On the positive side: The location is brilliant. Right on the top of the cliff overlooking the sea. If you are lucky you can see France! The staff was very friendly. We had a sea view room. The view was great. The windows open if you want fresh air. Breakfast was very good. You could order as much as you want and all freshly cooked. Still a reasonable choice for 1 night as it was not too expensive.

On the negative side: The hotel is badly in need of re-refurbishment. The room we had was worn out. Water stains on the ceiling. A bath and no shower. The carpet was totally grey at the edges where it was missed (for years probably) with the vacuum cleaner. When the people above us on the next floor moved around it was very noisy. The floorboards creaked a lot.

Firstly I would say that this is not a 5***** hotel. However the efficient and friendly service of the staff exceeds what would be expected if it were 5***** (and at a quarter of the price!!).

The hotel is perfecly located overlooking the sea and with distant views of the French coast. It is immaculatly clean and extremely comfortable. Our room left nothing to be desired - plenty of room to move around, a spotlessly clean and comfortable bed, and with a balcony and a sea view. Laying in bed in the still of the night it was possible to hear the waves lapping the beach below! The en-suite was a little old and showing some signs of use over the past years but had everything required including complimentary toiletries.

The breakfast was fine, again with wonderful friendly service from the waitress.

This was our fourth visit to The Southcliff and we will be returning.

So what is my advice to anybody contemplating a visit:....................If you want to use the hotel's spa, swimming pool, gym, the rest that goes with the 5*****s, and pay £200.00++ per night I would suggest that you look elsewhere.................................BUT if you want a clean, comfortable, and efficiently run friendly hotel at a very reasonable price THIS IS THE PLACE FOR YOU..........................................ENJOY!!

We stayed for 4 nights half board starting on 28 Nov 2011. We were on a coach trip with Travelstyle. It certainly was a bargain price.
As I said the meals were very nice with a good choice each evening. Friendly staff, apart from the manager who was a bit self opinionated and unhelpful at times.
The hotel is well situated, and generally clean.
Our room was right up in the attic. The furniture must have been bought second hand. It didn't match at all, but the worst thing was the chest of drawers which was dangerous, because the drawers (the ones that had handles) were very loose, short and fell out easily.
I didn't bother to set my Freesatplus box to record any programmes, because the ad said TV in room. As Folkestone only has Digital I assumed I would be able to watch Freesat. But NO, the TV was a special model with a remote that only had volume and programme up and down. At the changeover it is frequently necessary to retune. The manager said that he couldn't retune the set, it was a special system and if you retuned one set, it would affect all the other sets. What he didn't know was that I am an electronic engineer and I checked the set and found he was talking B********. He said the people who installed the system charged an arm and a leg to come out. He kept promising to put it right, but never did. So most of the channels didn't work.
The entertainment wasn't bad for the money, the bar prices were OK. One other thing - I would take a torch because if there was a power failure, the emergency exit didn't seem to have enough emergency lights, and one of the staircases was very convoluted.
In the winter the best thing would be to include the weekend, because nearly all the places to visit were closed mid week. You can go to Dover and Dymchurch by bus.

nice local hotel right on the leas in front of the channel, great friendly staff, functional front lobby lounge (they also have one in the rear with some game machines), front terrace where u can have a smoke or sit down with pint, nice little bar where u can mingle with the other guests (not the old lady buses who frequent there, they are usually entertained in a separate room with some live performances), tiny elevator but operational, back yard parking at an additional cost, ok breakfast hall in the basement with complimentary buffet and waiter service.

some rooms have nice front balcony's which are a good feature, the beds are tiny and the mattresses outdated, some toilets are tiny 'n not all the rooms have both showers and tubs and even the ones with tubs don't always have a shower head installed but all of them have 19" flat screen tv's, the rooms are heated by a central steam radiator system which heats pretty well but you can't adjust the temperature, i don't recall if they've have cooling or not.

good place all around and u always one of the 3 friendly partners around.