Southend Hotel

I waited a few days before writing this review because I left feeling extremely upset and disappointed — not just with the hotel, but also with my decision to stay there. This wasn’t a budget stay, so I expected at least a clean room and decent customer service. Unfortunately, that’s not what we experienced. Let me start from the beginning. While we were on our way to the hotel, we had an unexpected transport incident that caused a significant delay. Realising we wouldn’t make it in time for check-in, I called the hotel to inform them. The person who answered sounded quite rude and showed no empathy, even after I explained our situation. In the end, he did agree to leave the key in a safe for us to collect late — something I genuinely appreciated at the time. We rested in the car on the way until 4:30 AM and arrived at the hotel early in the morning. First impressions were mixed: the corridor carpet looked dirty and sticky, but the room itself appeared clean and recently renovated. All we wanted was a few hours of rest after a long and stressful night. However, things quickly went downhill. I woke up with a burning sensation on my ear. Startled, I searched the bed and found two tiny bugs on my pillow. I panicked and squashed them — one left a small bloodstain on the white bedsheet. I told my family when they woke up, but since it was just the morning, we decided to head out for lunch and other activities, hoping it wasn’t a big issue. That night, after returning from dinner, we showered and began getting ready for bed. I was half-asleep when my wife suddenly screamed, “Cockroach!” A medium-sized cockroach was crawling dangerously close to our youngest child’s pillow. It quickly ran away and we couldn’t catch or photograph it. While checking under my own pillow, I found something worse: a fully grown bed bug. I killed it with a tissue, completely disgusted (refer to the picture). Just as we were processing what happened, we spotted another cockroach running from the bathroom to under the bed. That was the final straw. We didn’t feel safe or comfortable staying in that room another minute. With two kids, we spent the entire night in our car, waiting for morning. When we tried to speak to reception, it was still closed. So we dropped the key through the checkout slot and left. This was by far one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve ever had. Poor customer service, an unclean environment and a bug infestation are unacceptable at any price point. I sincerely hope the management takes responsibility, addresses these issues and provides appropriate compensation.

Honestly for accommodation above a pub, Southend is amazing! The rooms are newly renovated, large and super comfortable with their own bathrooms. Staff are so accommodating and we had leak from balcony in our two rooms due to extreme weather and they moved us to new rooms straight away, provided us with free drinks and continually checked on us. The food at the pub below is delicious and the vibe is very warm and friendly! Highly recommend. Area is super close to the beach as well.

This was a one night stay for work but the room was perfect, clean and tidy and the bed and pillows were very comfortable. Easy walk to the beach and the walk along the headland was perfect.

We arrived late and staff were very helpful and our flight the next day was not until later in the afternoon so the staff helped us out and locked our bags in the office while we walked to the beach. All the staff were very helpful 10/10. Thank you.