes to present soup bowls etc.)

Breakfast was held in the spacious Garden Restaurant. It was quite standard and would not stand out when compared to even three-star hotels. We have seen more elaborate breakfasts in other five-star venues. We were not sure the buffet arrangements, with one person serving, added any value except to create unnecessary queues.

Overall, a very pleasant stay in a lovely part of the town. We felt the hotel currently deserved its premium classification and associated price tag, just, but probably not for much longer. You can’t run a hotel of this class on the cheap.

It was my second stay at the hotel and my overall impression is still really good although the charm of the hotel is an old one and in some corners it would need a bit of a fresh-up. The service is outstanding and the staff very attentive. The room was big and comfortable but here - a hotel of this category should have a mini bar in each room. In my room (deluxe, inland view) there was non. Also, the bathrobes were missing. As I had a spa treatment (what was really good), no harm caused as I could take my bathrobe upstairs afterwards.
The meal at the Mirabelle restaurant was outstanding and the cooked breakfast really good . But the continental breakfast - and I remember this was very good 3 years ago too - was literally non-existent. No fresh bread, 3 varieties of cheese all wrapped in plastic etc. - that's what I would expect from a much cheaper hotel. And on top - I was told a cappuccino (not a really good one) was a drink I would have to pay for as an extra. That is not 21st century - sorry.

The atmosphere of this hotel is of old world luxury. And in many ways it succeeds. You are met by a porter as you arrive at the grand entrance who takes your luggage . Booking in was done quickly and efficiently. A porter then showed me to my room carrying my luggage. I had booked a package including dinner, breakfast and use of the spa. But I stuck with their cheapest option of rooms, a double deluxe but no sea view. I was very impressed with the room. It would have been called a junior suite in many other hotels, with a seating area with an armchair a small sofa. The en-suite bathroom was very nice, though personally I like a separate shower. Also the price at £175 was very reasonable. It was very clean and everything of fine quality. In contrast, my brother, who had taken an executive room with a sea view, at an extra £105(280) was not impressed. He had a room on the 4th floor. It was no bigger than my room, probably smaller, and had a relatively small window to see the seafront. If you choose one of these types of rooms, do not have one on the 4th floor! It is a large hotel but only has 2 lifts, one of which was out of order. This has happened to me several times recently in similar hotels and I’m beginning to wonder if there isn’t some economic reason for it rather than bad management or misfortune. Particularly at checkout time it can be aggravating. The room with the bar, and several other large lounges are very comfortable with a pleasant luxurious feel. The drinks are expensive but you would expect that. The hotel was busy and the service not all it could of been at the bar. The spa was also very pleasant, but very busy so felt a bit hectic. The biggest disappointment by far was the quality of the food in The Garden Restaurant. We had wanted to use their Mirabelle restaurant but it wasn’t open. It was very busy but the service was good. And the menu was fine if simple. It is a superb very large grand dining room. The tables are of a good size and all tableware of fine quality. The tables are a bit too close to each other for my liking. There was a live piano player tinkling in the background. But the food, by far the most important thing for me in a restaurant , was very average. And it’s not cheap, though you wouldn’t expect it to be. My risotto starter was just about ok. Then I had the ‘roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, vegetables and horseradish sauce’. The beef was again ok, the vegetables uninspiring, the Yorkshire pudding totally inedible and the tasteless horseradish sauce out of a very low quality bottle. My brother’s Parma ham starter was not good and particularly badly presented. The wine was good and actually quite reasonably priced. My dessert was fine. But the bill for 2, at £250+, admittedly including 2 bottles of wine, was out of all proportion to the quality of what was a very average meal. I must say that the full English breakfast I had delivered to my room the next morning was very good indeed. I will go back, but only when the Mirabelle restaurant is open. I haven’t been for years but I have good memories of it.

I stayed at the Grand ten years ago and was excited to return. My little girl and I shared a deluxe side sea view - which was elegant, comfortable and had a lovely view. Some things were obviously quite new and refurbished, some of the furniture a bit older but the overall impression was a quality 5* room. Molton brown toiletries, huge towels, bathrobes, nespresso, mineral water etc. My daughter stayed on the “Grand Kids” package which was superb - she was given a bag of goodies on checkin, a kids bathrobe and slippers, kids drinks in the room, they set up a DVD player for us in the room and had a good library of DVDs. Pool was lovely and quiet (booked slots before arrival). Dinner was excellent and they adapted the kids menu to suit my fussy eater. Breakfast equally good. It seemed that some parts of the hotel are awaiting (or are due) some refurbishment, but on the whole it is a beautiful place.
What however really stands out is the staff. Every member of staff we had contact with was, without fail, friendly, helpful and went above and beyond, from the doorman to the concierge, from the turn-down lady to housekeeping, room service to health club receptionist. Extremely impressed. True 5* service.
Cannot wait to return.

