De Vere Royal Bath Hotel

I have wrote a letter to the De Vere hotel group and emailed but rudely I have had no reply from the group so I thought I would post my letter so you all could read the letter of complaint.
To Whom It May Concern:
I feel I have to write to you informing you of my stay at the Royal Bath Hotel Bournemouth on the 25/02/11.We made a booking through travelzoo for a one night stay including a meal & breakfast.This booking was made with another couple for which one of our long friends was celebrating a birthday, I had persuaded them to take this offer up from previous recommendations from within my company I work for which is a large European Oil Company.Unfortunatly and extremely embarrassing after recommending your hotel I experienced all sorts of problems which I will explain to you.
We arrived at the hotel at approximately 11:30am and took advantage of the valet parking and left our bags with the porter who told us that they will be delivered to our room by the time we have checked in at 1500hrs.
Whilst myself and other guests in my party were standing across the road to the Royal bath I witnessed my Land Rover Discovery being driving by the porter to the valet parking as if it had just committed a bank robbery and narrowly missed a another car as it crossed a junction, I could not believe my eyes.
My second problem was that after checking in we went to our room and low and behold no luggage went back down to the porter and spoke to him about my car firstly which he denied then he went to get my luggage and brought it out to me, only one suitcase!!asked him where the other one was to his reply “what other one” then my friends turned up looking for their luggage. Whilst we were discussing the point I happened to look out the entrance door to see an estate car with my suitcase in the back of it.I ran out and managed to retrieve my luggage before the car left for London. The porter had no idea how it got there, I was very lucky that we did not lose it.
We had booked a table with reception for 2015hrs which we were really looking forward to as it was my friends wife birthday, we went to the restaurant at just gone 2000hrs and were promptly told that they were running behind and if we went to the lounge for a complementary drink they would call us. We were seated at 2100hrs!! and asked to order straight away which we did as time was getting on 2140hrs still no starter I even had to ask the waitress if we could have some bread and butter which seemed a real chore for her,we received our bread and butter one slice each and two portions of butter between the four of us!!.
We received our starter and main course within a short period and during our meal I asked if the tepid bottle of white wine I had could be put in an ice bucket, the waitress once again found this a chore took an old ice bucket full of tepid water from a deserted table next to us and said “that was easy wasn’t it “when we were finished with our main course we were then asked if we wanted desert. Three items were not available on the desert menu so we finally agreed on something, waited half an hour for the waitress then to come out and say that two of the items had now run out!!!!!!!!We went for what was left.
2300hrs we finally finished our meal and managed to escape.
Breakfast was no different, buffet breakfast with most items not there awaiting replenishment for example milk for cornflakes!!! Items for cooked breakfast!!!!Bread for toast!!!! Eggs that were not cooked which could be a health hazard. I asked a waiter for tea with our breakfast 3 times in the end I went to the kitchen to get it myself.
I have stayed in many hotels this was incredible all due to the lack of staff!!!!!!!
The porter at the beginning had to take guests luggage, park their cars, fetch their cars no wonder he drove my land rover at break neck speeds, not enough staff to cope in the kitchens or wait at tables.
I will say Edward the manager on that evening was apologetic when I had told him all of my events for the day, but I think he knew he was beaten.
I was very disappointed and extremely embarrassed for our friends celebrating a birthday after recommending this hotel.
I have just been reminded by my wife that a champagne express manicure for my wife and her friend whose birthday it was was fully booked and they were unable to accommodate her .This was one of the items that they were really looking forward to. You may wish to check other guest’s experiences on tripadviser for this week concerned, interesting?
I would like a response from this letter at your earliest convenience

