The Riviera Hotel & Apartments Review

Great fun at parties they organise. Food was edible.

Decent place to get a good night's kip. Old fashioned, indoor and outdoor pool plus a jacuzzi. Good for children. No toilet brush.

3 stars for a 3 star hotel. Very pleasant hotel for a short holiday. Swimming pool and spa the best part. Rooms on the small side especially for a little one and two adults. Staff very nice and very close to the beach. Hotel is a little dated but a happy experience for 2 nights.

Had a very fun and sociable night with the work family. Highly recommend this place for future work dos.

Lovely helpful staff and the restaurant was excellent. Value for money and clean

Only there for training but was nice room. chairs a little uncomfortable and carpet could do with an update.

Very nice hotel sadly no wheel chair access to garden area as advertise. Friendly staff needs a little shop or something

Big thank you to the amazing two guys on night duty who responded to my complaint - at 3am! - of being unable to sleep by opening up the bar and serving me a drink. This is a place where they understand customer service. Well done all of you. Feels like summer hols the moment you walk through the door.

Location towards the east of Bournemouth around 30min walk. Hotel clean and staff friendly and efficient. Both indoor and outdoor pool excellent. Room good accommodation. Goid value.

Nice big apartment. Too many steps for an old person. Other than that fantastic location!

Nice comfortable place. Stayed in the self catering apartments and had full use of hotel facilities. Very clean place and staff always friendly and welcoming. Also very close to beach.

Bit run down. Needs some updating. Good enough for the 'safeguarding study day' i was on.

Clean and comfortable rooms, food very good, only bar food as restaurant was closed, but very tasty. Pool and leisure facilities in the hotel. Great for a short or long break, for couples and families. Very polite helpful and attentive staff.

Great place to stay and use as base for exploring. Breakfast was great. Beech a 10 minute walk but you can drive there. Would stay again.

Love this hotel because it is so clean. Decors are a bit outdated but the place is clean and staff are very accommodating and friendly. The pool was perfect in size, not too big and not too crowded. Too bad the jacuzzi was closed though because of Covid. Room size was reasonable, not too small. We had a small kettle with 3 cups, coffees, teas and hot chocolate. There was a veranda where there is a view of the sea. Location is spot-on. Close to the sea and restaurants. Oceanarium is closeby. Would definitely come back again.

Warm welcome, staff very friendly, easy parking, and a stones throw from the beach. The rooms are clean, and tidy. Would recommend we will defo be staying again.

All the staff were very helpful and friendly. Especially the receptionist who helped me out with things to do and see locally

The food for our daughters wedding was absolutely disgusting they never no notice of wat she wanted I think she should have her money back awful

Very nice hotel but no shops very near and hotel was over run by dogs

Great location .....
I highly recommend ...

I stayed here for one night, swimming pool wasn't cold, room was a good size and we had a balcony with seaview which was lovely. Shower was a little weak but did the job, and hairdryer was brilliant (and ive got thick hair!) overall great stay, would come back!

Great food and drinks. Lovely clean rooms. Friendly staff.

Nice , relaxed atmosphere, good staff who were thinking about their guests.
Just right!

Great weekend, staff were very helpful and friendly, the room was very nice and clean with sea view balcony. Food was very good. Great breakfast.

Excellent in every way: food, service, setting, price. One of the best Sunday lunches we have ever had, and that s in comparison to many of the more well known hotels in the Bournemouth and the New Forest.

Hotel was a 3 out 5 no fridge in our room, sea view from balcony area, nice breakfast good bed, games room next to bar. Parking is available around the rear of the hotel
I'd say average overall, would I book again? Possibly but I'd call them direct and make sure they have a better room.

Great works Christmas meal held here, food fairly average but nice wine. Great staff.

Odd entrance but lovely bar - great music from BMT (Bournemouth Musical Theatre Productions) to get us ready for xmas!

