The Royal Britannia

United Kingdom , Devon
ILFRACOMBE, Broad Street
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50 reviews shown

8/10

Excellent

27 Feb 2026

Peter

It is a fab location and our room had a great view of the harbour. It is an old building full of character which may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it could do with a refresh as some decor and carpets are a bit grubby.

Partner

2/10

Poor

05 Nov 2025

Jeffrey

Room beyond basic, most uncomfortable bed ever

Leisure

8/10

Excellent

10 Sep 2025

Marlene

Hotel ok apart from curtain coming away from fittingfeom yrack

10/10

Exceptional

22 Aug 2025

Matthew

Great place to stay in Ilfracombe

Absolutely great place to stay if you're in Ilfracombe. Backs onto the very pretty harbour area, really good value breakfast and the pub is friendly, great beers but not noisy at all.

Our room got a little warm and the mgt instantly upgraded us to a two-room suite opposite and the general service and friendliness of the team who manage the Royal Britannia would be a major reason for going back as well as the beautiful spots immediately around the hotel. Great job and thank you Royal Britannia team.

Friends_and_family Family

6/10

Pleasant

27 Jun 2025

Tim

fair hotel for the budget price

Leisure Friends

8/10

Excellent

16 Jun 2025

Dorothy

It has character and is nice and relaxed and easy-going.

Leisure Self

8/10

Excellent

08 Apr 2025

Rebecca

Nice stay

Simple, great for 1 night stay, shower was great,

Friends_and_family Family

10/10

Exceptional

31 Mar 2025

Kathryn

We had a lovely stay and would definitely stay again! Lovely hotel and friendly staff

Leisure Partner

10/10

Exceptional

31 Oct 2024

Ashrafi

A very lovely hotel with friendly staff. Very close to the beach and lots of local food around.

Business_and_leisure Family_with_children

10/10

Exceptional

08 Sep 2024

Val

We had a brilliant weekend here. Lovely big room with a great view of the harbour. The bar is great. Good food and great location.

Leisure Partner

10/10

Exceptional

27 Aug 2024

Michael

Located next to the harour, ideal if you're catching the ferry to Lundy. Good food and beer.

Leisure Self

10/10

Exceptional

06 Jun 2024

Michael

The hotel is in an outstanding location. The staff are most friendly and helpful.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

31 Oct 2023

evelyn

Amazing

Excellent. Great room, stunning views and location. Service fantastic. The gentleman at reception was extremely wonderful and gave us an amazing upgrade. He was very friendly and helpful. Thanks for a great stay.
Will definitely recommend this hotel. Thanks kind Sir for a wonderful stay.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

25 Oct 2023

evelyn

Excellent

My stay was very very enjoyable and comfortable. The room was absolutely beautiful and fully stocked with all the amenities. Thanks very much for a wonderful and great stay. So central as well with stunning views.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

01 Sep 2023

Jeremy

Really lovely stay. Room was faultless and staff mainly friendly and helpful, couple of more miserable ones! Booked at very short notice so really happy. The young man who signed us in on arrival was delightful.

Partner

8/10

Excellent

18 Aug 2023

neil

All staff friendly!! Room was clean !! But woke at 7.30 in morning in room 31!! Underneath that room somebody noisy and irritating!!but overall good

6/10

Pleasant

29 Jul 2023

Kenneth

Great location but a bit tired, however, I suspect it is a listed building so their hands may be tied.

Leisure Partner

10/10

Exceptional

15 Aug 2022

Kimberley

It is an old property in a nice location (as we expected) staff very friendly and rooms cleaned everyday.

Leisure Family_with_children

10/10

Exceptional

24 Jul 2022

caroline

For a very old property with its interesting history it’s a very comfortable place to stay
The staff are very friendly and nothing is to much trouble

Leisure Partner

6/10

Pleasant

11 Jul 2022

Angela

Pleasantly surprised

Hotel was dated but clean and tidy, check-in was confusing you go to the property to be sent to an office next door to check in then back in the pub to access rooms. Staff very friendly despite being very busy. Room was spacious but clean and tidy. Bathrooms look nice at first glance but clearly some plumbing issues as shower tray flooded, back of toilet cistern leaked so needs some maintenance but bathroom was still clean. Given some of the reviews we were very pleasantly surprised with our stay and would stay again.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

02 Jan 2022

evelyn

Superb

Absolutely gorgeous stay

Partner

6/10

Pleasant

10 Aug 2021

Susannah

Royal Britannia review

Room very basic, not the cleanest. Bathroom smelt weird! I think drain smell. Could also smell cigarette smoke inside the hotel. Breakfast staff helpful and friendly. I would not recommend this place. Over priced for what it was.

Partner

10/10

Exceptional

28 Jul 2021

Verified traveler

Great location. Couldn't ask for better but the hotel was run down, shabby (but not chic!). CoVID aside they still could have cleaned room before we got there. It Was quite filthy. Couldnt see in the mirror for dust. Beds were planks of wood screwed together, quite crude. And the room had musky smell.

