Eastbourne hotel guests leave rooms in freezing conditions due to power cut

Sylvia Holmes was staying at the Burlington Hotel with friends for a tribute weekend. On the evening of December 10 and into the early hours of December 11 some rooms lost power and were without light, heat and hot water. This resulted some guests having to go to neighbouring hotels in the middle of the night in sub-zero temperatures.

Ms Holmes said her friend went to the Best Western Lansdowne Hotel with a torch. She said: “It was terrible. Freezing conditions and all these old people were being moved with no formal announcement or notice given. Our friend had no idea he was going to be moved. We heard from others who had cases. After asking reception he was told as he had no power in his room to go and pack as he was going to another hotel, Great Western, and was given a torch. Poor man was afraid of falling over in the panic to pack.”

Ms Holmes sent a complaint to the hotel. It said: “Unfortunately since our arrival there has been no heating, no hot water, plus electricity blackouts. One of our group was told to go pack his case in the dark and go to Best Western hotel, a considerable walk away and this was after midnight. No one on reception was interested. It isn’t any way to treat elderly guests.”

A hotel spokesperson said: “Around 3pm we suffered a limited power failure, which initially only affected certain rooms. However, at 9pm, this power failure spread to all floors of the hotel. Realising that we wouldn’t be able to restore power any time soon, we took the decision to accommodate our guests at alternative hotels. This saw us begin contacting guests individually to advise them of the situation and where they would be relocated. This was done on a one-to-one basis, rather than as a collective, so as to better address guests’ individual queries and concerns.

“Each guest was offered assistance with moving; they were also offered taxis or travel payment and reimbursement for the journey to the alternative hotels we’d managed to arrange for them.

“Due to the timing of the blackouts, the hotel was down to limited resources on the night shift, Given it was a Saturday night, the situation was compounded by a lack of taxis – which caused wait times of up to an hour. This saw some guests take the decision to leave our hotel and make their own way to the new hotels, rather than continuing to wait.

“The hotel team did their utmost to manage the process as efficiently as possible, moving swiftly in challenging circumstances to try and relocate guests at a peak time on a Saturday evening. Despite this, it was clearly a difficult situation for the guests staying with us, and we have apologised unreservedly to them for the experience they encountered.”

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