Seafield House

To put things into context, we have written almost 900 reviews on this site, of which several hundred for hotels. This is one of only a handful we have given such a low rating. The GH kindly acceded to our request for a ground floor room (although I suspect we lost the "Large Double" we booked as a consequence. The location, with a wide range of bars, restaurants, cafés and shops close by, and the sea a short walk away. The room and bathroom were clean, but were both among the smallest we have encountered, almost in line with the French budget "modular" places, but at over twice the cost. Definitely not comfortable for 2 people to spend time in, just one chair, one bedside lamp, although plenty of storage. Bathroom miniscule, literally just room for shower and toilet. Lack of or conflicting information, not helped by a lack of website, for example: no breakfast (although mentioned on TA and Google), no parking (and reception lady unable to provide any info on payment hours for the few pay spaces on the street). Lost its third "star" when there was no hot water in the morning and we would have to wait at least 30 mins for the boiler to heat up again (no real apology offered). Why stay in a guest house rather than a hotel? For personal service, local advice, and perhaps a home cooked breakfast? Not here unfortunately : we just got the impression that the proprietors are only interested in renting rooms with minimum effort and taking the cash. Noticeably, there are no responses to the poor reviews on TA.

The guest house didn’t look great from outside. It was in a rather run down looking street and the building itself looked shabby. I rang the buzzer which wasn’t answered and was eventually let in by a delivery driver. I then waited in the hallway as there was no one at the reception. A lady appeared after a few minutes and showed me to our room. Whilst I knew I hadn’t booked the ritz I was at least expecting it to be clean. I was disappointed to say the least! The bed cover had several smears of blood on it, the light fixtures had bare bulbs, it smelt of damp and the bathroom was dirty. When I say bathroom it was more like a cupboard with a toilet and shower in it. The sink was in the bedroom itself. I immediately went to find the lady to request clean bedding as there was blood on it. There was no apology she merely stated “oh that must have been me”. I also requested that the bathroom be cleaned as it looked like it hadn’t had a decent clean in a very long time. My husband and I then left to find somewhere to have food after our long trip. When we got back, the bedding had been changed but the bathroom was still grubby. The lady had disappeared by this point. On closer inspection I found hairs and dirt at the side of the toilet, the window wouldn’t lock properly and the tea and coffee making facilities consisted of a kettle, some coffee sachets and a few tea bags thrown in a dish. There was no milk or sugar and only one spoon. The tv remote control was full of grime and the mirror over the sink had some bulbs which didn’t work. We had no option but to stay there having already paid in full and not being able to find anywhere else with vacancies at such short notice. The promised hairdryer in the room wasn’t there so I called the number on one of the posters in the hallway to enquire about one. I was told to go into one of the rooms in the basement where there should be one in the drawer. When entering the room it looked in a much better condition than the one we were staying in but the overwhelming stench of damp nearly took my breath away. We stayed for the two nights we had booked and left as early as possible never to return again. Having read previous reviews I was not anticipating it to be quite so bad as it was. I have stayed in everything from five star hotels to bunk houses and the YMCA. This was by far the worst place I have ever had the misfortune of staying in.

Room was clean but areas were tied especially the bathroom. Toilet flush did not function correctly and extractor was dirty. Linen was clean and fresh however the mattress was lumpy and could do with replacing. Pillows were quite hard. Overall not a good night's sleep and also waken at 6am by large noisy lorry picking up the linen. Tea and coffee facilities were minimal with no hot chocolate and only UHT milk. Note... had message saying had to check in before 3.30 or there would be nobody there, so had to divert into Hove from Lewes to check in. Was aiming to check in at 4.30, so be aware. Overall clean but tied was OK for one night but couldn't handle two.