Ivy By The Sea

I think the hotel is either new or newly run as they seem to be finding their feet. Check-in was 3pm to 4pm and when I called to say I might be around 6:30, I was told "it's only hour and a half from Manchester" and "there might not be anyone here after 5pm". It felt a bit abrupt in all honesty but when I arrived around 5:30 (Friday school holiday traffic), they were pleasant enough. Breakfast starts at 10:30 to 11:30 which is very late and checkout is 10am. Weird timings, hence my theory they are new to this. We didn't eat there so I can't comment on food. We stayed in room 4 (family room) and it was pleasant. There is a fairly large windowsill outside the bathroom which fits 2 seagulls and we knew about that at 5am in the morning with dawn chorus wake up. Overall, it was comfortable and clean. Right on the front, which was nice. Woukd have been nice to have a car park, we managed to get into quay street for £12 / day. Small car park, we were lucky to get a space.

This property is in an excellent location opposite the harbour with amazing views. The room was a good size and warm considering the freezing weather. It seemed to be recently decorated with a modern bathroom. Lots of wardrobe space and a king size bed. However, there were some issues in the room including a very scaly kettle, only 2 teabags, 1 shower gel, no glasses, no bathmat, flat batteries in tv remote, and only half a loo roll. As there were no staff on site for most of the time these problems were difficult to resolve but the young staff, when they were there, were polite and helpful. The check in time of 1 hour is much too narrow and we were asked for full credit card details on arrival despite having paid in advance. These weren't destroyed as far as we know.