Can only comment on it as a training venue and eaten lunch there, good facilities and nice lunch

If I could give them -5 stars, I would give it with pleasure after I had a bad experience with them.
I booked a double room, and with 4 hours before check in they give me a call that the room is not available because have some maintenance problem, so they offer 2 single rooms or free cancellation, of course I have choose the free cancellation. When you are going with your husband you don t want to have single rooms obviously
So on our way we needed to find another hotel on the last moment.
BUUUUUUU

Food was okay. Had a Christmas meal with work. Drinks very expensive

Hotel is in a great location, 5 minute walk to the beach. Room was clean and comfortable, with a sea view balcony. Food in hotel restaurant was excellent and staff were lovely, very friendly and helpful.

Everything was great till I got charged double the booking for a late checkout...

Have stopped at the Riviera several times in recent months. Never had any issues; always a warm welcome... clean and comfortable rooms with ample complimentary items. Some of the rooms have the most amazing sea views, along with private balconies - on a sunny day it s perfect to enjoy a bottle of wine. The staff are friendly and attentive, and there is an excellent bar with food available. Plenty of parking. Highly recommended.

Very clean hotel . Staff very pleasant. Bit disappointed with vegetarian options, ie not many.

Family run hotel. Slightly dated decor but well maintained. Very close to the beach. We stayed in an apartment which is very large. The kitchenette, dining room and 2 sofa lounge becomes the second bedroom. There are toiletries, cleaning products (for the kitchen) and spare pillow and blanket already in the room. The lounge has a kids zone with toys, pool table, table tennis etc for a chillax. There's 2 outdoor pools and an indoor pool with Jacuzzi. Excellent location overall.

Attended a Christmas party here. Drinks prices reasonable, food was ok, given that they were trying to serve 100 people at the same time.

Clean environment with Covid-safe one way system in place and hand sanitation stations in the entrance.

One star review is just for location to the beach!! This is the review on trip advisor I was asked to remove! Also we did fill out a maintance form and passed onto the reception on our first day! Also we checked out of the apartment early which ended our holiday due to the following and our children not able to sleep because of the beds. We booked our holiday last September 2017 and we were really looking forward to our holiday. We booked it looking at the hotel website pictures which offered an indoor and outdoor pool. The hotel still advertise and indoor and outdoor pool. We arrived to find the outdoor pool had been removed and a garden in its place no contact from the hotel to advise of this. Our 3 children were very disappointed and we were too. We were told at the reception that we had a nice garden and there would be no refunds! We were offered one free breakfast at the hotel. The apartments are worn and dated. The bathroom was small and the shower awful. We saved and booked the holiday thinking we were staying in a modern apartment. There was no dishwasher or washing machine which was a real let down. We had to pay at a local laundrette to wash our clothes. I expected a self-catering apartment to have all the white goods available. The apartment was not clean and all the cooking equipment was dirty. The cutlery was dirty egg left on the egg cups and cheese still left on the grater. The fridge was not on when we arrived and the 3 lamps were all broken. Very disappointed and would definitely not recommend this hotel or apartment to anyone!! Lot of our hard earned cash on an awful holiday apartment.

My company organised Christmas at The Riviera. The worst food I have ever tried in a restaurant. The soup was minuscule and it tasted like cheap tomato puree from the supermarket. The main was like frozen food with no taste nor color, defrosted in a microwave. Awful. The dessert was an incredibly small piece of "brownie" (if you can call that a brownie) with some half melted "ice cream" that tasted nothing. I give 2 starts because the staff was lovely and professional and the music was great. Extremely difficult to find parking.Everyone was so disappointed with the food and I don't think they will do the Christmas party there again, if they do, I will not attend.

Update: Thanks for the answer.
I would have talked to staff if the matter was something fixable but not for the quality of the food, what could have they done if the food served was frozen and bad quality? As I stated in my review, they were lovely but they would not have been able to do anything about it.
I am surprised that the majority said that they enjoyed their meals so much as the comments among my colleagues were very similar to mine. I suggest that you request feedback from the companies as we all gave feedback about the Christmas party to the department that organised it, maybe they have still not passed to you.
I have chosen a public platform because it is my right to do so, as I was really looking forward to this party and ended up disappointed and (as already stated) this was not something that staff could have sorted that night. I was not informed that you offered free parking for people that attended Christmas parties.
Best regards,

Fabulous Christmas break, great hotel,staff and food. The best Christmas break we have had over several years.

