The Windsor Hotel

Immaculately clean, very comfortable and a superbly cooked full English breakfast together with a very helpful receptionist, gives this hotel a 5* review. We stayed in room 20 which was very large, light and airy, with a four poster bed. It was lovely to have air conditioning and a fridge in the room too, to keep drinks cold in the hot weather. Parking is available and the hotel is very close to the seafront and a short walk to the nearest pubs and restaurants. Highly recommended and we will definitely return.

We were visiting Goodwood Racetrack nearby, and this hotel ticked all the boxes, parking being the main one for us as we’d be in a show car, good reviews, not too far from our destination etc. On the website check-in time for the hotel said 4pm however by 3pm we were ready to leave Goodwood and as the hotel was around 30 mins away we decided to go and see if they would let us check-in a little early. We got to the hotel and realised that every parking space was already taken despite us being early for check-in, so I popped in and spoke to the polite gentleman on reception who informed me we’d have to park out on the street even though the whole street had parking restrictions, but he assured us that after 3pm on a Saturday we would be ok. We weren’t overly enthused by this as we had picked this hotel in particular because of the need for onsite parking, but found a parking space just up from the hotel. We were allocated room 33, a Superior Double allegedly, and on first impressions it appeared to be clean, but dated. The bed was comfortable enough, but felt small for a king-size (which we have at home). The bathroom was oddly set-up with a bath without any shower attachment and a separate shower which appeared to be in an old cupboard with an electric shower installed, something I’ve not seen in a hotel in many years. Our sleep that night was not great, all the room doors slammed shut extremely violently, so every time anyone went in or out of their room it shook the whole corridor. This happened frequently until late. The walls of the rooms where paper thin and there was a couple nearby who were, shall we say, vigorously getting to know one another, and you could hear everything. Whilst I appreciate it’s not the hotels’ fault if its clientele are noisy, they could do something about the slamming doors by installing soft close mechanisms, and sound proofing for the walls, both of which are pretty standard in hotels these days. In the morning I went to have a shower and the water pressure was non-existent. Halfway through the water stopped completely and I then had to jump in the bath to wash off the soap residue, but as there was no shower attachment on the bath, I was unable to properly rinse my long hair. Upon checking out I explained the issue with the shower and asked if we could possibly get a reduction in the cost of the room, the very nice lady said it wasn’t her call, but she would take my details and speak to the Manager/Owner and get back to me. Once home the lady called to say she had spoken with the Owner who had said that they would not offer us any kind of reduction in room rate as ‘these things happen, beyond their control, not their fault’ etc, and they’d remarked that “the room had a bath, I should have used that” which I did, but is beside the point as without a shower attachment to use it is impossible for anyone with longer hair to wash/rinse it properly. They did however say that had we paid extra for breakfast they would h