Situated on the level seafront of this hugely popular Victorian seaside resort stands the welcoming Dilkhusa Grand Hotel. The hotel was originally a private house, bought by a Raj at the turn of the last century as a gift to his wife - Dilkhusa translates from Hindustani roughly as ‘House of the Happy Heart!’ The hotel overlooks the picturesque Runnymede gardens and is close to the Landmark theatre which attracts many national acts. It is also just a short walk from the bustling 10th-century harbour where Britain’s most famous living artist, Damien Hirst, owns a restaurant. The Dilkhusa has a well-appointed restaurant combining excellent hospitality and service. A spacious and comfortable entertainments suite provides the ideal setting in which to sit back and enjoy the acts at this friendly and sociable hotel...
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Centrally Located
Quiet
Languages Spoken
English
Location
Wilder Road, Ilfracombe EX34 9AH England
Dilkhusa Grand Hotel Ilfracombe by Compass Hospitality
1,100 reviews
Getting there
Great for walkers
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
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The Dilkhusa Grand Hotel in Ilfracombe is appreciated by guests for its satisfactory amenities, including clean rooms with comfortable beds and the convenience of hot showers. While many commend the hotel's prime location near the beach and its character-rich atmosphere, there are suggestions that certain aspects of the hotel show signs of neglect and could use an update.
Opinions on value and service vary, with some travelers finding it economical with friendly staff, while others encounter additional costs and inconsistent service. Room experiences are mixed, with positive notes on views and basic amenities but also reports of maintenance issues.
Location
Convenient
Atmosphere
Charming
Rooms
Basic
Value
Economical
Cleanliness
Mixed
Service
Inconsistent
Amenities
Satisfactory
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This hotel is a tad dated but scratch beneath the surface and it soon becomes apparent what it is that makes this hotel a success, its the people who are so very helpful and the food, which is above average. The inside of the rooms need attention, cracked tiles in the shower, not the best mattress but for a short 5 day break was in fact ok. The staff cannot do enough to keep everyone happy and everything was done in a covid safe way. My only concern is how often is the inside of the lift wiped down, that said, hand gel was in a number of locations, so couldn't find fault there. The meals were really nicely presented and of a high standard for the price of the stay. Great location with just 5 minutes walk to the seafront, for a budget hotel, this is a great place to stay and enjoy some of the great British seaside experience.
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Date of stay: May 2021Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip:Parking is very limited but for around £12 you can buy a weeks parking voucher from the council.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Pedro Anzules-Martinez, General Manager at Dilkhusa Grand Hotel Ilfracombe by Compass Hospitality
Responded 8 Jun 2021
Thank you very much for taking the time to post your review. I am glad you enjoyed your stay with us and found staff friendly. Once again, thank you for visiting us and for your lovely comments and hope to see you again in a near future.
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A nice hotel with a lift. Fortunately they managed to find us a parking place in their rear car park, otherwise parking would be an issue at £11 per day. Our room was ok, but the bathroom was smaller than other hotels, so small that I banged my left knee on the sink if I sat on the toilet and, the shower allowed very little movement inside. A full English breakfast was average but not as hot as it should be. Worth a visit if you are looking for somewhere to stay in Ilfracombe.
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Date of stay: June 2021
Value
Location
Service
Room Tip:Book with parking
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Pedro Anzules-Martinez, General Manager at Dilkhusa Grand Hotel Ilfracombe by Compass Hospitality
Responded 29 Jun 2021
Thank you very much for taking the time to post your comments. Your feedback is important and will help us to keep improving. Once again, thank you for visiting us and for your review. Regards. Management Team
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We booked through Groupon at a bargain price so although a few grumbles I’d still recommend. The staff were all very friendly. The hotel is Dog friendly! You can bring a dog for £10 per night prebooked, which made this all the more appealing as I have an elderly dog I would not want to leave. The decor is a little tired looking but all is very clean. The room we stayed in overlooked the front, lovely bay window with a lovely outlook. The downside of this was noise. It is on a main road. Not a problem during the day but at night there was a lot of loud talking and shouting till around 2.30am. Possibly people going outside to smoke. No air con or fans so we had to keep the window open. The bathroom was very tiny. Reversing in is advisable. No bath just a small shower. Adequate if staying for a few nights, though the room itself would have been big enough to make the bathroom a bit bigger. Nice size bedroom with a comfy double bed, table and chairs, a dressing table and a wardrobe. 32” tv on dressing table. Unfortunately no wi fi in the bedroom. Another thing to note is that it says parking is available. It is not. We were told to park in the nearby paying car parks or in the side roads if space was available. You can load and unload at the front of the hotel. Breakfast was plentiful, good variety, cereals, toast and full English. If you take a dog you eat in lounge not in restaurant. If you wish to eat evening meal, book early, there may not be sufficient places due to prebooked visitors and due to Covid they have had to limit numbers. However there are lots of decent takeaways around the area.