Beware of this hotel at all costs. There customer service is quite frankly abysmal.
We were booked into a suite and had checked into the hotel as were attending our School Ball and decided it would be nice to stay on after the Ball rather than get a taxi home.
My husband had to come straight from work as the Ball started at 7pm and he couldn’t leave work until 6.30pm. We were in our room for half an hour, which was on the ground floor. Before leaving we left the light on and pulled the curtains with a small gap at the top so it would look like we were still in the room. There was NO SAFE ON OFFER, so we had no choice but to leave my husband’s laptop in the room. I had heard there had been several thefts of bags from social functions and weddings at the Royal Bath so I ensured that in my evening bag, I just had some cash to cover the drinks bill. I left my phone in the room along with my expensive earrings which I changed to costume jewellery to match my evening dress. My handbag and purse were left in the room, as no one going out on a function or dinner takes the whole of their possessions.
On returning to our room just after midnight, we could not get into our room with our key card. The matter was reported to reception. They equally could not gain access on the one attempt they tried with a new programmed room key. They then made little or no effort to work out what was going on. Instead we were told we would have to sleep the night on the third floor with no access all night to our belongings. Despite protesting as we had two young children staying with friends and my phone was in my room, they would not help. So I had no contact with my children as my friends number was in my phone. At 6.15 am in the morning having not slept with worry, I insisted that we must have access to our room, again we were extended no help and we were told we would simply have to wait till around 8am at the earliest before they could investigate.
We had no clothes or toothbrushes except our attire from the night before. I had to ask for dressing gowns so we could walk down the corridors in the morning without high heels and my dress. At 8.30am we were told someone had been in our room and we could now return to it.
We walked down the corridors with last nights clothes and I still had my make up from the night before but found that the new key we had been given again did not work. Now we had to queue in the reception hall along with a large number of people who had arrived for a wedding. This was most embarrassing and extremely frustrating and by now we felt badly mistreated.
A maintenance man was finally sent and he too could not access our room. We were now left to sit in the corridor!!!!
Finally, after about three quarters of an hour he told us he would have to break open the door (despite having been in our room that morning himself), and disappeared. Eventually he opened the door from the inside and did not make any suggestion to us that we had had our things robbed!!! Most strange. Nor did he tell us that the back patio door had been broken into. Something any reasonable person would have mentioned straight away bearing in mind he got into the room that way.
On access to our room, 10 hours after our initial attempt we found we had been robbed of money, jewellery, phones and our laptop.
The hotel manager appeared a little concerned for us and on our insistence called the police. On the arrival of the police the manager disappeared constantly so the officer had a problem asking questions.
Despite repeated letters and receipts for our items being given to the hotel we have had no formal apology or any compensation. The hotel, management and head office refuse to handle the matter in any respectful way and constantly ignore our repeated letters and phone calls.
The locks on the door of the patio were below any basic standards, and this was confirmed by the police themselves. The door had a key lock with no key in it and the door was held together by some wood and lose nails only. No safe was offered. This hotel had fallen well below the standards expected of even a basic motel room and yet this is supposed to be a 4 star hotel.
Anyone who is a paying guest BEWARE, you will not be treated with any respect should you firstly not be able to use the hotel room you paid for and reserved and secondly whilst you are locked out of your room they will not take any responsibility for your goods being stolen from your room and most importantly they will not offer any standard of care in dealing with you as a victim.
This hotel is old, poorly maintained and lacks any customer care. You are taking one heck of chance staying at this hotel. Please learn from our sorry lesson. Any member of the public who is paying for a service expects a basis level of security – after all that’s what we must have for our own homes in order to get insurance!

On arrival we found the staff to be friendly and efficient as we did throughout our three day stay at the hotel, however the facilities such as use of the spa were not mentioned, we were simply handed a key and given a number for the room.
Our room was quite pleasant but extremely cold, upon speaking to the cleaning staff we were told that part of the hotel was very cold. We then called reception and were told by a very helpful receptionist that he would move us to a similar room that would be in a warmer section of the building, so we went back to reception to collect a second key and room number.
The second room was certainly warmer (although very cold in the night) much smaller, with a smaller bathroom and bed. It had also had a smoker in the room for some time due to the strong smell of stale smoke. It was also next to the main road and so noisy with the traffic noise and consant beeping of the pedestrian crossing.
The charge to park your car at the hotel is £15 per 24 hours however there are only 70 spaces and so you may need to use the carpark next door to the hotel at £12 per 24 hours. This was not made clear when booking the hotel.
Breakfast was good, the bar is very nicely decorated but drinks are very expensive as is the restaurant food.

This old Victorian Hotel overlooks Bournemouth Beach and and is very close to the pier .
The rooms are spacious and decorated tastefully in historical themes .
They provide family rooms sleeping up to 4 .All rooms are en-suite .
Breakfast is in the Garden Room Restaurant and the Garden is viewable from all tables in the room .
The staff are friendly and very good with children .The lounge bar is a lovely place to sit and enjoy playing Board Games with the family (these are available from Reception) .
The Leisure suite has Beauty treatments ,a Swimming pool and children pool and the Balcony overlooks the Beach again .
My children love the Garden and ,I love the Cream Teas .

