Watergate Bay Hotel

My Fiance and I have just stayed at the Watergate Bay Hotel for a long weekend and have had a fantastic time, I cant wait to go back. I can not understand the previous negative reviews? We booked directly through the hotel and stayed in the Coach House (annex off the hotel). The room was nice, clean and fresh with flat screen tv. We had a sneaky peak of one of the Ocean Rooms, which are really nice, flat screen tv, stereo, large bed and sofa and wonderful views with a balcony or terrace. The hotel is really funky and modern and has the spectacular views of Watergate Bay. Its literally on the beach! The bar/living area has large glass windows which are nearly floor to ceiling with views of the bay. There are comfy leather and fabric sofas where you can just sit and chill out with a drink whilst watching the sea coming in or out, with ambient music in the background. In the evening it has a nice romantic feel with tea light candles and low lighting. Theres also a serpate TV room with a large flat screen tv and leather sofas. As well as a Snooker room with full size table with my fiance was very happy about. It also has a indoor and outdoor pool. We ate in the Brasserie/Restaurant on the Saturday night and had a wonderful meal, tables nicely spread out so you not on top of other people, staff very helpful and friendly. Breakfast is served here and offers a wide variety of hot food, cerals, fruit, yoghuts and pasteries all really nice. They also offer a bar menu which we ate off both our meals were gorgeous! Off reception theres leather sofas next to a open fire, nice to warm up next to after being outside. The staff are really helpful on recommending place to go and eat. I cant recommend this hote enough, its fantastic to be beside the sea in a modern and clean hotel with nice little touches. We will definitely be going back asap!

A beautiful hotel in a beautiful setting. Fantastic views from this family run hotel are just the beginning of what promises to be a great experience. I have been to this hotel several times, both before and after the rennovations, and have NEVER had a bad experience. It has a real warmth to it, because of the way it is managed, and caters for a wide variety of different tastes. I adore the newly vamped reception and bar, and personally think the newly renovated rooms are fantastic. They've managed to retain the charm of the original hotel without comprimising on high quality food, fantastic sporting activities and excellent service. A drink on the terrace at sunset compares to many holidays I've spent abroard, and I have been lost in the beauty of the view many times. A thoroughly worthwhile visit, and i guarantee you will go back again and again.

I have been returning to Watergate for about ten years now and fast seeing an incredible transformation. I'm told it has been within the same family for years but had a change of generation around the time I started going. This has served to give it the impetus for change it probably needed. The old adage of don't change what ain't broke doesn't always apply. If you look hard at what you are providing and align that to the people that you would like to accommodate it doesn't necessarily dovetail. And that is what the current proprietor seems to have woken up to and is slowly but surely transforming The Watergate Bay hotel into a hotel for as guest of the noughties rather than the seventies. Phases of new bedrooms have been introduced over the last few years and are streets ahead of the old - I've stayed in both. They are now up the standard of any good city hotel. The ballroom of old - modelled on a carwash disco - has been opened up to provide a wonderful bar area, light and airy in the summer, a touch cold in the winter but sheltering you from the drama of the Atlantic ocean. A pool room adjacent has the biggest pool table I've come across. In the restaurant the fayre is great. This isn't The Lanesborough and one shouldn't expect it to be. But it uses as much fresh, and particularly local, ingredients as possible and serves them up with as little fuss as possible. Service is neither fawning nor ignoring. If you want to staff climbing over each other to serve you, the whole beach/surfing/kiting thing probably isn't for you anyway. The location of the hotel is something one would expect of the Caribbean. If the hotel were closer to the beach, the sand wouldn't support the foundations, and to hand you have miles of sandy beach, great surfing and great coast walks. Cornwall isn't short of hotels and I'm sure there are plenty of good ones among a plethora of tired English resort hotels. If you are heading west, Watergate Bay should be on you shortlist.

Great idea, great location dreadful hotel not clean expensive but very poor quality staff unhelpful service very shoddy poor quality fittings a youth hostel for middle class gap year students with money dont waste your money stay at Driftwood on the other side

Don't understand the previous review - we have stayed in this hotel on three separate occasions and each time are reluctant to leave! Rooms- The superior rooms are well presented and have excellent sea views... the sound of the rolling breakers is a bonus!! Love the plastic ducks. Staff - Always helpful and very polite - nothing was too much trouble. Food - Excellent breakfast with a large choice. Dinner of consistently high standard with the Beach Hut a firm favourite. Well -sourced local produce. Of course, now that Jamie Oliver's new 15 restaurant is also on site means even more choice and is definitely an experience. Thankfully the Cornish cliff walks means you can walk off the expanding waistline! If you are after a romantic break away or a relaxed family holiday this hotel is a must try.

