The Cleveland Hotel - Torquay, United Kingdom     

This 4 star B&B looked very promising from it's website, and has had a facelift and new furnishings added to help along it's way to becoming a "design boutique hotel" - it was given a ETC 4 star guest accomodation rating in July of this year. We spent a week here after booking directly with the owners. Because we only booked the day before, we were given the double room with private bathroom (room 6 - the only non en-suite room), for the first half of our week with a promise to be moved to an ensuite room for the 2nd half. When the day came for us to move, it seemed the room change had not actually been booked or arranged for us, further bookings had been taken for the room and so we never got to move to an ensuite room (we were then offered a room change the next day, which was taken back because of confusion between the owners). We were not offered a refund of any of the money we had paid on arrival on this understanding. The room itself was very clean and nicely decorated (more "country cottage" than "design boutique") but small. The bathroom was small, but clean, with bath and shower (although not powerful enough to use). The food at breakfast was good quality and very plentiful. The owners seemed to be very accomodating to any special requests. The hotel is well located in Torquay, and there was always parking available (although not "secure parking"). It was just a great pity that we were let down on the deal we agreed.

Torquay is a wonderful place to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed our weekend here. The Cleveland was perfect for us, being just 10 minutes walk from the seafront, and situated in a peaceful loacation away from busy traffic. Jane and Wayne are wonderful hosts who did everything possible to ensure our stay was successful. Our room (en suite) was spotlessly clean and offered everything we needed. Breakfast was superb and sustained us for the best part of the day. We will definitely make The Cleveland our base for future visits to Torquay. Paula & Eric Harris