The Cavendish Hotel, Exclusive Hire

We got a room for the Eastbourne Airshow over the weekend and booked a “windowless” room to save some money since everything was inflated over the weekend. We were pleasantly surprised when we were given a room with a window and a fan… but thats where the good features end. You could tell our was very old and poorly maintained nor had it been properly cleaned before our check in. The problems were: - dusty and unclean surfaces - the plumbing was damaged as evident by the vibrating pump beneath us - faint urine smell - musty smell throughout the room - rooms were poorly ventilates - broken hairdryer We were woken up at 3AM due to the fire alarm, the whole building was evacuated and that when it was identified that there was a leakage around our room! We should have complained about this immediately instead of accepting that that was the standard. At 4:30AM we were offered to stay in another room as the plumbing in ours was damaged. It was a good gesture and after seeing the other room, we saw that the standard was much better. Not smelly, plumbing was fine and a lot less dusty. It was a shame that we didn’t ask for something better earlier - would have been happier with an actual windowless room that was clean and didn’t smell funky! We hope that this review helps improve the state of the hotel. The staff did their best in supporting us and this isn’t their fault. It is on the onus of the owners to upkeep the rooms and plumbing of the hotel at an adequate level of cleanliness.

From now on, I'll systematically check Google reviews... The hotel is old and clearly poorly maintained. The staff is friendly but not fully conversant (at reception), and the breakfast (hearty and good) is managed by vouchers (like in the USSR). Two nights there; one was the worst of my entire life as a hotel guest (noisy neighbors), and the second (in another room - thanks to reception) was cold. In a word, picturesque, but an experience I won't repeat.