I spent 4 nights at Atlantis. When I booked the holiday, I spoke to Steph, who was very friendly. If I needed to e-mail Steph about my booking, Simon replied very quickly, which I found helpful. Steph and Simon own this guest house and live below it.
Upon arrival, Steph greeted me with the biggest smile. She gave me a load of leaflets and flyers, and told me about Torquay. She gave me a ‘what to do’ guide and advised what buses to catch and recommended places to eat at. I thought this was fantastic service.
The guest house is a 10min walk to the seafront. It is surrounded by many shops, such as convenience stores, cafes, pubs, Indian takeaway, chippy, pizza, bakery, etc. Steph and Simon provide a cooked breakfast every morning (at extra cost), but due to there being many cafes in the area, I decided to go out for breakfast. I recommend @cafedelmar.
The guest house is cosy and clean. My room was spacious, the TV worked very well with plenty of channels to watch. There was a hairdryer and fan in the cupboard and wifi connection was good. There is an iron and ironing board on the floor above and tea/coffee making facilities in the room (no biscuits). I am always grateful to have an ensuite bathroom, but this ensuite was very small. You couldn't walk around in it. You open the bathroom door and take one step in to sit on the toilet and another step to get into the cubicle shower. I am very slim and I struggled a bit with the small space.
My first evening at this guest house went very well, but what I experienced the next day, changed everything for me. I got up at about 7:00am and was getting ready. It was coming up to 7:30am and I thought I would iron my clothes. Please note – I was still getting ready and wouldn’t have actually gone out until about 8:00am. I went to use the iron, but it didn’t work. Whenever hotels provide a cooked breakfast service, they normally start serving breakfast from 7:30am, so I assumed that Steph would be awake. I did her doorbell. When she came up, I couldn’t believe what I saw. Her face was like thunder. I am surprised she didn’t come up with a shot gun! I explained that the iron wasn’t working and as I spoke, she looked as though her life had been turned upside down. This woman went from being Mary Poppins to Dracula! Due to her looking so distressed, I apologised, and she said, ‘I wanted a lie in today’. She then checked the iron and saw that it didn’t work. Again, due to her looking as if her life had been torn apart, I kindly said ‘don’t worry, I’ll sort something out’. She then had the cheek to look at the top I was going to wear and said, ‘that doesn’t even need ironing, I’m going back to bed’.
When I look back and reflect on this, I think Steph was very unprofessional and rude! I was a PAYING customer. My payment included, making use of the facilities that were provided. If I can’t iron my clothes at 7:30am, should I have twiddled my thumbs to wait for her Ladyship to have her lie in, first?
If I ran a guest house and a customer called me at 7:30am with the same issue, I would feel bad that an electrical appliance which I have provided, has failed to work. The first thing I would’ve done is, got my own iron for them to use, so they could get ready and get on with their planned day. I wouldn’t have made them feel bad for calling me, because that is what a hotel manager/owner is there for!
After this incident, I didn’t see Steph again. I heard her knocking on my neighbour’s door to have chats with him, but not a single ‘how are you getting on’. On my last day, I was expecting Steph or Simon to come up, or at least leave a note in my room to say, ‘thank you for staying with us, when checking out, please leave your key here’. I got nothing, no communication whatsoever! What a contrast from the welcome shower I got!
Torquay is full of hotels. They are next door to each other and you see them on every street. If a customer has chosen to stay at your hotel, wouldn’t you even thank them for choosing you?
I will definitely be coming to Torquay again, but I will never stay at Atlantis again.
