Don't believe all the hype (Alvia Hotel (Brighton))

Member Name: micksheff

Product:	Alvia Hotel (Brighton)
Date:	14/06/09 (89 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good location

Disadvantages: Lots of small things that irrated me

The Alvia is a small guest house in Brighton that describes itself as a boutique style hotel but don't be fooled by this promotional blurb. That's not to say that there is anything drastically wrong with this place so long as you are not expecting anything more than a standard seaside B&B. It is graded as a 4 star guest house by the Tourist Board and has won numerous awards over the years. However please note that this place has recently changed hands and many of its awards are actually credited to its previous owners.

One of the things that attracted me to the Alvia is that it offers parking spaces. Parking is notoriously difficult and expensive in Brighton but this place has room for about six cars at an additional fee of £10 per day. One thing that you need to be aware of however is that if you park here you will not be able to use your car at all during your stay since the proprietors don't live here and your car will be locked in. This wasn't a problem for me and it was explained to me that this would happen when I booked it on the phone.

I stayed here for three nights over the Easter weekend between Friday 19th April - Monday 13th April 2009. My room was classed a luxury double which was all that they had left, it cost me £75 per night (for 2 people) plus the additional parking charge. This price included breakfast. I had been told at the time of booking that this was one of the largest rooms in the house and after reading a few reviews where the main complaint seemed to be that the rooms were tiny I was satisfied with this.

Location wise the Alvia is about three-quarters of the way up a very steep hill, but it's only a short walk to the sea and the pier. It is located on the edge of Kemp Town, an area of Brighton that is colloquially known as the "Gay Village". The new proprietors are in fact a gay male couple but although it is described as "gay friendly" it isn't marketed as a gay hotel and during my stay the majority of the guests were male/female couples and families with children.

There are about a dozen rooms set out across five floors, including the basement and the attic space. The house itself is a rather charming Georgian building and the rooms have huge windows so they are very bright. We were allocated a key to both our room and the outer door and were told that we free to come and go as we wished, day or night.

First impressions were quite good. There was a small reception area and the dining area on the ground floor. My room was on the third floor and the stairs were rather steep and since there are no rooms on the ground floor these premises wouldn't really be suitable for people with disabilities. The dining area is quite modern and by the reception there is an area with comfy sofas.

The room I was allocated was adequate but no larger than most standard double rooms in other guest houses that I have stayed in so I can well believe the reports that the rooms are tiny. All of the rooms are en suite with a toilet, sink and shower and there was a bathroom on the second floor and another one towards the top of the house that was shared between the two floors. These were quite spacious and had large bathtubs as well a shower cubicle.

All of the rooms are equipped with hospitably trays; a kettle with tea and coffee but these supplies were never replenished during my stay so it's a good thing that I had brought my own supply of teabags and coffee. There was no refrigerator and the tv didn't even have freeview, which I would have thought would more or less be minimal these days. Other small annoying things included the fact that the extractor fan in the bathroom was filthy, although the rest of the room was clean and the fact that the heating seemed to be on constantly with no apparent means of turning it down. This meant that we had to sleep with the window wide open. I know that I could have complained but these things seemed rather trivial to moan about and coupled with the fact that the owners were not around that much it just didn't seem worthwhile.

Breakfast on the other hand was faultless. A choice of full English, vegetarian or Continental breakfasts were available and special diets could be catered for by prior arrangement. There were cereals and fruit juices (apple and orange) and an endless supply of toast, tea and coffee.

We found a hairdryer in our room but no iron. According to the website the luxury double had an iron and a plasma tv, there was no sign of that either, just a standard portable seated on wall brackets but the poor quality picture on the five available terrestrial channels available on it made it virtually useless. There was a nice stereo system in the room and a digital safe. However since the safe was only resting at the bottom of the wardrobe and not fastened down so any burglar that had broken into the room could have simply carried it away.

Overall I was somewhat disappointed with the Alvia and with hundreds of other guest houses to choose from for a similar price this is not somewhere that I would consider going back to again.

Summary: A small guest house in Brighton