Riviera Hotel

A mixed stay. Most of the staff were friendly but the service was patchy. We were given a pot of tea on the table at breakfast and when we asked for a cup of coffee were told we should have asked earlier. Entertainment - clearly a loose term. Imagine Hi-di-hi but seedier. The dancers were energetic and well dressed but it was obviously not their main job. Combine this with long slightly inappropriate jokes from the compere and a sound-of-music kareoke. On a plus side the salad bar was good, the views were excellent across the sea, and there was an indoor pool and snooker table. However, despite some redecoration the building was clearly out of date for a modern hotel. If the rooms and service were brought up to modern standards (eg phones in rooms) and the entertainment was improved we would go again...maybe

50 of us just returned from 5 days at the riviera read all the reveiws. People who have complained get a life you get what you pay for in this life.We payed £130 for five days got more than we paid for but we go on holiday to enjoy ourselves not complain. we have had a fantastic week staff were brilliant and worked hard Rooms were smallish but everything worked and they were clean and warm. Food was really very nice and tasty.Entertainment was brill but then we know how to enjoy ourselves our ages ranged from 35ish to 80ish. Well done riviera we will come back I got not one complaint on the bus coming home thankyou Riviera

When arriving in Weymouth, i was becoming more disappointed the further we got from the town - as mentioned by other reviewers; this is NOT on the edge of Weymouth, it is in the distance. If you fancy something to eat outside of set meal times, you may want to walk to the local Morrisons, which is a 3 mile walk across marsh lands, but teases you because its passed walking distance. We were given our room key and our room was actually located behind the front of the building which looked almost appealing. The room was very dingy, had an "off" smell and had dirty misty windows in addition to the very outdated decor. Due to the poor construction of the front door and the single glazed windows, sleeping during any weather can be very difficult. A visit to the bathroom included a greeting by a pubic hair on the toilet seat. Dont bother going for a shower before 8:30 - you wont get any hot water, or any that will last. Breakfast is the best bit of the stay in the hotel, although a "full english breakfast" is a bit inaccurate. You have the choice if you want to have cereal before hand if there is any milk left, likewise with orange juice if you want a cold drink. If theres none on the trolley, dont bother asking - you'll finish breakfast before they'll bring more out. The evening meal was probably the worst part of the stay, where you are guarenteed to leave hungrier than you arrived. Its either processed wafer thin beef, processed mushy veg or reformed luke warm turkey, dry to say the least - the menu changes each night and everyone eats the same muck simultaneously. The bar however was ok. If you need money, prepared to fork out money to withdraw your own cash at one of those dodgy portable ATMs which asks for your pin almost at the point where the cash is dispensed. The Bingo, however, is brilliant if you dont get bored of it every night. On the other hand, if you're not over 75 you will notice that all the games relate to bingo in some way. *TOP TIPS FOR STAYING AT THIS HOTEL* *Bring some food* *Bring enough cash for the bar and taxis* *Bring a sleeping bag and plenty of toiletries* *Dont arrive at the hotel on purpose* *Dont arrive at all*

My friend and I had booked this hotel as a weekend get away. We were hoping for a relaxing weekend but that was far from what we got. At 25 we thought this looked like a good hotel for our age group and the website boasted lots of activities... what it didnt tell us was that we would be the youngest people there by 40 years. Every other guest was an OAP and we felt really uncomfortable as being younger the older guests seemed to frown upon us and we found it very hard to relax. All the activites were for old people, the disco was actually a man singing songs from the war! Our room was small, dirty and damp and you had to walk outside to get to it. The shower leaked and the toilet next door made a horrible squeeky noice everytime next door flushed it. The room was freezing and we couldnt get the heating to work. The beds were really uncomfortable and the bedding covers seemed like they had been recycled from the 70's! The only meal we ate there was breakfast and it was a very unusual set up. You could not choose your time, you are allocated one of two sittings. Ours was the second one. About 5 staff were working and the restaurant easily had 150 guests dining. It was not buffet but they come over and take your order for a hot breakfast. It took about 30 mins just for us to be offered coffee and another 10 before it arrived! Breakfast was not very appetising, luke warm and minimal. The waiting staff were quite unfriendly and certainly not very helpful. I have stayed in 2* hotels for 25 a night and have had much better stays than at the riviera and we paid 75 pounds! I would return to Weymouth but never ever to this hotel.

I read the reviews below before my trip to the hotel and thought i was in for a shock, i was actually very pleased!! i was lucky to get one of the recent refurbed rooms which im told all rooms are underway in sections so by next year when i go back there should be no chances of a dated room. the dining room was pleasant and food nice too. The location was idyllic i couldnt find fault with the views which were spectacluar, the hotel yes does have an art deco historic dated feel but thats the beauty. if your looking for a grade II listed hotel then i fully recommend this, i had good fun with the staff and will return. if you want super mod cons then find a hilton. I however am very pleased with my stay.

