Name: Boat House
Address: 35 Cross St, Cowes, Cowes, Cowes, PO31 7TD, United Kingdom
Rating: 9

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RedJet Ferry Terminal

Cowes Yacht Haven

East Cowes Ferry Terminal

Cowes Beach

East Cowes Beach

Gurnard Beach

Southampton Airport

Bournemouth Airport

Boat House

Cowes

This place is in a fantastic location with great views. The room is a decent size and all you need but, the restaurant had a very limited menu on a Sunday evening, last orders for food was 5.45pm, drinks are pricey and the decor is scruffy, oh and I had ants crawling on me whilst sat on a sofa in the bar area. Breakfast is 7am - 10am, the time is currently 7.45am and the restaurant is still locked up. Everything considered I'm expecting Basil Fawlty to show up at any minute. If you showed this place some love, it could be a gold mine.

Hit & miss

Nice location and good parking. That’s where the good stuff ends. Very young inexperienced staff. The room wasn’t ready on time. We paid £145 a night for the room with two king sized beds. The room was dirty. Windows rotten and smeared with children’s hand prints. Rubbish under the sofa and other furnishings. Fridge shoved on a coffee table at the end of the bed, the rest of the tea and coffee makings facilities was at the other side of the room. Bathroom dirty, the screw sticking out of the floor by the shower could easily cut your foot. Please see the pictures. Oh yes then there’s the gluten free fish and chips which was awful and I refused to pay for it. However the young manager said she couldn’t let me not pay for it. I explained it’s my credit card and I’m not paying and offered to speak to the owner. Apparently the owner would not be in before we checked out. I left my number and so far there has been no call!

What a disappointment !

First off, the positives. The setting for the hotel is beautiful and the aspect from our corner room with wrap around balcony was stunning. The parking facilities are good as well. But to call this a 'hotel' is a travesty in my opinion. The entrance is through a wide open door, with access available to all of the rooms, by anyone who chooses to enter. No security whatsoever. To get to the so called reception desk, you have to go past the toilets and  through 2 sets of swinging doors, to enter the bar and restaurant area. The reception is a plastic banner free standing on the floor. No receptionist. You have to wait for a member of the bar/restaurant staff to finish serving customer's, to come over and check you in. No checks were made on identity. All that was requested was payment and to make the payment, you have to go across to the bar. Each room has one credit card sized room card and one door key for the housekeeper. These cards and keys are clearly visible as you walk past the reception sign. Anyone could easily take one of these and gain entry into the hotel rooms. The standard of cleaning was appalling. At our first breakfast we noticed discarded food from previous guests under the tables. This was still there 3 mornings later. The whole marina complex was finished in 1985. The hotel looks like it hasn't had any refurbishment since it opened. The decor in the rooms was very much 80s style. Dark coloured curtains and stained carpets. I booked this hotel believing that it would be a treat for my wife and myself during our wedding anniversary. I didn't mind paying extra for a better room. But we were bitterly disappointed. I booked the room with disabled access by a lift to the first floor. But the lift had an 'out of order' sign on it. No one contacted me to inform me of that fact prior to our arrival. What would have happened if we hadn't been able to struggle to climb the stairs. The bathroom had part used toilet roll and shower gels. The bed was 2 singles pushed together with a Ridge all the way down the center. The included breakfasts were a continental type. A full English was £5 per person extra. An absolute rip off. I wouldn't stay there again if they gave me a room for free.

Could so easily have been 5*. But so many things not right. So I'll begrudgingly give it a 1*

This hotel provided one of the worse stays of our lives. We couldn’t complain at the time as there was no staff on the premises when we left at 7.15 on Sunday morning, I later phoned and enquired about a complaints procedure, unsurprisingly there isn’t one. So I asked to speak to someone in management, having been told that one of the owners was in the hotel, I was then brushed off with a promise that someone would ring me back. Unsurprisingly no one did.

We decided we wouldn’t eat in the hotel, a good choice I think. When we returned we were greeted on the landing outside our room by some very angry residents who had returned to find a very drunk unknown person asleep in their room. They had called the police.

Although the website said breakfast from 7am, we were told 8 was the earliest it could be served. This was too late for us.
We had booked the hotel for its secure parking and early breakfast. When we arrived, although not fault of the hotel, the only road into the Marina was closed due to a land slip on the bridge entrance. Although the hotel had known about this at least 24 hours before we arrived, we were not informed or helped on alternative parking.

On Saturday night we were woken at 2 am in the morning by very outraged hotel guests trying to break into their room next door. When we left at 7.15 there were two very bleary eyed young men sitting and seething. They had arranged for their key card to be left in the key safe as they were arriving late. This had not been done, but incredibly the guest door into the hotel was propped open. So they had slept all night on the floor outside our room.

There was nobody in residence and no contact number in the case of emergency. I do not know what would happen in an emergency. 