We stayed overnight last night for one of the New Year Dinner dance packages with a full English breakfast this morning. Cost for 2 people £584. Hotel lovely and staff helpful and efficient. Room and en suite comfortable and warm. The new year's eve dinner was OK but nothing special. Canapés before the meal were offered when we arrived but not again so just one each! The beef Wellington was nice but needed more gravy and by the time it arrived after a second request the meal was nearly over. Two of our party found the generous chocolate cake desert too rich. No choice on menu which we were aware of. The band was good and played songs suitable for the age group of most of the diners. Overall an enjoyable evening and stay for all of us but we all agreed that the package was overpriced for what we got, but perhaps that is a result of the damage covid has done to the hospitality industry.

I visited the lovely Grand Hotel recently, it was so lovely and festive as always.
I did notice during my visit, that the majority of staff members were not wearing masks. Whilst I appreciate that there could be reasons for this, such as being "exempt". I found it very unsettling, especially when the staff are serving you with food and drinks. There are also a great deal of elderly that visit the hotel, which is concerning. The majority of the visitors were complying with the covid rules and regulations.

Very clean comfortable and surprisingly reasonably priced.
If you appreciate good food and superlative service, go!

Decent hotel, nice food - room needs a little updating but can't fault it otherwise

Wonderful old fashioned good service all round, great food, lovely old building .. xmas especially pretty.

Fantastic service and beautiful hotel with the sentiments of a bygone era

Popped in for a drink. Extensive range of drinks and friendly polite staff

Delicious afternoon tea by stunning Christmas trees.

Beautiful hotel by the sea

We stayed on the four night Christmas package. The front desk, concierge and lounge service were superb throughout.
However, the problem - and given that so much of our time was spent in there, it was quite a big problem, is the restaurant.
The service was dreadful. We were a four and not once was the table set correctly for lunch or dinner. Without exception, either cutlery, glassware, napkins or table decorations were missing.
We had to continually flag someone down to either take our orders or chase food up. Christmas Day was particularly bad, with over an hour between starters and mains.
Soup was never hot - probably because is was brought out from the kitchen and sat on a service station for an age before someone else took it to the table.
Wine service was slow. Once we ordered wine ten mins before we ordered starters. The wine arrived after we finished the starters. Not good when you want white with starters and red with mains.
Starters and desserts on 23rd & 24th were basic. The sort of fare you’d expect in a three star banqueting hotel.
Mains were always excellent. The mains on Xmas Day and Boxing Day were superb.
Breakfast again was excellent, both food and service.
I get the impression that there are serious staffing issues in the restaurant and the senior staff have my sympathies as it’s not easy in this industry at the minute, but here’s the rub.
The Grand shouts from the rooftops about it being five star. The prices are certainly five star. When you do this, you have to deliver.
This was our fourth visit. Unfortunately I doubt there will be a fifth as when you’re spending this sort of money, you need to be able to trust that an establishment will deliver.

25 years since our last visit, but in the present circumstances high on the list for a staycation just before Christmas. On booking led to believe that the Garden. Restaurant was fully booked but we could dine early in the Mirabellewhich first time was very enjoyable. Day 2 ditto and presented with exactly the same limited menu which apparently was fixed for the period 1st to 23rd December. In reality the fully booked Garden restaurant was not open on either evening. Day 3 we went to the Christmas Gala Dinner in the Garden restaurant when we were told there would be a band playing plus dancing. Once again we were to dine at 6.30 and when we left at 8.45 the band had not started!!
Whilst the dinners were good but expensive the breakfasts were a disaster. I was served scrambled eggs which I can best describe as copped hard boiled eggs. My husband had haddock with 2 poached eggs which probably would have bounced. Lessons learnt by day 3, omelettes were lovely even if you did have to wait 45 minutes for them. Each of these issues reported at the time and upon checking out but sadly nobody seemed bothered.

The service was o.k but the champagne and food were very disappointing. The sandwiches had very mediocre fillings and no garnish. Champagne and pastries were far too sweet, pastry hard and the scones were served cold. There were no serving spoons in the jam and cream and no pastry spoons or forks. Instead we were given giant sized cutlery - totally inappropriate for what should have been afternoon tea.
The staff were friendly and polite but their uniforms looked tired and ill fitting. We won’t be recommending this venue.