Where should I start?? I stay in hotels quite a lot with work and personal travel and I think this is quite possibly the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. The web-site of the hotel presents itself as a quality SPA hotel, catering to refined beachside crowd. The reality is that it is a crumbling antiquated place that was a Pontins holiday camp. It still has that feel about it. the place caters almost exclusively to bus tours of retired tourists and students research trips. A few issues I had included: - Tiny room with no space to do any work or even put your case - All décor is tired and needs complete refurb. - It is 5 miles away from Weymouth, not ‘on the edge of Weymouth’ like the blurb said. - All rooms have doors in the open air and single glazing meaning that anyone walking past or talking outside wakes you up. - Electric heating which was impossible to control. - The TV did not work. - Most uncomfortable bed and pillows I have had for a long time (which smelt of stale swear and greasy hair!). - Bathroom stank of mould and hot water went from freezing cold to roasting hot to freezing cold, etc all the time when I had my shower. - Reception closed at 9pm – which didn’t really matter as my check in service was pretty inept in any case. - Dinner is only available between 18h30 and 19h30 in the week and between 18h00 and 19h00 at weekends. - Breakfast is at 08h30 sharp. It is regimented mass feeding for large parties. Turn up at 08h50 and you won't get any. I never did despite having paid for it. - Nearest food is available from a local pub though – which is unfortunately over a mile away over a steep hill!!! - The bar has ballroom bingo on EVERY night and is geared for old time entertainment for pensioners. There were over 100 pensioners from Wales there when I was there listening to old timer cheesy music. - Bar staff were so disinterested and unenthusiastic that I gave up.. I would not stay here again if my life depended on it. It is an absolute joke for this place to call itself a hotel. It might be better described as a stop off place for pensioners bus tour parties and call itself a holiday camp like it used to be. It shouldn't be allowed to describe itself as a hotel as it is not like any hotel I know.

This hotel used to be part of the Pontins chain and has remained virtually unchanged since what seems like the 1960's. It basically isn't a hotel as we would normally know it. The rooms were very basic to say the least, had a kettle and a TV of sorts. The beds were damp. The bathroom had an avocado suite, clean but had a smell. The hand held shower was interesting! Whilst the food was basic and I guess ok if you are hungry. One evening they ran out of the veggie option and we were told "tough", use the salad bar. It was nearly empty, but my friend did find a piece of cheese. The management were not very helpful all weekend. During the saturday dance it was so hot, a number of people felt faint. When the management were asked to put the air conditioning on, they could not find the key. Eventually the key turned up at 10pm. Basically you should avoid this hotel. You have been warned.

walked in took one look at the box, that they call a room and walked out. tiny room, dirty, smelly, filthy carpet, wallpaper peeling, bathroom, tiles, falling off, very old and dirty, smelt. Paid £86 for this room, got a full refund

room was smelly, bathroom very poor and shower not working, carpet dirty, food bad, will not use again.

Date of stay: Friday 1 – Sunday 3 February 2008 Reviewer: A TripAdvisor Member, Oxford UK This hotel used to be a Pontin’s holiday camp, built in 1937. This was not mentioned in the hotel’s publicity. This is a summary of the letter of complaint that I wrote to the hotel management after our stay: The room was cold, damp and draughty It was as draughty as a beach hut. It froze on Friday night and was stormy on Saturday night so effective heating and insulation was essential to our stay. The wind whistled through the gaps around the door. As the door was an external door, opening onto an outside first floor walkway, effective draught proofing was essential on all sides of the door but was present only at the bottom. The heating was inadequate There was a design fault with the heating in the room. The thermostat was positioned in the upper half of the room. As soon as the upper half of the room was warm, the heating cut out. The lower half of the room never reached an adequate temperature. If you were sitting down, it felt cold. It then got even colder until the thermostat cut in again which took some time and could not be brought forward through use of the ‘touch’ control. The floor was always cold and damp. Any belongings left on the floor overnight were damp in the morning. The heating was turned off centrally at midnight. It did not come on again in the morning. We had to get out of bed in order to trigger the thermostat ourselves. The solid concrete construction of the building, the lack of draught proofing and the ancient metal framed windows combined to give the room very poor thermal properties. This should have been compensated by the provision of adequate heating but it was not. Bathroom - The hotel’s web publicity said that we would get a full bathroom with bath but there was no bath. There was no hot water for the shower until 10pm on Saturday. The dining room had an unpleasant smell - This was especially apparent if you entered the room by coming down the stairs from the tower. The smell was reminiscent of vomit. The food was disgusting Most main dishes were reheated or defrosted commercial catering portions. One dessert had not been fully thawed out. The flavours were bland or unpleasant. Some dishes contained unhealthy levels of fat or cooking oil. Vegetables were overcooked. The sauce on the haddock had a skin on it. The ingredients were of poor quality. The vegetables were tinned rather than fresh. The soup was cheap packet soup with a high level of additives such as glutamates. Post war Pontins customers probably ate better than this. The water quality in the pool was very poor - It was cloudy and we had sore red eyes for 24 hours after using the pool. Attempts to resolve these issues during our stay On the day of arrival we asked to change rooms. We were offered three other rooms. They were all the same or worse. For example, one had an unpleasant smell, one was dingy, and one looked out on a dirty concrete wall. We complained about the poor heating to Reception but the complaint was not taken seriously. It was difficult to contact Reception as there was no telephone in the room. Summary of reply from the hotel management: They refuted everything. They said the heating system was similar to that in some Travel Lodge hotels. (This might be true but it doesn’t mean it’s the right system for that building.) They sent me a cheque for £20.