Certainly not the 'boutique hotel' as advertised. State of hotel very poor. They were doing renovations but even so. Very small room, with cheap thin mattress. Call me picky, but I feel a good bed is an absolute requisite for any hotel- esp at these prices!
Staff nice and helpful. Breakfast poor. Packet pancakes served lukewarm. Hotel is in a good postion and daily parking available by tickets. Don't think we would pick this one again.

We stayed for two nights in this hotel after phoning the (fully booked) New Steine directly and being told that Gullivers could accomodate us instead.

While the hotel was in an ideal location, the service good and the food excellent, the standard of the actual building and room was extremely poor. We were told renovation was being carried out which would explain some of the marks on the communal halls and general untidiness. However, for over £100 per night, the value is extremely poor - a tiny double room, even tinier bathroom. Poor standard of decor, this is certainly not the 'boutique' hotel that it is trying (and claiming) to be.

Shame really as cant fault overall cleanliness of hotel and friendliness of staff, just wasn't worth the money!

Booked off the hotels web page. We booked a luxury double en-suite. Well I would have hated to have one that wasn't luxury !!!! Cost £115.00 per night ! Bathroom was really just a cupboard in the wall. Toilet would not flush ( pleasant on a romantic week end break ) When we ran the tap in the sink "brown stuff" ????? pumped out of shower plug whole !!!! Some onefrom the Brighton tourist board needs to check this hotel and definitely stop the misleading web site. Brighton itself was great but we were TOTALLY ripped off. Oh and the room smelt and that was B4 thetoilet wouldn't flush!

Gullivers Hotel is described on their website as "An elegant, 4 diamond luxury boutique hotel, with unique attention to detail and the most personal and friendly of service". Having stayed there for 3 days, I think the webmaster needs to visit the hotel and experience the "elegance" for his/herself!

I must admit, I am quite fussy about where I stay and maybe I'm being a little harsh but the place was a bit "rough round the edges". On arrival, we walked into the hotel and looked for the reception but there wasn't one! The "reception" was actually two small offices at the end of the hallway!

The "contempory and elegant lounge combining warmth and elegance with modern furnishing in complimentary colours" desribed on their website was definitely not elegant. The wallpaper was coming unstuck off the walls, the curtains were hanging off the tracks, most of the furniture was missing (!) and in the bay window, there was an "elegant" display of mud all over the carpet!! Please see my pictures, which more accurately depict the lounge area. In fairness, we had no need to use the lounge but it was clearly not as described. Having said that, unless you were using the free wi-fi access, which I understand was available in the lounge, I doubt that many guests would actually have any need to sit in there.

THE BEDROOM

Although we were told that our room would be available from 1.00pm, when we arrived at the hotel @ 2.30pm, we were told that they were just finishing off getting the room ready. To use some time, we went off in search of a parking space (more about that later) and eventually, when we returned to the hotel, we were shown to our room.

We booked a triple en-suite with sea view - the sea could not really be seen but that didn't bother us. Our initial impression of the room was that it was very compact and bijoux, although it did appear clean. The bedrooms are described as "well equipped to give a feeling of relaxed luxury" and "beautifully appointed".

The room had a double and a single bed plus a small table and two chairs in the bay window area and a wardrobe and desk area, with a colour 14" tv. The direct dial telephone didn't work, there was no hairdryer despite the website advertising this (although I did manage to get one from "reception" and some of the fixtures and fittings in the room were broken. The curtains in the room were hanging off the tracks but these were fixed very quickly. The beds were very comfy and the linen was clean and crisp.

We were told that running repairs were being undertaken in our room and on two occasions, we returned to the room to find a workman, but it was not clear exactly what work was being carried out. On the 1st day, they had obviously been doing some gloss painting around the high skirting board area - we were not told that there was wet paint - my son discovered this when he got it all up his legs as he walked past!

On the 2nd night when we got back to our room, quite late at night, we could not get in! The key would not unlock the door and after many attempts, we had to call someone in from THE TROUVILLE HOTEL, which was next door. The guy tried the lock, also without success and after spending some time deliberating how we were going to get into the room, he did a run up and used his shoulder to force open the door! It turned out that the latch on the insde of the catch had slipped down so the door was locked from inside, which was why we could not get in.

