We booked the Umi on a kgb deal, not having been to Brighton; and what a great surprise. The hotel is an eclectic mix of Japanese named hotel, contemporary rooms, and an Opera themed restaurant. We were upgraded to a sea view room which was wonderful, and huge. The Umi is close to the Lanes shopping and eatery area, where everything is on your doorstep, including the fabulous victorian pier.

Me & My boyfriend came to brighton as a christmas present and something we had really been looking forward to doing as a weekend away. upon arrival we were very happy with the location, and check in process by a lovly young blonde receptionist who was full of usefull information and smiles. Our room was very clean and tidy with a great view giving us a very good first impression. Unfourtnly that wasnt very long lived. On our first evening we went to reception to ask for 2 large glasses for the room inwhich the receptionist Liam replied "what do you need large glasses for, there are cups in the room" which i was surprised with his reply as seemed rude and unnessecary, we ended up recieving the glasses and that was the end of that. but from that point onwards whenever we were at reception querying anything we recieved a negative response and very poor customer service from Liam with more dirty looks than a warm smile. upon check out Liam was on reception, we wernt even asked how our stay was, if we enjoyed brighton anything just did we want a invoice, once we declined he turnt to another receptionist stating how he felt tierd and ruff and needed a coffee and a fag before completing any of his daily tasks.. i work in a hotel myself and i would certainly not have this team member on my team with such a negative attitude and very little people or customer service skills. we left with a negative feel of the hotel down to this one member of staff. would love to visit brighton again but would not be staying at this hotel thats for sure.

Room was stuffy and overheated therefore I turned off the radiator and kept the window open. Could this be reason for a fine for smoking in the room? The small print contained with the signing in sheet states the they have only "to believe" you have smoked in the room.Well you can believe all you want it doesn't make it true! So beware, if they have your card details they can take money from you on a whim!

I would just like to start by saying that if you are not that worried about receiving decent Customer Service, then this hotel is just the place for you.

My friends and I booked this hotel as a surprise birthday night away for a very good friend of ours. Five of us arrived to check in to the hotel at around 1pm only to be told to Shhh by the male receptionist Liam, as he was on the phone...Not a welcome with a smile more a welcome with a snarl!!!!! We were told that we could not get into our room until 3pm, which was fine because we had already checked this with the hotel when we booked, but had planned to put our bags and cases into the luggage room (of which we were also told at the time of booking was available to guests of the hotel) and then go for some lunch and a spot of shopping until we could get into our room. However when we asked if we could put our cases in the luggage room Liam told us that the luggage room was full and that we would have to keep our cases with us!! One of the girls in our group asked if it was at all possible that they could use another room to put the cases in, Liam told us no this was not possible at all. We were a bit disappointed that the hotel could not offer the service that they had told us was available to guests.. We decided to forget about going to do some shopping as the thought of dragging our cases and bags around brighton town centre was not a feasible option, so instead we had to drag our luggage with us into the hotel restaurant for lunch and hang around in the hotel until 3pm when we could get into the room.

We then continued the rest of the day and night celebrating our friends birthday. The next morning we were up and ready and down for breakfast at 10.15 in time for checking out at 11am. At 10.50 we went to reception to ask if we could put our bags and cases in the luggage room so that we could do the shopping that we had planned to do the day before......Guess what Liam once again told us that the luggage room was full and that if we had wanted to put our bags in there then we should have brought them down at 7am that morning!!! The birthday girl asked Liam if it was at all possible for us to put the cases in another room so we could do the shopping and see brighton as we had not been able to do it the day before due to the luggage room being full up, Liam once again said it was not possible and that we should have brought them down at 7am...he then went on to say that we had had a four hour slot (between 7am - 11am) to bring our cases down and put them into the luggage room...Bearing in mind this was at 10.50 am 10 miniutes before 11am, so that was a contradiction in itself. Obviously we wasn't very happy with the customer service that we were receiving and the fact that Liam was not willing to come up with a solution at all. During the conversation that we had Liam was very very rude towards us, at one point even telling us that finding somewhere to put our cases was our problem and not his, he constantly continued to argue with us and be very obnoxious!!! We went back to our room got our cases and came back down and sat in the lobby whilst we tried to solve our problem of where to put our luggage. While we were sitting there 2 other lots of guests also asked if they could put their cases in the luggage room, only to be told the same as us..."It is full, and putting the bags in another room was not an option". We told one of the other guests that we had had the same problem and about how rudely Liam had spoken to us, they told us that Liam had been really rude to them the day before!!! Very interested to know where Liam learnt his customer service skills or not as the case may be. At one point Liam also told one of our group that if she didn't shut up he would physically throw her out of the hotel...I ask you is that anyway to speak to a customer.

Needless to say, for as long as Liam is working at the Umi Hotel in Brighton we would only stay there again as a last resort hotel, and hope for the best that we would not be treated as badly as we have been by a member of staff at the Umi Hotel again!!!

Sarah, Claire, Denise, Debbie & Sarah