Ventnor, The Wellington Hotel

Ventnor, The Wellington Hotel is a very nice Hotel, staff very helpfull,position of hotel overlooking the bay, listening to the sea lapping up the beach wonderfull. stayed for a week breakfast excellent, only drawback not for the disabled ( i am sure staff would help ) but a lot of stairs.Car parking a problem, but their is a car park about 100 yards along road no problem ( by a £30 permit for the week can park in any council run carpark on Island) Highly recommended enjoyed the stay

We booked what we thought was advertised as a high quality hotel. We booked a "superior De Luxe room with own Balcony". Upon arriving at the Aqua hotel we found that there was virtually no parking and had to circumnavigate several times before we managed to get within walking distance. Upon checking in the receptionist took us on a long trek downwards, down several flights of stairs, finally presenting us with a tiny, airless room with a tiny television which could barely be seen from the bed. I sat on the bed, dejected, and noticed at that point that there was no tea or coffee making facilities in the room whatsoever. I looked out of the relatively insecure french doors only to find that we did not have a balcony at all. Our room led out on to a communal decking platform which was also shared by several other rooms together with anyone using the restaurant and/or the bar. I then decided to complain to the receptionist. I trekked up the three flights of stairs again to see the receptionist (No easy task as I am disabled and cannot walk much), only to be told that there was nothing she could do as the "Hotel" was full. I told her that I was disgusted and that I wanted the name of the owner(s) for a full complaint. She promised to give me this before I left. She did get us a tea-tray which I would have expected anyway. As we did not want to go back to our room, we decided to go out and have a look at some shops. We had to book the restaurant, so we did, for 19.30. We went in to the restaurant and was given a menu which gave very little choice (4 starters, 4-5 main courses and 4 sweets) and ordered. As all of the starters seemed unpalletable, we decided to go straight for a main course. (Trio of lamb). When it was brought to the table, I started retching as the cutlet was seared on one side and absolutely raw on the other. There was cold, liquid blood running all over the plates. One of the cutlets even had a visible "clot" in the meat. We asked them to take the meals away and bring us cooked ones. They removed the meals and returned some 45 minutes later with what appeared to be the same meals. The cutlets were a little more cooked but by this time, the kidneys and the flaked leg meat were stone-cold (as they had obviously been left on the side while the cutlet was re-cooked) We decided then to just eat it as we had very little fight left in us (the cutlet was still very pink). We then ordered a sweet. These were served on huge plates but looked ridiculous as they were tiny portions. We left the restaurant still hungry but were too tired to complain any more. Upon returning to our tiny, airless room, we tried to get some sleep to no avail. There were other guests smoking and chatting loudly on the communal decking outside, coupled with two small children running about outside and banging against our french windows. At about midnight I felt very ill and decided to make my way to reception to try to get a drink of some sort (No facilities in the room as we had consumed the 4 tea-bags supplied earlier). The night porter took one look at me and offered to call an ambulance (he could see the state I was in). He then poured me some apple juice and made us some tea. I reiterated our problems with the room and he said that he could see no reason why we were not given what we had paid for as there was a room available and offered to move us there and then but at that point I felt too weak and just wanted to lie down. I took photos of the room. The ceilings were all cracking, there was an open fireplace with parts of the surround missing with bare nails potruding, There was an expired bulb in the bedside lamp, the headboard appeared to be coming away from the wall, there was filler/sealant missing from where the tiny shower met the floor and the carpet was in dire need of a thorough cleaning. I left immediately after breakfast, of which I consumed very little as I still felt nauseous from the restaurant fare the night before. Upon checking out I was advised by the receptionist that she had reduced my bill by a paltry £16-00 as I was upset, but then tried to tell me that they felt that communal decking was, in the hotels' view similar to a private balcony, unfortunately, she then wanted to charge me full price for the disgusting fare received from the over-priced restaurant. I then told her exactly what I thought and refused to pay for the main course which was inedible. She therefore deducted the main course charge which left us £ 116-00 out-of-pocket for what was probably the worst hotel experience of our lives.

Would recommend.