Harbour Hotel & Spa Christchurch

Having stayed at Harbour Hotels over the years the company seems to have lost it way somewhat. This is supported when checking Trust Pilot.

We stayed at the Christchurch Harbour Hotel and having paid for a deluxe room this looked somewhat tired, particularly in the bathroom.

We were drawn to this hotel having read reviews for its seafood restaurant, the Jetty. We stay for one night (Our wedding anniversary). What should have been a celebration turned into a disaster. My wife ordered surf and turf and asked how she would like her steak cooked. On the first occasion the steak arrived raw. Having waited 20 minutes the second steak was then overdone. The restaurant bought over chips and a glass of Prosecco during the wait. Chips in the interim not best of gestures which we kindly declined.

Although the setting is lovely we were let down greatly by the food quality and the managements staff at the hotel afterwards. Staff were apologetic my wife didn’t get to eat at the hotel but as no management were at the hotel to deal with this on a Sunday evening we were given a business card to contact somebody. Not great!

It appears the Harbour hotel Group feels this is acceptable for customers celebrating a special occasion. Although a marginal discount was offered on our room rate this experience is not one I wish to repeat.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend this hotel or the Jetty restaurant from my experience. Better experiences and relaxation had elsewhere

Well... sadly this isn't going to be a glowing review at all.
At check-in greeted by hotel reception we were informed there was complementary gin in the room.
BUT BE WARNED THE "very average London gin" comes with £2.50 bottle of tonic which IS NOT FREE.

The harbour view which our room promised is there, but only if you're over 5 feet tall or stand on a chair. So basically you might be able to see some water and a boat on the distance if you're tall enough to see over the flat roof from the veranda located below.

The head board in the room clearly had marks on from previous patrons greasy head marks.
The bathroom has a half glass door which I'm sure used to house a sliding part door which was missing as it still had the rubber stops in place. But it's like they couldn't be bothered to replace it so bathroom floor floods.
Bathroom tiles were cracked in places and hair in the shower on arrival.

The bar was eye wateringly expensive!
One gin and tonic, one old fashioned whiskey cocktail and one pint of cider was £30!

The food was generally good and too a high standard, so compliments to the chefs. We must also commend nearly all the staff for being most helpful, generous and professional.

The booking was made through an online travel site, only to be informed that as we booked through them it is continental breakfast only and not the full menu as advertised. (read small print?!) we complained as that's not was our booking said and this was eventually corrected waivering the extra £10 per head.

To round off our stay the spa was closed which we were never told about after booking and it was not stated when we booked. Also our data had been leaked due to an online data hack of which zero compensation was
given.

The hotel can be seen as once a high end hotel which has now become available for the mass market and has destroyed the venue in the process and unfortunately still demanding high prices which do not live up to what is on offer.

Sadly disappointed and wouldn't recommend or stay again.

Location was great

We have recently come back from a two day visit to the Harbour Hotel, it’s our second time, we have also been to the Harbour Beach Club at Salcombe and are due to visit the Harbour Hotel Salcombe in July. As always the food and drinks selection was excellent. On our first night we dined in The Jetty which was a wonderful fine dining experience. The staff were very attentive, length of time waiting for our courses brilliant. The food and wine was of an extremely high quality. The price although not cheap was full value for money. For our second night we experienced the Upper Deck which although being slightly cheaper still produced food and drinks of a high quality, we were brilliantly looked after by our host Phil. Throughout our visit the care and consideration given to us by all members of staff was great. We made our booking through an independent web site and our room was in the hotel annex which we we’re aware off. What we weren’t told however was that due to a complete refurbishment the Spa and Pool would not be available which was disappointing. There was some building work going on and there were some plastic pipes laid along the edge of the Upper Deck that weren’t particularly ascetic but these were removed by the second day. With regard to The Annex accommodation the actual rooms were extremely large and well furnished, the bathroom having a double shower. Obviously with all the relevant facilities. The one major drawback which we felt was that the positioning of the annex isn’t conducive to having a relaxing time. It on one side faces the main road, and there is a bus stop right outside, you can hear the buses pull up and passengers talking whilst waiting. The other side looks out over the car park, so anyone pulling up can look right into the room. There is also a storage area opposite where staff come and go. There are blinds in the windows which serve the purpose of not letting people look directly into the room, but it does mean that you either have the lights on all the time or are in semi darkness. Which is extremely disappointing. If we were made aware of this we would have have asked for a room in the main hotel. We have stayed in annex’s before but never in one that was so public. We love the Harbour Hotels but this has definitely taken the edge off our experience. Hopefully we will have a better experience when we visit Salcombe

Food in both restuarants was very good - particularly The Terrace Bar. Service at the hotel was consistently good during our stay. Location lovely and some lovely outdoor spots to enjoy the estuary.