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Date of stay: June 2021Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Don’t expect free parking on site. Park in side roads for free, or in front the hotel free after...
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Response from Pedro Anzules-Martinez, General Manager at Dilkhusa Grand Hotel Ilfracombe by Compass Hospitality
Responded 10 Jul 2021
Thank you very much for taking the time to post your comments. We are glad you enjoy your stay with us. Once again, thank you for visiting us and for your feedback.
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We booked two rooms as we are a family of four with 2 teenage boys. We requested rooms together and the hotel kindly met that request. Our booking confirmation stated that parking was available and room amenities included WiFi (essential for teenagers!). Unfortunately the ‘available parking’ is not within the hotel grounds, presumably the description means that there is parking locally at ‘pay for parking’ sites. And they are in very short supply in high season. After spending a lot of our day looking for an overnight parking site and moving our car 3 times to comply with local parking restrictions we were finally able to relax in our rooms. No WiFi. Not just no WiFi in rooms, no WiFi in the hotel. I queried it with the staff and was informed that there waiting for the rollout, but this is Ilfracombe and goodness knows when that would happen. Strange as we could get WiFi in the local pub. When we got into our room the window was open, so we closed it as it was a bit breezy. We popped out and when we came back I noticed a damp smell and there’s clearly been some ‘patching up’ done one the paintwork on the double room. It’s a shame as this was supposed to be a treat (at £90 a room!), but I wouldn’t recommend.
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Date of stay: August 2021Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Pedro Anzules-Martinez, General Manager at Dilkhusa Grand Hotel Ilfracombe by Compass Hospitality
Responded 20 Aug 2021
Thank you very much for taking the time to post your comments. Your feedback is important and will help us to keep improving our standards. Once again, thank you for visiting us and for your feedback.
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We booked a two night stay here me and my Partner with Booking.com. To then arrive to the hotel to check in with rude staff members and stated that the room was fully paid for and told us were our room was. Although were not given any information on the hotel or checking out times. We made our way to what we would find to be a small dull room with tall ceilings and a small window as the only source of natural light. We were very disappointed as we would have expected the room to be a tad more pleasant, but weren’t able to experience this. The door itself to the room was a creamy yellow that looked like it hadn’t been re painted in a while. With a wooden damp smell within the corridor of the surrounding rooms. After loading our luggage in the room the staff had then tried to tell us that the payment had not gone through and would have to pay again. Before even checking the payment she had put the card holder on the desk and said “that’s £182 please”. Luckily the money did not go out the second time and my partner had checked his bank to prove that we had paid for the two night stay.
Within the room we only had one plug socket and were very lucky in that we had brought an extension lead. The room did get very hot and were given a small fan but did no use as would just blow hot air around. We would normally get back to the room at 9:30pm and others would around the same time but we found that the walls were very thin and you could hear others. On the first night we were hoping to shower because of being stuck in traffic on the M5 for 3 hours on top of our journey from Stratford Upon Avon to find that we were not given any towels. Although the next day were two towels placed on the bed in the room.
The bathroom was okay but there were faults. Such as black mould in the corners of the shower. The door handle had gone into the wall and broke the wall. The toilet was not applied properly and would move when sat on it.
Although the hotel didn’t go to plan we still enjoyed Ilfracombe and Wolacombe while we were there.
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Date of stay: August 2022Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Garry Tyler, Other at Dilkhusa Grand Hotel Ilfracombe by Compass Hospitality
Responded 6 Sept 2022
Thank you for your feedback and staying with us. Regards
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The hotel is stuck in the 60s I was genuinely quite shocked that places like this still existed.
