The Riviera Hotel & Apartments

We booked this hotel for a short 3 night stay to celebrate our 1^st wedding anniversary. Our decision to say here was based on the hotels location, as it is just a quick walk away from both Alum Chine and the beach. While we have no complaints at all about the staff, as everyone was friendly and helpful, we did have a few issues with our stay. Honestly we wouldn’t consider staying here again on our next visit to Bournemouth.
Our quality of sleep at this hotel was extremely poor. The bed in our room was rock hard, and each morning we both woke up having slept badly and with back pains. We’re in our late 20’s, so this is not normally a problem for us, ever. It was bad enough that we discussed leaving early and just going home, but elected to stay and tough it out as we had already paid for the room.
The room (124) was a decent size, and had a balcony that even as far back as we were overlooked a bit of the chine and the sea. But since the rooms on either side of us had connected balconies as well, every time someone shut their balcony door, it shook the headboard of our bed and woke us up. This happened every single night we stayed, as the families on either side went in and out quite frequently. They do have entertainment some evenings (karaōke is what it sounded like), which was quite loud in our room. It did finish at a decent hour, but had I known this would be an issue I would have asked for a room as far away from the noise as possible.
The room itself was a bit shabby with bubbling and curling linoleum in the bathroom and very dated, ‘motel’ like furniture. Bedding was adequate, with flat, thin pillows. The bath towels all reeked of vinegar. I’m all for eco friendly cleaning solutions, but since on check in our room smelled so strongly of bleach from the bathroom having been cleaned that we needed to air it out, one would expect the towels to at least smell freshly laundered.
I would note is that while it was cloudy and rained while we were staying, the 1^st floor was incredibly humid and smelled strongly of chlorine during our stay. There is a pool located inside the premises, but we didn’t expect this to affect the temperature of our rooms. We slept with the window open all the way every night to keep the room a cool temperature for sleeping, but I can not imagine how hot it could get in the middle of proper summer temperatures. One other thing that struck me as quite odd was the practice of taking full payment for the room at check in, and also needing to turn in the key to the room when leaving the hotel premises. These may be standard practice, but they were not something I had encountered before.
Overall I imagine this is a great value hotel for families going on holiday together wanting to be super close to the beach, but not something I would recommend for couples or anyone wanting a slightly more relaxing, comfortable holiday.