To top it all, our room was extremely hot, but when we opened the windows, the room was immediately filled with the smell of deep frying from the kitchen extractor fans

Why run a hotel when you do not give a dam about your guests safety, security, comfort or enjoyment. Everything about the hotel screams budget except the price. 

Why run a hotel when you do not give a dam about your guests safety, security, comfort or enjoyment

I have waited a week to put this review on to see if the hotel respond to my two emails and to date nothing. I don’t normally put reviews online  but so disappointed and angry that was was meant to be a treat of an overnight stay whilst visiting Beaulieu garden show ended up like this.
ROOM 1
Overpriced and dirty! Beds/towels had been changed BUT room had not been cleaned possibly for sometime. Thick dust everywhere, hair and dust on skirting/windowsill. wrote “clean me”in the dust on mirror! Carpets not hoovered in room (we kept our socks on) or stairs leading up to rooms first bad impression. Broken window catch in bedroom so unable to lock window. Tea making facilities filthy still dirty from previous guests?
Bathroom no better towel rail/loo roll holder dirty and rusty, floor had stain on it and mirror and shower all smeary as if someone had just wiped a grubby  cloth over it all.  Sink stank of sewage as proper plug missing. Glass tray and glasses that hold toothbrush tumblers still grimy with toothpaste from previous guests.
We ate in restaurant played safe with burgers which were nice however we saw the waiter accidentally knock over a cake dome containing mini breakfast pastries (which did not look clean covered on finger prints)  onto a dirty table. He then proceeded to gather them all up and put them back under the dome. Guess what same cake dome and pastries for breakfast which we did not touch!
Breakfast was awful see below milk jug we realised once we started pouring the milk that it was stained inside. No decent cereals we are adults and don’t want kids sugary stuff! No muslie  and if you want granola you have to pay! Even so No plain yogurt to put on it as advertised apparently the chef used it all up in his curry previous evening,  No butter and only apples and satsumas everything else you had to pay for! We opted to eat properly back at the garden show where the food vendors were much more appetising.  
All this for £160!!!!  which they make you pay when you check in! Should have seem the warning signs then.
We  caught housekeeping in the morning who had already knocked twice before we were ready to go down to breakfast (before 9am) and left them a note in the room regarding the state of it as there is no reception there is no one to ask.  They did say sorry but no explanation as to why it was so awful I got the feeling they were used to this! However see picture of their cupboard on the landing they had left it open so if this is the state they leave it in ….tea making facilities all mixed up with cleaning stuff on the floor is it any surprise our room was the way it was.
Lesson learned if you don’t know the area drive a couple more miles and find a well known chain where you know what you are getting for your money better quality at half the price.
I would just point out that any staff we did encounter mainly in the restaurant when checking in and whilst eating dinner the first evening were friendly and polite.

Dirty and extremely overpriced  you’re paying for the view!

Nice room and most staff were friendly.  Breakfast was continental which would be fine but pastries were stale . You could purchase cooked breakfast but having paid as much as we had for bed and breakfast it seemed a bit unfair. Definitely overpriced for what you get

Overpriced for what you get

Stayed for 1 night for work, I have stayed here a few times, my last visit 2019. I like the location of the hotel and the rooms are good too. The food used to be very good but unfortunately the evening meal I had wasn’t up to scratch. Breakfast service wasn’t available at 0800 as the chef was late for work so can’t comment on that. Not sure if I will stay again, but definitely won’t eat here again.

Nice Rooms, Food not so nice

Fabulous stay, lovely room -Room 1. 
Spacious room, Comfortable bed and pillows.
Large verandah, fabulous views of the marina. 
Wheelchair friendly.  Lift available. 

Very nice breakfast. Friendly staff.
Highly recommended. 

Relaxed stay. 

My Husband and I spent 4 nights over Christmas at this hotel which is in a very nice location right on the yachting harbour in Hythe with great views across the water. Unfortunately, disappointment set in from the start because the room - albeit newly furnished - showed quite a number of defects: peeling paint on most of the bathroom walls and even on the shelves, burnt marks on the bedside tables, bathroom windows that would open but could not be shut again - and worst of all, a distinct lack of cleanliness (cobwebs on window frames and in quite a number of places. The staff were friendly and tried hard to match the standard that this hotel (and its prices!) set and we appreciated their efforts, but all in all - a disappointing and frustrating experience.

Great location - poor performance

There’s limited accommodation in this area and read really well so we booked it very pleasant phone booking . Arrived to find pleasant staff but the way they were more interested in us paying immediately painted a picture in our minds.room pleasant two light weren’t working poor standard of furniture very mid matched but ok. Needed to get the kettle changed as exterior covered in calcium deposits after then looking inside completely covered not pleasant. Comfy bed great view didn’t risk the Restutant and never saw anyone else use it in the two days we stayed there. Breakfast was a bit of a con as it was advertised with breakfast if you wanted anything over toast and cereal there was a extra charge .
The stay was average but the property needs extensive work to bring it up to the standard you would expect surrounded with the property’s it has around it.

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