Great place and good value. Only Mark down would be the mattresses are a bit too firm! But overall a great stay and good location. Free use of the pool and jazzcuzi was good

We stayed in one of the apartments and were delighted to find that the accommodation was spotless. It had all the facilities necessary for a self catering stay. I would highly recommend the Riviera to family and friends.

Decent price for decent hotel. Staff were brilliant and very friendly. Little bit dated but the staff made up for the need of a decoration update.

Great hotel and location. We had a mix up with the booking dates (my fault) and the lady sorted it out for us. Nice pool however changing rooms were closed which means trekking to your room wet. We had an apartment which is a walk done the street. It was big and good but old and in need of an upgrade.

Stayed here twice now, loved it both times. Our toddler loves it too, lots to do. Great service from the staff. On our first night the room was a bit too small, they moved us no questions asked. So close to the beach, perfect walking distance to the cliffs for a great view of the sunset. Already booked for next year.

Really lovely place bed a bit rickety and fridge wasnt turned on when went in but overall lovely experience

Remote location for a visit to the shop but perfect for just the beach

We stayed in the Apartment. Good value if there are 5 or 6 people who don't mind sharing bedrooms. Very close to Alum Chine (nice walk). And the beach. Very clean!

We went to the hotel with my daughter for my 50s birthday on a short break, Saturday evening we wanted to eat something at the restaurant before to go out, but we have been told that there's a party in the restaurant and they can't serve any food,not even room service and it was 6pm. Not happy with it.
Wouldn't recommend.

Clean rooms, good service and good food. Would recommend!

It was a little crammed but a nice place to stay - right by the beach!

Hotel very clean food is excellent and staff are friendly and very helpful could not fault anything big thank you from a very satisfied customer

We had our company Christmas party there very nice food. Nice staff all together good

Location good. Food ok and rooms ok. It was a cheap night for work Christmas do. Don't know what it's like as normal guest on holiday.

Nice place to stay for the weekend, everything, on site including a nice spa. Friendly staff, and clean servicble rooms with all mod cons

Was an amazing place to stay, great views, great staff and great food. Definitely coming to stay again.

We stayed overnight after a function. Lovely hotel. Very welcoming. Although we didn't need this, it is also dog friendly. (Our pooch was with dog sitter).

Very nice hotel on the westcliff that provides all you need for an enjoyable holiday.

Fantastic hotel/food staff, especially Adam (bar person) ideal place near the beach and within walking distance to Bournemouth pier, will definitely be back for a return visit x

Nice room, free wifi, 24 hour room service and friendly staff. Couldn't ask for much more

Stayed 3 nights
Nice clean hotel. Pool and Jacuzzi clean and well maintained. Friendly staff. Lovely food !!

Not great to be honest but I suppose you get what you pay for

The place was lovely and clean our apartment was nice, loads of space and and quiet abit far from the hotel but OK, the staff need to be trained abit more on customer service apart from that great place!

Had a great weekend event at hotel with large group of 80 plus in 2005. Visited as we were in the area. The hotel was due to open the following week ex covid but outside looking tatty.

Great accommodation. Lovely indoor pool and jacuzzi. Five minute walk to Alum Chine Beach. Friendly, welcoming staff. We have already booked our return trip. Great for families.

Friendly staff, great food and facilities. Can't fault this hotel.

Clean apartments with every thing you need inside. The restaurant is very reasonable and the food is delicious, the bar food is also really nice. The spa area with the swimming pool is clean and modern, the pool is heated at a good temperature. The hotel is close to Alum Chine beach which has a restaurant, clean toilets and children's playground.

You have all you need here and not far from the beech. You would be pushed to get more for the same money anywhere else in the same area.

Brilliant hotel for 3 star. Upgraded room . Rooms big. Actual see view. Staff lovely. Off street parking. Would definitely recommend. Massive bar and facilities ideal for functions.

Lovely room with a balcony and pet friendly for our small dog. Really enjoyed our stay

Comfortable apartments plenty of space with two sofa's.friendly welcome at reception. Linen etc is spotless . Value and good quality for price.