There is a very good chance that you won't be given a room like the pictures shown on trip advisor. £80 a night for our old tatty room is a sick joke. Its not worth £40 a night. The hotel advertises free parking which there is but only for the lucky 5 people who manage to get a space. I parked across the road in a separate car park and ended up paying £11 a day as the other cheaper car parks nearby were nearly always full. As the hotel advertises they have free parking this was an added expense that I didn't expect.
Me and my fiance were using the hotel as a place to sleep after a wedding at tunnel beaches and I'm so glad we only spent two nights there as anymore would have sent me insane. The room had been sort of semi half painted and all the masking tape was still left in place and we found dog hairs everywhere and the hotel in general has that musty old smell.
A friend of mine asked for a coffee in the morning to be told that he had to wait until 3pm for the bar to open. We had every meal in wetherspoons which didnt disappoint. You'd expect breakfast to be included in that £80 but the hotel expected another £10pp.
Will not be returning if we visit Ilfracombe again We had friends who stayed at other hotels and they had much better rooms and didn't need to worry about parking at all.
I imagine there are a lot of returning guests who have been coming for years and feel some sort of loyalty to the place so they look past the major TLC that is needed. However it really does need dragging in to the 21st century.
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Date of stay: June 2021Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Misleading parking information
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Pedro Anzules-Martinez, General Manager at Dilkhusa Grand Hotel Ilfracombe by Compass Hospitality
Responded 24 Jun 2021
Thank you very much for visiting us and for your comments. Your feedback is important and will help us to keep improving. Once again, thank you for your review.
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We couldn’t think of any other way to spend a week of our summer than in Ilfracombe at The Dilkhusa Grand. We’ve been coming here for the last four years and it seems to get better every time. We stayed here as part of the 8 day shearing coach trip. Fabulous value for money as you only need lunch and spends. We love coming back here as everything is on your door step and the staff treat us like long lost friends. Our room was lovely as always (The top floor this time). The maids are an absolute credit to the hotel as we always travel with wayyyyyy more stuff than we actually need and can never keep out the shops so there’s a lot to clean around. The meals are fantastic three course. Lots of choice every night. We travelled with a child this time who was super fussy and the hotel made a special menu just for her and catered for her perfectly. Hats off to pat in the dining area who saved our table of 5 every night and ran the restaurant like a small army haha. Breakfast is always our favourite part of the day. There’s always so much fresh, hot food to choose from and is constantly monitored and filled. We spent every night in the bar cashing in the drink vouchers. Nice to see they still stock the pink gin as it’s always well received In our group. Served by our favourites Garry & Mandy! The hotel also have a variation of nightly entertainment from bingo to comedy to singers.. sometimes all three at once depending which way you look at them. The reception staff Julie & Matt are also always on hand and really helpful whenever you need them. Everyone in our party was under the age of 25 but we would recommend The Dilkhusa Grand & Ilfracombe to anyone as there is something there for everyone. We look forward to spending our 5th summer here later this year.
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Date of stay: August 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This Hotel is stuck in the 60s. I was shocked that places like this still exist. There is no air conditioning and when we stayed from the 19-23 July 2021 , the heat was stifeling and there were no fans available. The room was very shabby: dirty, worn carpets , black mould on the wall next to the wardrobe , a hole in the ceiling where water dropped out on to the carpet . In the bathroom the light over the wash basin was not working. the shower door was faulty and could not be shut properly. the decor in the room looked very old, could be 30 years since the tiles in the bathroom were replaced. As for the rest: old peeling paint on the windows , wallpaper that had gone out of fashion years ago. The staff at the hotel were very helpfull and the food was okay. We were in room 1 on the ground floor . When we arrived we were allocated a room on the 4th floor , but we asked to be moved because of the heat up there. In the reception area next to the stairs a double radiator was on full heat . I asked at reception why this was and was told the radiator could not be turned off. I pointed out that they should get a heating engineer out to fix it. It was still on full heat the day we left. We got very little sleep, because of the very hot weather. In future we would give this Hotel a Wide berth.
