The 17th century hotel sits just yards from the beautiful and fascinating ruins of Pevensey castle.

Pevensey is a lovely little village 10 minutes drive from Eastbourne and five minutes from the sea.

The hotel itself is well kept and cosy, with a snug bar in keeping with several original 17th century features.

My girlfriend and I had planned a quite weekend away and The Priory Court Hotel seemed ideal.

Our room was basic but comfortabe. One problem was the fact we were above the kitchen, so we had to listen to the drone of extractor fans until the cooking stopped.

I was not told about that particular feature when booking.

But the en-suite - which consisted of just a toilet and shower - was clean and the bed comfortable.

We didn't eat in the restaurant the first night opting for bar snacks instead, which were inexepensive and of good quality.

The hotel owners were friendly and appeared helpful.

However it became apparent the following day that we were the only guests staying at the hotel.

We later found out the nine remaining rooms had been pre-booked by a wedding party, a fact proprietor Jerry Watson had neglected to tell me during booking.

So on our first full day we endured children banging on our door, a woman opening our door with a key and entering the room, screaming, swearing and the stench of heavy cigarette smoke.

We asked for compensation because our weekend had been ruined, to which Mr Watson replied: "I'm not arguing a toss."

When we suggested we were in an impossible situation because we wouldn't be able to get a room elsewhere that late he said: "Why not? The town's not full."

Obviuousy we packed our bags and left, the weekend ruined by an individual who in my opinion had little regard for two guests over the 100 he had downstairs.

Mr Watson argued he had said there was a 'function' on when our room was booked. At no point during booking had he said it was a wedding or warned large numbers of people would be occupying the small hotel, which boasts of its 'relaxing' atmosphere on its own website.

The bottom line is the hotel is nice but the courtesy of one its owners is severely lacking.

Our quite weekend was ruined and our money wasted.
We will not go back.

Richard White