Harbour Hotel & Spa Christchurch

From the start of checking in to checking out the staff made our stay impeccable. They recognised us, knew when to see if we wanted more drinks, were attentive without being fussy. The rooms were spotless, the ambience and laid back feel of the hotel made our stay so enjoyable

We had a great room with terrace balcony overlooking the Mudeford Spit. We were fortunate to be at the end of our wonderful summer of 2026. The room was compact and bijou but with a terrace we were happy. So comfortable too. Good food/excellent . The bus stop was right out side the hotel for Breezer (open top) or 1c bus to Christchurch town and beyond.
We had efficient help from Phillip and Bruno and others from parking to tourist information and everything else.
Compact parking but it is no problem to the hotel as they will park your car. We felt this holiday the best and it was special for my husband to enjoy his 80th treat.

The location was excellent and the room was clean with good facilities

Location, the comfort, cleanliness, helpful happy staff

An excellent stay. Outstanding service in all areas. A great setting with views and from terraces alongside the harbour.

Went for a work meeting and stayed the night before. Room was small and stuffy. Was on the road side so had traffic noise in the morning. Bathroom layout was clumbersome in that I had to climb over the toilet to get in the bath due to the shower screen. Also couldn’t turn the heating off.

Externally there were renovation works going on, however the restaurant and little Bay Area with its own little pier was lovely to sit out in the evening.

Car parking was also an issue with cars double parked, suggesting the car parking is too small

Lovely location on the quay

I hope an 'average' score overall is fair. It's a reflection of a one star and a five star so seems appropriate

We held a team event for 13 of my colleagues during the day (late June) and then an evening meal for 10 of us to follow.

Good points first : the daytime catering was served discretely and didn't interrupt the flow of our day and the quality of it was fine. The room we booked was large and spacious. the location of course is lovely. The evening meal quality was very good and the young staff serving were helpful albeit a bit confused when it came to the bill/card machine (which was pretty cheap at shy of £800).

Low point : the staff member assigned to look after our room/management of the event was impossibly frosty and unhelpful. I can genuinely say that if she worked here for me, or in my other company, she would not be staying. I had the apparent audacity to ask her how to better control the air conditioning units in the room with the handset so that we didn't have to disturb the staff. Having looked sourly at me she eventually just walked in, picked up the handset - passed it to me and said 'ON/OFF. pointing at a button. Fair enough she clearly thought I was stupid but what I had asked was how to set it - there must have been 20 buttons on the device with various screens too so clearly I was not asking to be shown an on/off button. It was embarrassing for everyone. She continued with the same tone throughout our day. Every time I acknowledged her to let her pass by etc she blanked me and tutted.

Sadly she then hang around the restaurant table as we ate for no obvious reason and continued the scowling and ignoring of us.

We all have a bad day but Management should manage, not just ignore.

We would not use again and will return to the Captains Club or the Hilton here in Bournemouth where the staff have manners and are not taught to show disdain to customers.

I hope that is fair as a balanced reflection at 3 Stars.

From the moment we first met with Lindsay, Sher and the incredible team at The Harbour, we knew our wedding was in the best possible hands. 💍✨

Every detail was handled with so much care, professionalism and warmth, and the whole weekend ran so seamlessly. From our initial meeting, to the special food tasting and overnight stay, right through to the handover meeting, we felt so looked after. The team truly listened to our vision and brought it to life in a way that was even more magical than we could have imagined.

The wedding day itself was absolutely perfect. The food was incredible, the atmosphere was amazing, and every little detail made the day feel so special. We honestly couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful experience.

A special mention has to go to our stay in the annexe the night before. The room was beautiful, spacious and incredibly comfortable, giving us the perfect space for everyone to get ready together. And a huge shout-out to the breakfast team for the delicious room service — the perfect treat before the big day! 🥐☕️

Our bridal suite on the night of the wedding was simply magical. Waking up to the stunning harbour view and having the beautiful roll-top bath made it feel like the perfect ending to the most incredible weekend.

We will treasure the memories of our wedding forever, and we’re so grateful to Lindsay, Sher and the entire team for making it so unforgettable. It really was the best weekend ever! ❤️

If you’re considering The Harbour for your wedding, we honestly couldn’t recommend it highly enough. You’ll be in the most wonderful hands! ✨

Everything even launched my paddle board from jetty

This hotel is really lovely and it has so much potential, I think I will enjoy it a lot more in the future.

One thing that was a great service was the concierge. The hotel car park is not at all big enough to cope with the capacity of guests but as soon as we arrived the concierge man was very friendly and helpful and let us leave the car where is was and he then kept the keys. The cars are all blocked in so if you need to leave in a rush you can’t but the hotel staff were very quick to move and cars out of the way for us when we needed to go somewhere.