Location was good

Location, views, food

Fabulous hotel with great views, lovely grounds and gorgeous rooms. All the staff members were excellent and nothing was too much trouble, without exception. They were all very friendly and professional. The early evening trolley coming round with fresh milk, ice and lemon was a really nice gesture.
Thank you for a lovely stay.

Great location, fantastic views from the hotel , excellent staff , good food etc

i excellent location

I had a wonderful couple of days at the Harbour Hotel, Christchurch. The room was spacious and clean with some nice extra touches. The staff were excellent: friendly, very helpful and nothing was too much trouble. The spa was out of action due to a major refurbishment but that wasn’t a problem-the weather was so good, I just went to the beach. The hotel grounds have a beautiful view over the water to Mudeford Sandbank and there is plenty of spaced out seating if you want to relax in the sunshine rather than race to the beach.

I would highly recommend if you looking for a few days to rest and recharge.

Lovely hotel great restaurant great views over the harbour

I will start with the good bits. Phil on Reception is outstanding. Lunch at The Upper Deck was superb as always. The continental breakfast was a feast for the eyes and very enjoyable. The breakfast team were great, particularly Amy who stood out for her great customer service. Phil and Amy are an asset to your team. The bad bits. Katherine on Reception needs a refresher in how to treat guests. We tried ringing the hotel on the day we were staying, only to find the phone rang off the hook (held initially for 6 minutes, then 5 minutes, then tried again and gave up). We mentioned this to Katharine on arrival and she said "we were busy"!! No apology which set the tone for the stay. We asked about parking as it looked chaotic and said surely if you are staying you should have allocated parking. Her response was to give us a list of parking in the surrounding area which wasn't what we wanted, particularly as it was a very busy Sunday due to the weather and Bank Holiday. We confirmed our lunch reservation with her and sat down in Reception to wait for our lunch at 2pm. Then another guest arrived and Phil dealt with him. What a very different experience to Katharine. Phil welcomed the guest, asked about his journey, part booked him in and said the room wasn't ready. We then decided to speak to Phil and he started the booking in process. At 2 pm we waited to be seated for lunch and stood for several minutes. Another lady from Reception walked past us to check a list and then walked back to Reception without saying a word to us. More people joined the queue and eventually someone turned up to book us in and see us to our table. The waiters/waitresses all seem very nice but very often forget drinks that you have asked for and we had to ask at least 3 times for coffee to be brought to the table. A seagull also managed to fly by and poop on my seat and down my trousers and I had to ask for the seat to be changed as a napkin was brought over. The rooms have no air conditioning and room 415 was stifling hot. The fan was ineffective and blew hot air around and the shutters let in light at around 4.20 am so if you are light sensitive this is a problem. Spelling mistakes on the room service page (kind prawns instead of king prawns). Little attention to detail that was lacking here for a luxury hotel. We wouldn't ever stay again in such a hot room. The windows have restrictors and we were unable to open the window fully. We were on a Sunday Sleepover which said "fizz on arrival". When we asked Reception later that evening she said "you go to the bar and get it there", like we should have known. Needless to say we didn't have any. Room service sandwiches were stale and unpleasant. Said it would come with crisps and coleslaw (came with crisps only). Cost us nearly £34 for a cheese and pickle and prawn and crayfish sandwich. I would have accepted the cost (we did indeed pay for them) had they been great, but they were not. Shocking really. So in summary, we will always visit The Upper Deck for lunch but would never stay in a hot, sweaty room. A bucket list treat ruined.

It’s location

The continental breakfast was fine. Although for the price I paid for the room, I feel a cooked breakfast could of been included.

Delicious food. Beautiful location. Excellent staff.