Good base in Brighton (Royal Albion Hotel Brighton)

Member Name: starjen

Product:	Royal Albion Hotel Brighton
Date:	14/11/08 (127 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Location, cheap deal if you can get it it

Disadvantages: Needs modernising, parking

I stayed at The Royal Albion in Brighton back in February of this year. We love going down to Brighton and had a long weekend off work together so thought we'd have a look to see if we could get a cheap couple of nights. I went on Travelsupermarket.com which showed us this hotel through lastminute.com at £86 for two nights (Sun & Mon) including breakfast and a free bottle of wine, and knowing it's location we booked straight away. My boyfriend had stayed here a few years ago so we knew we weren't going to be getting luxury, but as long as it's clean I'm happy.

The hotel has 186 bedrooms from single rooms to family rooms, and mini-suites for business guests. It has smoking and non-smoking rooms and disabled friendly ones too. It is a regency style building and could look very grand but it needs a bit of a touch up on the outside.

The location of this hotel is right opposite the main pier on the roundabout, so you just have stroll across the street to the pier and about a 10 minute walk to the shops, Lanes and Pavilion. We knew in advance from walking past (and most hotels in Brighton have no parking) that there was no car park, so we rang up and asked them if they had an agreement with any of the NCP's. They did with the Russell Road NCP which is a good 10 minute walk away, but only £9 for 24 hour so this is good value. They give you a ticket when you check out that you insert after your original one, so when we put our 1st ticket in the machine wanted £45 but after the second one only £21, which is a great saving. There are a few pay & display parking spaces outside but it is £6 for 2 hours, so very pricey.

We arrived at the hotel at 3pm and there was no queue at reception and a friendly receptionist. We checked in quickly, and got given a voucher to use at the bar for our free bottle of wine. We were on the second floor so took the small lift (could squeeze four in) up and wandered down the corridor to our room. The room looked like it has been recently done up. The wallpaper looked fresh and the ceiling like it had had a coat of paint. There was a huge sash window which looked out over the park. There was a double bed, not particularly comfortable, a wardrobe, dresser, TV and tea & coffee making facilities. The bathroom had a bath with shower in it but it didn't look like that had been updated as the grout was yellow/black and a big damp patch in the ceiling above the showerhead. It was clean though and the bath filled up super fast.

From taking the stairs down it looked like there were rooms overlooking the pier with little balconies which would be nice to stay in, but also if we'd been just a couple of rooms further down our corridor we would've have a view of a building so I think we did OK.

Breakfast was served between 8 and 10am and we got down there about 9.30am both mornings. It was busy but we easily got a table. It was a buffet style with sausages, bacon, beans, tomatoes, fried potatoes and bread and scrambled egg. There were croissants and cereal and fruit also, but we both had the fry up. It was hot and I had no complaints and even at 9.45am they were replacing some of the hot stuff so it all seemed fairly fresh. There was juice in jugs and coffee and tea in jugs on tables at either end of the room. They also had herbal teas available to make yourself. Perhaps the only fault was that the toast wasn't freshly made and was sitting in the buffet, so it was just really warm bread.

On the second day we came back in the afternoon, after a stroll up the pier and claimed out free bottle of wine! We sat in the lounge area, which had huge windows overlooking the pier and just people watched for a while. We were really lucky with the weather and with the huge windows the room was really hot but it is a great view. The bottle was a screw top so you could have taken the bottle to your room if you'd wished. There were also free newspapers in this room to either read there or you could take away.

On the last day we had to check out at 11am, which was again very quick. We just handed over our room key and got the parking ticket.

Would I stay here again? I have stayed at a few different hotels and B&B's in Brighton and I would stay here again if I got it a good price. It is a great location and an easy walk to everywhere you want to reach and the few staff I had contact with were polite and friendly. The hotel and room were clean if maybe in need of updating. If you are just after somewhere to rest your head for a couple of nights then I couldn't complain at all.

Summary: Great location for getting to Brighton attractions