THE BATHROOM

Our room had an en suite shower room but this was so small that it was actually easier to use the toilet/bathroom on the landing (I presume that not all rooms are en suite). In order to make the rooms en suite, a corner of the original bedroom had been blocked off with a partition wall but the whole "bathroom" was no more than 6 feet long and about 3 foot wide - IT WAS TINY and very difficult to use! In order to sit on the toilet (which was loose and not screwed to the floor properly) you had to negotiate the edge of the sink and literally squeeze through in order to sit down! Once in position, your knees were under the sink and you could literally wash you hands at the same time as sitting on the toilet (not that you are likely to want to do that - I'm just making the point that it was very small).

In order to get into the shower cubicle, you had to negotiate the other side of the sink and climb up into the shower tray as it seemed quite high off the floor. The cubicle looked a bit grubby in the corners with black mould spots and the shower controls were loose on the wall although it looked as though someone had tried to use large amounts of white sealant to make this secure. I'm not sure what the problem was with the water but you had to run the shower for about 5 minutes before the water was hot and even then, you had to make sure that the taps on the baisin were not turned on at the same time as if they were, the water in the shower became dangerously hot or freezing cold.

The other thing that I didn't like about the bathroom was that the towel rail was alongside the toilet and when the towels were hung in position, they were touching the side of the toilet and dangling against the toilet brush, which was on the floor. I just didn't think that this was a suitable location for the towel rail although because of the size of the room, another location was unavailable. There was a small hook on the back of the door so I moved the towels onto that.

On the landing outside of our room, was a toilet and a bathroom with a bath, sink and toilet. These looked clean although I noticed that the shower curtain around the bath was a bit grubby but at least you could sit on the loo in comfort without your knees touching the sink!!!!

THE FOOD

MMMMMMMMMMMM excellent!!!! On the first night we paid £105 for bed, breakfast and evening meal, which was a bargain! The evening meal was served at "THE NEW STEINE HOTEL", which was two doors away.

The hotel has a small French Bistro in the basement and the evening meal was absolutely delicious. We were given a choice from a set menu and selected a starter, main course and dessert. I cannot fault the food at all and we all enjoyed every mouthful! Stephane (who is one of the hotel owners) served us in the bistro and is a lovely chap. He was really friendly and took the time to speak with us when taking our orders and bringing the food to our table.

Drinks were not included, although were available and we had wine and beer. These were added to our bill and paid for on departure.

Breakfast was served in "THE TROUVILLE HOTEL", which was next door to Gullivers. Again this was really good, although the dining room was a little cramped and it did get busy in there as guests from the 3 hotels, all used the same facilities. Breakfast is available from 8am - 10am on weekdays.

There was a small buffet area, where you could get juice, cereals, youghurts and fruit. Toast was brought to the table and you selected your breafast from a set menu. We had a full english each day and it was fab! There was also a choice of a vegetarian cooked breakfast or a continental one if you so wished.

PARKING

What a nightmare!! Brighton is not an easy place to park althought due to the good location of the hotel, once parked, you probably won't need to use your car again for the duration of your stay.

There is meter parking in the square outside of the hotel (which is expensive although free between 6pm and 9am) or you can get a 24 hour parking permit from the hotel for £5. These permits entitle you to park in ZONE C but finding a space was a bit of a nightmare. The parking bays are on the roadside but we did spend quite a time driving round and round trying to locate somewhere to put the car. On one of the nights we had to use our car as we went outside of Brighton but when we got back late at night, there was literally no where to park. Eventually, we found a space in a side street but it was about 10 minutes walk away from the hotel.

The parking situation is probably no different to any other large town in the UK, but it did cause quite a lot of family disputes!!!

HOTEL LOCATION

This is excellent - walk down to the bottom of the road and cross over and you are on the sea front and by the pier. All the tourist attractions are within walking distance and if you want to go to The Marina, you can get onto the Volk's electric train, which will take you there. At the top of the road that the hotel is on you will find lot's of shops, bars and restaurants so the location is definitely superb.

HOTEL STAFF

The three hotels (GULLIVERS, TROUVILLE & NEW STEINE) are owned by Herve and Stephane who are French and they are lovely, lovely men! Full of useful information all about Brighton and what to see and where to go etc, etc. Nothing was too much trouble for them and they were very pleasant

CONCLUSION

In summary, the room was pretty ok for a short break as we were only there 3 nights. We paid £105 for the first night (inc evening meal) and £89 for bed and breakfast on the following nights so even though there were problems, it was still good value. I'm not sure that I would stay at the hotel again, but mainly because of the en suite bathroom facilites.