Kistor Hotel

My husband and I booked a city break in Torquay believing that this famous resort would be an ideal place to enjoy a short break. We booked a room in Kistor hotel boasting a 3 star service. By what we saw on the internet and by what we told upon booking we were led to believe that we had indeed struck a wonderful bargain.
Everything went wrong from the moment of our arrival.
The sign said: ample parking - there wasn't. I went to the reception and complained. The receptionist asked if we would settle for alternative parking in their sister hotel across the street and I refused. An employee had to move her car from the visitors' car park to enable us to park. When we were shown to our room my husband had to drag the suitcase to the second floor which had no lift.
The room was appalling! There was a big sink in the middle of the room and it was dirty and smelly. The bathroom sink was cracked and the left tap was broken and there was no soap. The windows were dirty and so were all the other items in the room . We had taken pictures of these before we went down to complain.
It took a while before we were seen to. The receptionist asked if we would wait and she could clean it for us. I insisted on having another room. By this time we were upset and getting annoyed for the waste of time.
After saying that there were no other rooms available I said I was willing to cancel the reservation if there was no suitable room. Eventually we were given a twin room. Since it was a hot day and window only opened 6" I asked for a fan since I have breathing problems in a closed stuffy place. The fan arrived some 3 hours later. We had to settle for that room since we had no means of trying to find another accommodation and we were tired from the long 250 miles drive from Essex to Torquay.
Our stay was ruined by the terrible conditions and room service at the hotel. Not only was everything dirty and tattered but there were also problems of health and safety such as a cracked toilet seat, chipped cups, a rubber hose laying on the floor and dirty water in the hot bath. It turns out that the water is filtered and needed changing only once a week. This is according to someone who seemed to be one of the managers.
The only good service was in the dining room but then we noticed that all the kitchen was stained and not really clean. This was not a successful choice for a hotel.
Evelyn and Danny Monfort
I would like to add to my comments about the Kistor that I was pleasantly surprised when I recieved a reply to my complaint letter. Not only did they apologise for the state in which we found the rooms and other parts of the hotel, but they also fully refunded us and offered 2 free nights of our choice any time during the coming 12 months.
This definately made me feel better and I wish them the best of luck in their improved format.