Applewood Hotel

This place is a hidden gem in Bournemouth! Took a spontaneous trip from Oxfordshire down to the coast for a night, before the madness of a return to school for our son. Looked for a place to stay, and while there were many choices available, majority of them came with extra hidden little charges such as £100 deposit on arrival on top of the cost of the room, extortionate parking charges, and more. The Applewood though had none of these, and was cheaper than those others! This place is great value for money. We arrived at around midday, a couple of hours before check-in which we already knew. We were allowed to park the car early (free of charge), so meant we could go explore a little in the town. When time for check in came, we headed back, and rang the doorbell, to be greated and welcomed in, asked about our journey, and a general chat about the weather etc, all the things you would want from a great host! Checking in was flawless, quickly done, and all information given that was needed. We even got out breakfast order taken for the following morning, which is great as certainly saves time in the morning! Breakfast does incur an additional charge, but the cost of this and our room together still worked out cheaper than the other places we looked at staying! The building is beautiful, and you can tell that there has been alot of care and consideration into making it look and feel like a home from from. Our room was lovely! My wife & I had a huge bed, and our son his own, proper bed, not a fold away/sofa bed. The room was extremely comfortable, and had all we needed for a good nights sleep. The only small gripe if you can call it that is in the morning when everyone is showering, the hot water can be sparse, but this is understandable as it's not a huge 200 bedroom hotel with several boilers etc. As I say, that's just a small thing that certainly didn't detract from any part of the stay here. Breakfast was good. No complaints at all. Tables are already set ready with your room number, so you go sit down at the designated place. You're then served in stages with what you ordered, starting with tea/coffee, toast, yoghurts etc. Cereals and condiments already out for you to get started with, and then your food arrives 5-10 mins after sitting down as it's cooked fresh to order. Had the poached eggs on toast, eggs were done to perfection, although no seasoning, but that's preferential and I added my own. I had mine on a nice thick granary bread, whereas the white bread my wife had was a standard slice of bread, so the bread got a little too wet quickly due to it's thin nature, but again, a minor point and didn't detract from the experience as a whole. There is a weekend only English breakfast option too for those staying over a weekend. On check out, I asked if I could leave the car for a few extra hours so we could hit the beach, and this was met with a very kind "of course", which I never expected of course, but these small gestures show that the owners do care about the guest experience and satisfaction, and do all they can to ensure the guest's are happy. Overall, it was great that we were able to find this place, and we already commented how we will use, and recommend, this place if we visit Bournemouth again for a weekend.