My husband and I recently stayed at this hotel as we were going for a meal at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant and wanted to make a night of it!! It all started well, the reception was clean, funky and the staff were friendly but as soon as we started walking upstairs to our room the place got shabbier and grubbier with every step! They have 'renovated' half of their rooms and we were in a 'deluxe, recently renovated' room. However, if we hadn't been told that this definitely was one of their best rooms we would have thought it was still earmarked for improvements! The room was bland, insipid, grubby and scuffed. It was one step up from a travel lodge. The mattress was like sleeping on a plank; the carpet was ill-fitting and frayed; the tea tray had nasty UHT milk portions; there was a totally out of keeping picture of African dancers; bath towels the size of postage stamps and a trickle of water that consituted a shower. All this for £160 a night...what a rip off!!! But the worst experience was the breakfast. It was a free-for-all of disgruntled guests swarming down on cheap, fatty, low quality food, everyone trying to get their money's worth. We didn't complain at the time....for fear of them offering us a complimentary stay in the future, no chance!

The hotel has an idyllic location overlooking Watergate Bay, a haven for surfers--it was specially exciting to watch the kite surfers travel at great speeds & do acrobatics in the air. We ate 2 delicious dinners & excellent breakfasts served by very enthusiastic staff and enjoyed the pools, both outdoor & indoor. If you opt for a budget room as we did it would be wise to pay the sea-view supplement to avoid being troubled by a noisy extractor system. A major upgrading programme is due this winter to bring all rooms up to a good standard.

Building; An extremely disappointing hotel, seriously overpriced and stocked with cheap furniture. Clearly the hotel has a great location but there are plenty of others to chose from. Facilites; On arrival we were fortunate to locate a parking space but others did not, in one of the two tiny car parks. The indoor pool was very small. Given that we were spending £150 each for dinner bed and breakfast per night we expected a quality hotel. The room was average, quite small, but with a wonderful view of the beach. The bathroom had plastic ducks on the side. Didn't really go with the price tab or the image on the website. Food; the evening meal was dire. Tasteless, bland and lacking any sauces. We waited some time before being approached to take our drinks order at breakfast, and did not have the buffet arrangement explained to us. We even had mould on some of the food and the bacon was only just warm. The staff did just enough to get the job done and were very young. Even a complaint to the general manager has been ignored as we have received no response.

Having decided to spend a weekend in Cornwall at the last minute, we booked for a night at the Watergate Bay Hotel as part of our itinerary. Having checked their website we were confident that this would be an ideal escape to the coast. However, it was obvious that this was a poor decision from the moment we arrived. Nowhere to park, no one to help with (heavy) luggage. The "superior" room that was allocated as part of a Dinner, Bed and Breakfast package was awful - wallpaper peeling off the wall, far too small, bed linen that would normally be found in a youth hostel and a window that wouldn't open. Even the toilet paper was "Happy Shopper" brand. We spent a couple of hours on the beach after a light, mediocre lunch at "Fifteen Cornwall". The beach and location are outstanding and it's such a shame that the hotel doesn't live up to the expectations that one would expect. The bar area is a typical "try hard" with ridiculous plastic chairs and uncomfortable bar stools. Although the barstaff are willing, they are unfortunately unable (that's possibly a little unfair - they are untrained) and despite being virtually empty we waited far too long to be served - drinks are way over priced. Having been told that the restaurant had been awareded a rosette for its cuisine there was some hope that the night could be salvaged by a good meal. Unfortunately not. Although the menu was included as part of an overnight package there were supplements for nearly every item - even side orders at £2.50 each! The food itself was adequate although I'd question some of the terminology - the sirloin steak was certainly not my idea of sirloin. The final straw came when we asked for some extra sauce to go with a very dry and overcooked rib of beef. The chef sent a mesagge back through our (very efficient) waitress that there wasn't enough left. After a short conversation with the manager a small amount of sauce was brought to the table. After a restless night's sleep on one of the most uncomfortable beds I've slept on we ventured down to breakfast. Even this was an ordeal. Can we have some butter please? - Can we have some milk please? - Can we possibly interrupt your idle gossip and have a couple of teaspoons to stir our coffee, oh and we'll need some sugar before we can do that. I would certainly not reccomend that anybody part with their money to stay at the Watergate Bay Hotel. Unless the management/owners make a concerted effort to get some of the basic requirements of a hotel right, or reduce the tariffs to reflect the current standards they will struggle to attract visitors - or at least those that would return.

Watergate Bay is overpriced, style-less, customer service-less. The redeeming features about the hotel are the location and the Fifteen restaurant also in Watergate Bay. The hotel needs a total overhaul and interior design consultation. The rooms are totally overpriced. Breakfast is only served buffet style between 07.30 and 09.30, which is no good if you're away for a lazy weekend as I was. If you miss breakfast you then have to pay extra. I came away feeling ripped off and let down.