Stayed here for a works Christmas party.
Overall the hotel was OK but I probably expected a bit more for the money we paid.
The room was fine, pretty much standard, although it overlooked the main road so was a bit noisy from the traffic.
The Christmas dinner we had was more like canteen food but I can understand this as there were a couple of hundred people eating at the same time and also a wedding going on as well.
The breakfast was very good. Plenty of choice and plenty of it!

I stayed in this hotel as I was attending a conference and it was very well situated for the conference centre, just a stroll down and then up a hill.
The staff were very attentive although one of our party had a number of things go wrong in her room and they took a long time to rectify them.
My room was in the newer annex at the back and for the first 2 days I felt I needed to leave a trail of breadcrumbs to find my way there and back, but eventually I worked out my route.
I had a patio outside my door but there was a path all the way down the side of the hotel so I could not leave the door open at night and I could not open the window.
However they were both PVC double glazing, I was at the back of the hotel so my room was secure.
They also put a fan in my room and even at the beginning of April I did need it at night. The room was very comfortable and had an iron, hairdryer, trouser press etc.
My only disappointment was there was only tea and coffee on the tray and in lesser star hotels I have had a better selection of hot drinks sachets. My bed was comfortable and overall the room was of a 4 star hotel.
Breakfast was excellent and the best fresh fruit selection I have seen for a long time and good coffee. We did eat 2 evening meals there which were disappointing. The first night the service was very very slow and it was 25 minutes before we were asked what starters we wanted.
3 of us had the duck pate very expensive for a very small piece, small pieces of walnut bread and a yellow piece of parsley which had obviously not had enough day light. The mussels were good and we all had them the next night.
The lamb shank was good and I had that the next evening. The cod in beer batter with chips was very disappointing. 2 small pieces of cod, more batter than fish and the chips were very large and thick, not crisp and piled up, (well 6 of them) like Stonehenge.
What we all find amazing was the lack of vegetables unless you ordered them separately and they were expensive. In this day and age when everyone is telling you to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg their main meals lacked veg and there was no fresh fruit option for desert.
The second night the service was quicker but they did make a mess of the bills both nights. You may ask why we ate there, well after a long day at conference we were too tired to go off looking for somewhere else to eat.
I did use the pool which was very enjoyable and well laid out although the ladies changing rooms were a little tatty and could have done with a good clean.
Overall this is probably a 4 star hotel but I would not recommend the evening meal it was overpriced, not a great selection, and service was hit and miss.

I started off looking forward to my visit to the Royal Bath Hotel. My first impression as I walked up was good until I was met in the door way by an arrogant doorman. The hallways were extremely warm and stuffy.
The food was good and presentation excellent although the portions were a little lacking. After being charged £13 for a bottle of beer and a glass of wine I beginning to get frustrated with the service and felt the hotel was trying to hard to live up to yester years.
Back in the bedroom, I barely managed to sleep due to the positioning of the room, directly behind the function hall where, I was kept awake until 3am by loud music and kitchen staff chatting outside when putting bins out.
The floor boards in the hotel badly need replacing and creaked worse then a tall ship. I was woken up on plenty of occasions by the room above as early as 7am! Constant floor creaking prompted me to get out ASAP and vacate without breakfast back to my car which, I have to add I had to park in a pay and display public car park due to the hotels lack of parking for customers.
I would not recommend the Royal Bath Hotel to anyone looking for a relaxing, worthwhile weekend away. Don’t be fooled by the name or past reputation. Stay well clear.

Garden rooms not secure, rotten frames, rusted broken locks, bolts without the correct number of screws. I was burgled via the window on the first night. Room not secured in any way for 5 days. Lost £2,000 of property, not replaced by hotel. No contact from management in any way until we insisted on seeing some-one on the final day.
Pink bacterial growth in bathroom. Not removed despite several requests to do so.
With one or two notable exceptions, staff were disinterested and unhelpful. Food poor, often cold when served and service slow.
Hotel management have not responded in any way to my letters regarding the burglary.
The hotel is generally tired and living off a past reputation.
If you are happy to pay high prices for poor quality and can live with shabbiness, this is the hotel for you.
Paul McKeever.