Narracott Hotel

1 reader found this review helpful

The Narracott is in a good location-close to the beach, shops and pubs. The public areas appear quite clean and tidy-and from the outside the building looks well maintained.
However, I thought the room we stayed in (122) was very shabby. I don't think most people would let their house get into the state of repair the rooms are in. However, having said that, this sea view from our room was fantastic (do ask for a sea view!)
This is probably a great place to stay if you are young and are out of your room a lot surfing! But if you are a family-and need clean well maintained rooms for kids this might not be the best bet.
The hotel has a pool table and table tennis-which is good. The swimming pool was open-but the mould on the walls put my two off going in! The sauna doesn't exist.
The squash courts were closed-they appeared to be full of mud.

2 readers found this review helpful

The pool/sauna/squash (all facilities?) etc. were closed. The hotel web site said the pool would be closed until July. Nothing was open by early August. A rather rude and undiplomatic sign, a feature of this hotel, on the door to the pool area stated: "No admittance under any circumstances". There was no apology or explanation as to why the pool was closed. I feel I paid a lot of money for something I didn't get. The receptionist was rather offhand when I commented on this, stating "it does say this on the web-site". It actually states that the pool will be unavailable until July. I was there in August.
There was no hair dryer in the room. At reception, a £10 deposit was demanded. When a £20 note was offered, there being no change at reception, this became a £20 deposit. The attitude was that people steal the hairdryers. Some people might, we don't.
Payment for our stay was asked for as soon as we arrived. Normally I would expect to pay just prior to departure. This payment method rather suits the hotel and not the customer, as they have your money whether you enjoyed your stay or not.
Someone (off duty hotel staff?) had a radio on very loudly whenever we went back to our room. I resent paying to listen to other peoples' taste in music. I could feel it through the walls.
The shower was a money, saving trickle. No shampoo was provided, but soap was.
Towels were not changed on the second day of our stay. The tea and coffee facility in our room was only available for the first day of our stay. The facility was not replenished on the second day. Breakfast was not very good: a "Full" English breakfast seemed to lack rather basic elements, like beans and mushrooms. I did notice someone who had some beans, I didn't get any on either day of our stay. I didn't like to complain, as the very pleasant waiter was already somewhat flustered and embarrassed. On both days of our stay there was a mix up in the kitchen, which made the arrival of our breakfasts rather late. This was a bit of a nuisance on our last day; as we had to vacate our room by 10:00 am, and breakfast eventually arrived at 9:25 a.m.
All the seating in the residents' lounge area is tatty and covered in stains. I feel that the hotel owners don't really care what their guests get for their money. Security of rooms is not good: when visitors go out, they are asked to put their room keys into a box by reception. Anyone could walk into the hotel, take a key from this box, and walk up (and into) the obviously vacated room.

3 readers found this review helpful

When we got to the hotel we were given a room that had not been cleaned since the last occupants had left. We refused to stay in this room and was then offered the Bay view room 127 this was better than the original room but we later noticed the wallpaper was dirty and needs repainting and the shower was absolutely filthy and falling apart!

The swimming pool was out of service this was one of the reasons I booked the hotel as I wanted to take my 16 month old son swimming in the mornings.

We were told we could not go to breakfast till 08.45am this was not convenient as we had a 16 month old baby with us who gets up at 6.30am. After much deliberation by your staff we were eventually grudgingly allowed to go at 8.00am.

The bar did not open till 5pm even though there are signs everywhere advertising happy hours from 12 – 5pm. There was no bar food available at any time even though there were menus available?

We used the vending machine to get some chocolate for our son and found that even the chocolate was out of date!

When the bar did open there was no staff and we had to call a bell to get the receptionist to get us a drink. I suggest employing more staff.
All in all we had a very unpleasant stay and would advise any others to steer well clear. Probably the worst hotel I have ever stayed in.