Clifton Hotel, Scarborough

Sorry not an audio recording. Instead I’m posting about a Hotel I stayed in recently. “Why?” you ask? Well, from time to time I have to stay in Hotels for work and every so often there’s something so bad about them that I just want to get it off my chest.

Take the Clifton Hotel in Scarborough for example owned by English Rose Hotels. I stayed there on Friday the 21st August. The exterior is quite impressive and has excellent views over Scarborough’s North Bay. The staff were incredibly friendly and polite, the food was ok… but the room I stayed in… was hideous. Dirty, damp, peeling wallpaper, mould patches… the lot!

There’s a plaque in the hotel informing you that Wilfred Owen the WW1 poet stayed in the Hotel… on entering our room I wondered whether it had been cleaned since he left! What’s was so mind boggling about the room was that tea and coffee making supplies had been carefully arranged on the side but the filthy windows remained uncleaned. Take a look at this photo, this isn’t a few days worth of dirt… its a long and steady build up of muck!

We we’re staying as guest of my parents, who I must admit had a slightly cleaner room, so at the time I didn’t feel like complaining especially as we we’re only there for one night. But for £65 for a night had I been paying myself I’d have kicked up a real fuss! Generally the Hotel needs some TLC all around, a lot of the hallways had stained on the ceilings, bits of woodwork or panelling coming free etc. The decoration in the lounge was dated but I’m not the interior design police so I can put up with that.

The saddest thing about the hotel is that every single member of staff I met was very friendly and seemed to enjoy their jobs, even the younger staff members who so often tend to be a little grump in other hotels we’re polite and helpful.

To see the peeling wallpaper, mould and dirt look through the gallery below