Posted by David and Vera W
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Date of stay: July 2021
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Pedro Anzules-Martinez, General Manager at Dilkhusa Grand Hotel Ilfracombe by Compass Hospitality
Responded 26 Jul 2021
Thank you for taking the time to write a review. We are deeply sorry that you had a negative experience in our hotel and that we failed to meet expectations on your recent visit. We have implemented rigorous training to ensure every member of our hotel team is able to offer the standard of service that we are accustomed to sharing with our guests. We are also in the process of refreshing each of our rooms and working hard to rectify some of the teething issues caused by 15 months of closure during lockdown. Once again, thank you for visiting us and for your feedback, which is very welcomed and will help us to keep improving.
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I stayed here for four nights recently with my husband, then our daughter and her fiance joined us for a couple of nights at the weekend. Our room was bigger than I expected and had everything in it that we needed except for decaffeinated coffee but the waitress gave me a sachet to take to our room at breakfast. The ensuite shower was very good although the glass doorway to get in the shower was quite narrow. The breakfast had a good selection of hot and cold foods and were all very good quality. Right from as soon as we arrived the staff that greeted us at reception were very friendly and helpful as were the staff at breakfast too. We will definitely come back to this hotel for a short break in the future.
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Date of stay: July 2022Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Garry Tyler, Other at Dilkhusa Grand Hotel Ilfracombe by Compass Hospitality
Responded 15 Aug 2022
Thank you for your feed back and kind words. We try our hardest to please everyone that visits Dilkhusa Grand Hotel and we are glad that you enjoyed your stay. I will relay your praise to the team an look forward to seeing you again soon. Regards
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Well before I get into the nitty-gritty, my 3 stars are based on the hotel, not the experience we had (I'll explain later). The hotel is a reasonable sized, Victorian building. It's tired in some places but clean. We were pleasantly surprised by the size of the room and the decor (though a lick of paint is needed in a few spots). The breakfast was good and the staff were friendly and accommodating. All in all, as the stars suggest, average.
Now as you may have read in previous reviews, Storm Arwen hit. This is our story and take on it... Whilst lazing in our room, early evening, the main lights in our room suddenly went out, we told reception and they were soon on it but didn't manage to fix it (you'll understand why). We were ok though as the side lamps gave enough light and the bathroom light worked. We went out for dinner, into the storm and boy was it windy! Foam off the sea made it look like it was snowing, the waves were very large and crashing, showing just how bad the storm was. We got back to the room and settled down to sleep, this is where things got interesting, the wind was whipping around so much outside that there was whistling through the windows and they were also rattling very loudly. We decided to wedge some cardboard into the old sash window to stop the rattling, which it did slightly. However, the wind was very loud and we struggled to sleep. At about 3 am the fire alarm went off and the whole hotel was evacuated downstairs. As we traipsed downstairs there was a waterfall of water flowing right through the building, from top to bottom. As it wasn't a fire, we went into the ballroom and sat down. The fire brigade was called and it turns out the storm had snapped a mains water pipe, on the roof. They eventually stopped the water and made safe the electrics. We all went back to bed and managed to get to sleep (for about 3 hours). At breakfast, the manager came round and asked if anyone was on the 3rd floor as they needed to be moved to other rooms because a huge skylight had ripped off the roof. Luckily we were checking out that day. The coach trip that was there on a Turkey & Tinsel trip was not so lucky.
So that was our experience, I cannot judge the hotel on a freak storm, all I can do is comment on the way they dealt with it. The staff were very helpful and informed us of the situation and what was happening. They gave us refreshments, whilst we sat there in our pyjamas and dealt with a very stressful situation, professionally.
The hotel will be a little more tired after the battering Storm Arwen gave it, but that would not stop me from having a stopover again in the future, given the cost was very reasonable.
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Date of stay: November 2021
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Pedro Anzules-Martinez, General Manager at Dilkhusa Grand Hotel Ilfracombe by Compass Hospitality
Responded 1 Dec 2021
First of all, I would like to thank you for taking the time to post your review. As you said , staff dealt with the situation in a very professional and informative manner, and thanks to the fire brigade and the guest's cooperation, everything went well. Everyone was brilliant and the repairs for the damage caused by the storm are actually ongoing this week. Once again, thank you for visiting us and for your feedback and we hope to see you again in a near future. Regards.
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There are more places to choose from in the Ilfracombe area.
PRICE RANGE
S$54 - S$82 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
LOCATION
United KingdomEnglandDevonIlfracombe
NUMBER OF ROOMS
98
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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