Southern Sun Hemingways

I had a lengthy business trip and had some real highs and lows during this trip. Premium price paid, expecting a premium in return! Phoned the hotel at short notice, to request taxi shuttle from airport to hotel. Norman’s Tours, what a top bloke, very friendly and made the journey to the hotel a pleasant experience. First impressions of the hotel were good, warm welcome, friendly staff. The bed was very comfortable and probably one of the best sleeps on my travels, so 5⭐️ for the bed. But in the rooms things are looking very tired, shower door didn’t close and filled the floor with water and fixtures have been damaged and repaired a few times. My sink fell out of its fixings one morning (bit of a shock). Move to another room, again bed great, fixtures tired, window in terrible state, knew when the wind was blowing, the curtain would blow in. Now onto the facilities High speed internet? Only high speed if you are on the old dial up internet, very poor for a business venue. One weekend no WiFi at all, extremely frustrating, made it a very long weekend. When the WiFi was working it could just about manage average tasks. Gym A stepper, 2 bikes and a few weights, few times no water or towels and no cleaning materials to clean or sanitise equipment after use. Small room, does this pass as a gym 🤔. One day there was no water, had to go to work without a shower (after using the exercise equipment) not happy at all, not happy with the response from the hotel. It’s not the employees fault, this was the best part of the stay and they were ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, everyone was so friendly and made my stay bearable. From what I experienced from a premium brand I would score the hotel lower than average, but the hotel staff really gave a reason to make me smile every day 🤩.

Waited 10 min for a waiter to come to our table at dinner, another 15 minutes to receive our cool drinks, over an hour to receive food that was not great. In the morning, my breakfast was partially burnt. I raised this and asked to take a croissant on the go and the restaurant manager asked that I pay for it even though pastry’s was part of the buffet. Pathetic service.

Southern Sun is a brand I usually trust. East London is hot and humid in summer, and the room air conditioning is of no use at all. Room service did not have 2 of 3 items I ordered from their limited menu. The point of a limited menu is to ensure availability. The rest of the hotel experience is adequate.

We had preferred to stay closer to the beachfront, but places were fully booked. Hemigways location is ok for a short stay over. For a longer stay, we would prefer another location. Rooms are clean with average equipment. Same applies to service. Generally friendly, but nothing above average.