Imperial Hotel

Decrepit facade. Arrogant reception manager. No Porter service, yet lots and lots of stairs. Grumpy female restaurant 'suit'. Breakfast very good, but evening meal lacked choice plus the portions where very meagre.
Room was freezing cold (in mid-July) and could do with a make-over, although it was fairly clean.
I am aware that a new manager had been appointed and hopefully this new broom will make a significant difference, because at the moment I cannot see how this hotel has achieved 4 Stars.

3 readers found this review helpful

We stayed at the Imperial for two nights to attend a wedding there. The hotel itself is not much to look at from the outside, but inside it looks really lovely. The view is spectacular, and I understood then why people who'd been there before had advised me to upgrade to a room with a balcony. We recieved a 'discounted' rate (because we were wedding guests) of £93 per night, which was still very expensive for us but given the hotel's reputation, we were happy to pay. This also included breakfast and parking. When I got to the room, I was really quite disappointed. I think there's a difference between a 'boutique' hotel and a hotel that's just plain old, and this hotel falls into the latter category. The only redeeming feature of our room was that it was really big. The decor was hideous, and I know it's supposed to retain an 'old world charm', but it was really just a case of various aspects having been updated at different times to produce a hybrid mix of ugliness. The bed was one of the most uncomfortable I've ever slept in, old and spongy and lumpy. The furniture was mismatched, and not in a charming olde worlde kind of way. The bathroom had no bench space, no cupboard space and the shower was probably one of the worst I've ever had to use, with almost no water pressure, just awful. The toilet sometimes decided to flush properly. The hairdryer was like something out of the 70s and burnt my hands as I attempted to dry my hair. The view was of nothing but the back walkway and another building, which wasn't an issue as we had decided to save out money and not upgrade to a sea-facing room. The tv, while fairly large and on what seemed like a clever 'pull out' sliding table, actually couldn't be seen fully from the bed, because it didn't pull out far enough, and the remote didn't work unless one stood right next to the tv. Despite all this, I was really excited about the breakfast, hoping it would be up to the four star standard, and was pleasantly surprised by the fantastic sea view from most areas of the dining room. Unfortunately, breakfast was pretty bad. The eggs were sort of steamed and the whites and yolk still runny, which is great if you like it like that, but there was no option for anything else. The bacon was like soggy cardboard, the beans tasted like they'd been boiled up with mouldy broccoli, the coffee was ordinary, and the service from many of the staff was appalling. On the second morning, we had to seat ourselves, had to ask for our coffee, cups, cutlery, and the staff didn't even acknowledge our presence! when I asked for the coffee, I wasn't even sure if the waiter had heard me as he didn't even look in my direction! After a while I didn't even want to ask for anything else as I felt like I was talking to myself! I think this hotel, while beautiful in some ways with the view, is not all it's cracked up to be and needs some serious refurbishment. I happily filled out a feedback form which I had to forcibly stuff into the box provided due to how many other feedback forms were in there already - not sure if this is a good or bad thing... Certainly won't recommend this hotel, especially to anyone who isn't loaded with money, really disappointed.

Absolutely first class, would recommend to anyone, booked to go back 2008. best hotel in Torquay by far!

My friend and I booked this hotel and we didn't know what to expect.
The hotel was great. The room was clean and large. The terrace had stunning views.
The staff were friendly and very helpful giving lots of useful information about the area. We had stayed the night before at the Grand. This was half the price and twice as good.