Puma The Imperial Hotel

Imperial hotel This hotel is deceiving and doesn’t look as good as the pictures already shared. Not sure when but the decorations are dated now. All the areas around the hotel were in serious needs of modernisation and repairs. Cleaning has not been done well and rust built up between door frames. This hotel now feels like a 2-star ⭐️⭐️ Our first room given wasn’t even made! It stated as cosy room, try bijou instead! We got upgraded to a suite with a lounge, which was spacious. Our new room 418 was nicer on the face of it until you take a closer look. You can’t get onto the balcony which was ashamed but it was good to have a big window with lots of air and room with a sea view was a plus. The window frame was rusted and dirty and needed repairs. The room was cleaned but tired. The bathroom was adequate and nothing luxurious. Shower was basic and had no pressure. The furniture was falling apart as you can see the drawers in the wardrobe. We were afraid to touch things in case of falling apart. The food in the bar was poor quality.’ We had Caesar salads. It was poorly prepared and akin to ones you get in a bag in the supermarket pour onto our plates. When asks for mayonnaise for chunky chips, the reluctant waiter had to check if it was available! Seriously?? Yes, those things in the bowl were supposed to be chunky chips. This was only a bar service. We had better food at the Spoon, and that said a lot. Breakfast was good. It had large selections of hot food separating meat and vegetables, including kimchi, which was refreshing. The combination of continental and English breakfast was plentiful. It was a positive and very good. We didn’t use the spa facilities but it was the newest part of the hotel and you will need an Uber to navigate getting there through maze of the ‘Shining’ corridor complex. We booked for two nights and considered leaving just after one sleep. It was unpleasant but at least the room didn’t smell as we aired out the room leaving our patio doors opened all day! The bed was comfortable enough. There was a safe that you cannot fit a laptop! Basic tea and coffee facilities. No USB plugs and I found only one 2-way plug on the dressers. Light switches were yellow stained in contrast to the white walls. They wanted to keep character of the building but it was akin to my grandfather’s decoration. There was a fan in the room. Any hotel without air conditioning is in serious need of refurbishing. It could potentially be a four star if it was fully refurbished. The garden was overgrown, overflowed with weeds and badly neglected. The play area was in disrepair and outdoor pool was covered with mould. Footpaths around the ground was overgrown that if you want to walk, you had to negotiate with brambles and nettles. Hotel car park opposite was £10 per night. £20 in the locked garage if you want security and have nicer car. Reception was professional and friendly which was the best service provider and good first impression of our stay. I wouldn’t recommend this hotel until it was redecorated and restored to its previously glorious day. We would gladly pay to come back if it has improved. As it is, this hotel is different to the pictures and not worth the money.

Beautiful grand old hotel ,we have stayed many times. Staff are friendly and helpful.Many loyal staff. The hotel isn't very clean. I don't think it's worth saying much as the owner never responds so it's really not worth commenting. So it's a shame.

I’m writing this review almost a year on (it’s taken me that long to get over it). In all seriousness though, I wouldn’t avoid this place and book somewhere else. We arrived on a hot sunny day, excited to go for a swim in the outside pool (the only reason we booked this particular hotel due to the photos on the website of this area and view). Upon checking in we read a small sign at reception stating the pool was shut due to maintenance work. Hugely disappointed we went to our room which was so hot and very limited air due to none of the doors or windows being able to open. There was one small fan would have been an idea to have this switched on ahead of guests arriving). It was unbearably hot in there and we didn’t get any sleep. When we discussed all of this with the manager we were dismissed and told to sort it out on Monday when the main manager would be available. We did this and met with a very rude man with no customer relations or care to even try and rectify the situation. Finally an invite from this manager was made for us to book again to give it another chance so they could give us a 5 star treatment. We decided we would never spend another penny here and declined. Also telling all our local family and friends in Devon where we live to avoid this place like the plague. (In fact I feel lucky to have escaped something like this due to it being such a disaster of a hotel).