The Imperial Hotel, Blackpool, Exclusive Hire

The Imperial Hotel is a grand old building with a seafront location. The public rooms and main hall by reception have retained their character. The breakfast was excellent with a good choice of hot food and croissants. fruit etc. The staff were friendly and did their best to respond to any problems .The bar area was pleasant with live low key entertainment, although they did not sell any cask ales on tap which was disappointing . However the bedrooms were another story altogether very tired and dated. The bathroom had a bath with a plastic shower curtain with an ineffective shower attachment. It urgently requires something more modern preferably a Walk in Shower. There were several small issues. The Television had no signal for 2 days so we had to repack and move to another room which had a tv signal. Everyday we had to ask for another hand towel and they only left one. The second room had a temperamental radiator that did not work most if the time, consequently the room was cold. Apart from our rooms we enjoyed a lot of aspects of the hotel but it does need some upgrading. It is a good base in Blackpool .It is only a 10 minute downhill stroll to the Golden Mile and Tower

This year was my third year at the Imperial. I’ve always loved my stay. The rooms are beautiful and clean however this year I was gutted by the quality of the food this weekend. At breakfast the fruit was brown and although I didn’t eat the eggs the yolks were solid so had to skip them. We were told someone will bring over coffee and tea and 3 times throughout our stay I had to stop someone to ask. Now for the dinner buffet which was provided for our events. I have to say it was disgusting. 8 people on our table and 6 had the potato and leek soup. Not one of them ate it, it was like water. The choice for healthy alternatives were not available, very little salad. The pasta salad provided was clearly the left overs from the lunch buffet and it didn’t taste fresh. The rice salad had no flavour and felt like mush. Everything was very beige and very carbohydrate balanced. So I tried to opt for salad where I could. My friends who are gluten free did not have much to go with and even one of them was offered a ham sandwich for her alternative and she’s a vegetarian!!! As you can see by my photo the cucumber had been frozen. I can’t fault the staff on desk they were very kind and helpful but maybe the people in the kitchen need a bit of a wake up call. Please Imperial go back to the quality before. Even if a budget was given there is no excuse for poor quality produce.