Rex Hotel

Situated on the bustling bar strip of South Parade, featuring huge rooms with amazing views of Whitley Bay and including a full English breakfast all at very modest prices, the Rex Hotel Whitley Bay should be the first and last name in mid-range accommodation at the picturesque Tyneside sea resort. But I would never come again.

Nor would I recommend it to any traveller on any budget, because checking in should not take twenty minutes of your time and years off your life – particularly when you are the only customer in reception, two members of staff are serving you and one is the hotel manager.

My stay at Whitley Bay was a last minute decision and as such the accommodation was booked the day I was due to check in.

A four hour drive after receiving the online confirmation I arrived at the Rex to be told there was no reservation in my name but there were more than enough rooms and I was quite welcome to stay.

However the 15% deposit that had been paid online would not be honoured and I would have to pay full price.

Showing my reservation number did not help matters (“no, that isn’t a set of numbers we use to confirm bookings.”) Nor did showing the website I had booked through which, based on the URL, I assumed was theirs (“we don’t operate a website, the company that handles our bookings has set that up in our name.”)

Since they would not honour my deposit I wanted the 15% refunded, which they would not provide as I had not paid it to them. Much wrangling and arguing ensued at the end of which the manager offered to “recheck the extranet” and surprise, surprise, my reservation had come through.

I paid the balance on the room, checked in and then was told by the manager I owed her an apology for accusing the business of stealing my deposit. I was too shocked to offer any kind of retort and instead went to the room.

After booking a double room I was pleasantly surprised to walk in to an enormous room with two double beds. Though the carpet and décor were fairly dated, the room was clean and undoubtedly great value for money.

The adjoining bathroom was small but clean, coffee and tea facilities were provided in the room, as was wifi internet and the view out the window on to Whitley Bay really was beautiful.

But the factors that should primarily determine one’s stay really became inconsequential. Had my room been the penthouse suite with the kind of decadence one expects from the Ritz I still would have left with a bad taste in my mouth.

Because in this age of instant reservations, a hotel’s “extranet” taking four and a half hours to spit out an online booking does not wash.

And in the hospitality industry apathy, laziness and rudeness, such as I was shown by the Rex Hotel’s staff, will never wash.