The Grove Cromer

We booked a five night stay in The Bungalow. Arriving on Sunday afternoon, first impressions as we walked through the patio doors were of extreme disappointment and dismay. Indeed, had we not had appointments booked in Cromer on the Monday and Tuesday we would have left immediately. The whole place is extremely shabby and grubby and in need of thorough refurbishmnent. I am certain no room in the hotel will be in this state. We left before 10.30am on Wednesday and my husband informed Reception of the reasons for our early departure. Whoever was on Reception at that time made notes of the points raised. No one from the senior management contacted us to investigate the issues raised or offer any sort of accountability or apology, that was until I completed the review form. Only then did The Grove make contact, if you can call two lines making contact, to say the Manager would not be back until Saturday and he would contact us then. I emailed The Grove for the attention of Mr Grayling expressing our disappointment and listing some of the issues. These included: the door to the lounge which cannot be fully closed due to poor fitting, the door to the bedroom only opening about one third of the way due to being restricted by the carpet, mould on the pipework in the kitchen, mould in the bathroom both tiling and the grab handles in the shower, dirt and mould on the inside of the front door, dirt and mould on the patio door, the bedroom curtains which were hung on a cheap plastic rail with too few hooks and when closed were extremely difficult to open. There are other issues and we took photographs of all mentioned here. I eventually received a response thanking me for drawing these issues to his attention and that many had now been addressed. As you can imagine, this is of little comfort to us! It is difficult to believe that management was unaware of these issues as they certainly did not occur between one let and another, these are long standing faults which have never been addressed. There would appear to be no planned refurbishment of any of the self catering cottages, all money and focus obviously is on the hotel. Obviously, the people who choose this sort of holiday are not given the same high standards and attention to detail offered to those who book into the hotel.....if those reviews are to be believed. Despite leaving after three nights, The Grove proceeded to take the balance from my bank account on the Friday. In effect we have paid in excess of £800 for a three night stay in substandard accomodation.....and nobody at The Groves cares or sees fit to think this is unacceptable. Rather, they think it is perfectly acceptable to take people's money regardless of the standard offered. This is the assumption you come to given their response and actions. Obviously, we will not be returning, there are many other cottages in the area of a far higher standard and cheaper. Ironically, I received a marketing email this week telling me that the self cate

We recently had the Jasmine afternoon tea having been given a voucher as a birthday present. From the word go we were made to feel welcome and the member of staff who served us was extremely attentive. We were given the choice of having tea in the garden or inside and we chose the lounge which was a light and airy room. The food was absolutely first class, there was so much choice and everything was delicious. We certainly didn't need anything else to eat for the rest of the day! Afterwards we had a walk in the beautiful grounds. We will definitely be going back again.

We stayed in the Barn for 2 nights. It had a Well stocked kitchen, ironing board etc. On arrival the room had a strange smell but the hotel quickly provided ferbreeze which seemed to resolve the issue. Showers powerful and hot. Beds comfy and clean. The Barn would benefit from a deep clean and a going over with a feather duster as there were cobwebs everywhere which was a bit disappointing!! Areas outside would benefit from some tlc as very tatty by the cottages and wider grounds. We used the pool twice and enjoyed having this to ourselves. Ate in the restaurant one night and in the pizza teepee. Both were nice. We didn’t really go into the main hotel other than for a quick dinner when we arrived but staff seemed very friendly