My boyfriend went to this hotel a few times with his parents when he was younger. In May 2010 we spent 1 night there to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. We had a wonderful two days and regretted not having booked for a longer stay. The weather contributed to this, it was a nice 25 °C so we could really enjoy sitting outside with a drink, walking along the beach and simply enjoy the unexpected early sun.
We had a basic room with twin beds. Went before the recent renovations so maybe a bit old fashioned furniture, but looking at the newer photographs, it looks really fresh and trendy now!
Didn't really mind the look of the room anyway, you don't see the color of paint when you're sleeping. It was clean and comfortable and that's what mattered most.
I wasn't much of a fan of the shower tough. It's quite small and the shower curtain kept sticking to me while showering, I'd replace the curtains with a shower screen which would make showering a lot more comfortable. Next time will go for a junior suite which has a bathtub.

Breakfast was perfect, even hot choices! Eggs, bacon, chocolate rolls, croissants, cereals, cheese, ham, ... Everything you could think of to have for breakfast was available. Dinner was very nice too, only remark I have is that I wouldn't qualify it as a buffet. There's a salad bar and soup (one kind) and for mains one choice of meat and one of fish. Desserts I remember there being lots of ice cream but I don't remember any other choices. There could've been, I was pretty full after mains so didn't really pay much attention and just went for a scoop of vanilla ice cream. ;)
Yet one choice for fish and one for meat, is not a buffet in my opinion but more of a choice menu except for the fact that you could go and refill as much as you liked. It all was nice and fresh, hot enough and very tasty tough! So no real complaints about the food, just that I wouldn't label it as a buffet since I think this is a bit misleading. When you say buffet I'd think there'd be more choices and it could be a disappointment if you expect something like in the 4 star hotels in Spain for example.

Staff was very friendly, my boyfriend got up with migraine in the morning and of course we had forgotten painkillers. They gladly helped us at the reception and provided him with a painkiller and gave him an extra one in case the headache would return during the day or the drive home. They even offered to call a doctor but we said this wasn't necessary. A doctor wouldn't have been able to help anyway, it's just that stupid migraine that comes back once in a while and when it does you just have to endure it 'til it passes. Just a pity that it came up right in the middle of our weekend away.

Tiny complaint: The parking we reserved, turned out to be a spot at "visserskaai", which is the local underground parking where just about all the day tourists park as well, paying by the hour. We of course just paid a fixed price which was way lower then having to pay by hour, but it was quite a walk from the hotel with all of our luggage. Thank God we only packed for 2 days, I wouldn't have wanna walk the whole way with a full suitcase! There's the possibility of parking right in front of the hotel for maximum 15 minutes tough, so you could get out all the luggage and bring it upstairs and THEN go park your car at Visserskaai parking. Yet these weren't many spots so you have to be lucky to have one right when you arrive or leave.

The hotel is nearly always completly full, I think that says enough. We've been wanting to go back for over a year now, but because we're bound to weekend or school vacations, it's always already full when we try to book. On their own site, on booking.com and with travel agents as well. It's always one of the first Ostend hotels to be full, so that pretty much explains how popular it is!

We'll be returning (just saw that May wasn't full yet, so we're hoping we won't be late with booking this time once vacation days at work are confirmed for BF and finaly will go back! ;) ) and I would definitely recommend this hotel. It has clean, refurbished rooms, a very cozy bar, a playroom for the kids and dinner is really delicious, just note that it's not an actual buffet. It's located right next to the shopping streets, near the beach and there are lots of restaurants and bars nearby. So if you don't wanna opt for dinner in the hotel, there still is plenty of choice.

Ostend is a nice city with lots of shopping possibilities, bars, restaurants, a movie theather, a pretty beach and lots of other options to do. Plopsaland De Panne and Sealife aren't far away and were very enjoyable.

We had a lovely 2 days and are looking forward too our next visit. Thumbs up Ostend Hotel, you're doing great! Keep up the good work!