However, once we had checked in things went a bit downhill.
The room was an absolute furnace, so stuffy and boiling hot and at the time we went there was no air con in the rooms. I believe this is being installed so in the future I’m sure it will be better but right now if you go when it’s hot (which is generally when you want to visit the seaside) you will not sleep well. Despite the hotel giving us a fan - and then an additional one the second night, I still had 2 nights of no sleep and felt very uncomfortable.
Even in the morning it was still stiflingly warm in the room and we spent as little time in there as possible which was a shame as it was beautifully decorated but the rooms are also quite small and cramped so we didn’t really enjoy being in there.

There aren’t really many other places to go in the hotel as there seem to mainly be function rooms as opposed to spaces for guests to relax in. I feel like the hotel is more geared towards weddings and you kind of feel like an intruder tiptoeing around the event. On our first night the music from the wedding was also very loud, it didn’t go on too late luckily but it did disturb us.

As it was so hot we did make use of the outside area which has a gorgeous view of the harbour but the actual grounds could be so much nicer. The furniture is ok, there are a few comfortable sofas but the tables are tiny, old and worn. It could do with a bit of a revamp and maybe a bit of a garden makeover and some more maintenance as it has the potential to be really lovely.

The Upper Deck restaurant is not particularly appealing inside but the outside deck area is lovely and the view at breakfast was amazing.
One thing to note though is if you book through Booking.com and you pay extra to include breakfast as I did - you will only get a continental breakfast. If you wish to have a hot breakfast of any kind then you have to pay £10 which was quite annoying having already paid extra for breakfast - I assumed that meant a full breakfast but I didn’t read the small print.
On that subject, if you can I would also advise booking directly through the hotel website as opposed to sites like Booking.com as I only later found out that there are deals on there which have things like dinner included. So I could have paid £40 less for my room and had dinner included if I booked directly on the website.
When I spoke to someone in reservations she was quite rude and defensive when I brought this up and said my room had been upgraded so she wasn’t sure what more I wanted… the issue was that I didn’t ask for an upgrade, I would have been happy for the room I chose but it would have been nice to make use of the deal which was offered on the website but they couldn’t change my booking.
The room upgrade was to a harbour view, which was a nice gesture that we really appreciated - however, the view is largely obstructed by a vast expanse of roof so if you do pay extra to have this view bear in mind that the harbour is a distance away and you can’t see it particularly clearly - not from our room anyway. It’s nice to have but I wouldn’t pay extra for the privilege.
When we stayed the spa was also closed. I was aware of this before booking as Lynne from reception went out of her way to call me and make me aware of this which I really appreciated. She was so helpful and friendly when I called up to query some things.
I didn’t mind the spa being closed as we wanted to spend all our time at the beach anyway but the ongoing renovations did spoil the ambience and views of the hotel a bit, you felt like you were staying on a bit of a building site. It was noisy during breakfast and there were builders walking past.
It looks like it will be amazing once it is finished so as I said in the beginning, I’m sure staying here will be lovely in the future once the spa is finished and the ac is installed, but for us this time it was quite disappointing. Possibly because of reasons which I should have checked but I didn’t as it was a last minute booking due to a change of travel plans so it was a quick decision as opposed to a well researched long thought out plan.
I would definitely like to visit again in the future as it is a gorgeous hotel and I’m sure once renovations are finished it will be perfect.

The location was superb.

Great location with a beautiful outlook out to sea and extraordinarily helpful hotel staff.

Location is fabulous wonderful views, the staff are great friendly and helpful. A nice friendly relaxed atmosphere in which to unwind. The room was good very comfortable bed and a sea view,
We thought it excellent value for money, spent most of one day using the spa facilities which were superb then had a luxurious massage. We ate in both restaurants and they were excellent both with the food quality and the service. Will definitely be going back.

We had a wonderful 2 night stay with our 2 adult daughters. Our room had the added bonus of a lovely little private terrace outside (although a few weeds in the paving which should be removed). The beds were beautiful and incredibly comfortable and we got a great night’s sleep. It was hot but there was a fan in the room.

The spa was fantastic and we particularly enjoyed relaxing on the sunbeds outside the Hideaway. I believe it has just reopened after being refurbished. I also had a massage, which was excellent.

The location was perfect for exploring the area. We took the ferry over to Hengistbury Head and enjoyed a lovely walk around the peninsula. We also had a wonderful walk around Christchurch, visiting the Priory and the Quay.

We paid extra for a 2 hour later check out for one of our rooms as our flight wasn’t until later in the evening. It was worth doing that.

Overall, a superb hotel in a fantastic location. Beautiful rooms, excellent facilities and friendly staff, wonderful surroundings and plenty to see and do nearby. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would happily return.

Most amazing surf and turf, but the proper type! Whole lobster plus steak shared between the 2 of us made the fabulous S&T. Staff as always amazing service and truly looked after! See you again soon!!