Overs 60s group compares Eastbourne hotel to ‘Fawlty Towers’ with mice spotted

Jane Yeomans, Golden Years manager for the Saint Pancras Community Association, organised a trip for 27 people aged over 65 to stay at the Cavendish Hotel from September 19-23. She said the majority of members had issues with the hotel. Jane said: “I made a complaint on behalf of the group and asked for a goodwill gesture of compensation for the guests and an additional £45 refund for Christine Kerr.”

She said this complaint was sent October 6 and there’s been no reply yet. Issues included dirty rooms, a broken bed for one guest, poor customer service, and two guests said they saw mice in the corridors.

Christine Kerr said she was charged £45 to change to a warmer room because the first one was ‘freezing cold’. She said: “It [the second room] was warmer but very tired and dirty. The bathroom had lots of cracked and broken tiles and mildew around the hand basin. All light fixtures had thick dust and the ceiling light had cobwebs hanging from it. The ceiling had big cracks in it – looks like it’s ready to fall down any minute.”

Gina Bond said the main hotel lift was out of use and all guests had to use a small service lift which didn’t look like it had been ‘cleaned or sanitised for ages’. She said the food wasn’t good either. Gina said: “I would never have served this to any of my friends or family.”

Carolyn Hargrave said most of the lights didn’t work in her room and there were cracks in the room and bathroom. Other problems included mould in the bathroom, stains on the ‘rock-hard’ mattress, and ‘filthy’ windows. Eventually Carolyn moved rooms but there were still problems and she said she was ill from the hotel’s food.

Shirley Ashard said: “It was like Fawlty Towers and it was just good luck that most people could laugh it off but not all of them could nor should as it was not fun for them.”

These allegations were put to the Cavendish Hotel but it said it doesn’t respond to complaints through the press. Jane said she’s not heard back from the hotel.

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