Leisure Family_with_children

6/10

Pleasant

24 Jul 2021

Verified traveler

Friendly but noisy

Very nice staff but room is right above terrasse with drinking customers and very noisy

Friends_and_family Friends

10/10

Exceptional

12 Jul 2021

Verified traveler

👌

Leisure

8/10

Excellent

28 Oct 2020

Dave

Great location on Ilfracombe harbour with spectacular views.

Leisure Partner

8/10

Excellent

20 Sep 2020

Robert

2 night stay in family room

The room was nice, comfortable and cleanliness was acceptable.

The lights above the bed didnt work, and it was a bit noisy from the street below.

In my honest opinion it was a bit overpriced for just a room however i would stay there again.

Friends_and_family Family

8/10

Excellent

08 Sep 2020

Michael

One night stay great. Friendly staff, horrible weather so didn’t see it at it’s best. Would stay again. Right on harbour so lovely.

Partner

4/10

Poor

07 Sep 2020

Andrew

Great location but truly awful to stay in

Stayed here for 1 night with a friend as we were just passing through. This place is a dump. It's a scruffy pub in a great location just on the harbourside. The common rooms and area's felt grubby and uncared for. Our triple room was very basic, scruffy, and uncared for too. The shower room was small and the shower itself was just a trickle of water. The shower door didn't close as the bed stopped it. Also, with no exceptions, the staff were unfriendly, unhelpful and curt. Avoid this place if you can, it's rubbish

Friends_and_family Friends

8/10

Excellent

03 Sep 2020

Dina

I had a good stay, the only issue was the noise of water. When someone flash or use water in the toilet its very noising.

Friends_and_family Family

6/10

Pleasant

27 Aug 2020

Tim

Port in a storm

A port in a storm while Storm Francis decimated our tent.

Curtains didn't close properly, plastic sheets, not as clean as we'd have liked it.

Friends_and_family Family

8/10

Excellent

14 Jul 2020

Verified traveler

Great location in ilfracombe

We really enjoyed our stay, staff were very friendly and its a great location. Harbour view room is worth it!

Partner

6/10

Pleasant

02 Feb 2020

Verified traveler

Partial sea view room 11.stayed here before 2 years ago .staff friendly but the room requires updating and repairs needed.

Leisure

8/10

Excellent

02 Sep 2019

Verified traveler

Good hotel close to harbour and shops but no free parking

Leisure Family

8/10

Excellent

01 Sep 2019

Stuart

Room had a lot of space for the family and the kids enjoyed having there own tv on there side of the room. Breakfast was very nice but seemed a little rushed and disorganised and lacked choice, would maybe benefit from buffet breakfast.

Friends_and_family Family

8/10

Excellent

21 Aug 2019

Verified traveler

Great location, no parking for the hotel, clean, great family food, good value for money.

Leisure Family_with_children

10/10

Exceptional

20 Aug 2019

Verified traveler

The room was small but absolutely perfect. Spotlessly clean and everything was like new. Really comfy bed and had a great sleep. The bathroom was shared between 3 rooms but it was immaculate and there was everything you needed. The hotel benefits from prime position on Ilfracombe seafront so it was great for visiting all the sights such as Damien Hurst's Verity sculpture. Had an excellent 40th Birthday weekend thankyou,.

Leisure Friends

2/10

Poor

15 Jul 2019

Verified traveler

The location was great, right in the centre, the room was clean, but smelt of damp. The check in was shut, so had to find a member of staff in the pub, who then gave me a piece of paper to sign and told me to go back into the pub and take the stairs to my room. No more information given, not felt to feel very welcome, or information about breakfast etc. The room did have an info pack in it, so that was good. Breakfast was nice, but felt like they were short staffed, as the breakfast items had run down, so had to keep asking for things, which felt very awkward, ie, cups to make your own coffee, glasses to put your juice in, plates to put the toast on when you had made it yourself.
The main problem with the rooms we had were the so noisy. The windows were single pane windows (no double glazing) and you are opposite extremely noisy bars, that play extremely loud music right into your windows, or worse have karoake singing till the early morning. When the music eventually shut up about 1am, then all the drunks would have fights and screaming and shouting outside your window until about 2am. Had no sleep for two nights, my husband decided he would just sit in the noisy bar until it went quiet, but I couldn't, I really needed to relax and sleep, which unfortunately I did not get.

Leisure Family

6/10

Pleasant

17 Jun 2019

Peter

A nice little hotel

We enjoyed our stay. The hotel is in an excellent location overlooking the harbour. WiFi was poor and room was small. Breakfast was really nice.

Partner

6/10

Pleasant

28 Apr 2019

Verified traveler

Altho' on booking I knew there was only a shared bathroom, it was a bit of a shock to find shared toilets too and not even a wash basin in the room!! 50 years ago most guest house/hotel guests' rooms had wash basins in the rooms at the very least... But I think they have done the best they can for now & I hope that over time they may be able to improve...

Friends_and_family Family

6/10

Pleasant

21 Oct 2018

Peter

Tired but value for money

The hotel is rather tired. However the location is great and it represents great value.

Partner

2/10

Poor

10 Sep 2018

Andrew

Poor,

Breakfast is a farce, check in a joke, paid for room. Up front and still took my credit card details which I’m not happy about as surely data. Protection!

6/10

Pleasant

03 Aug 2018

Verified traveler

Was not very clean. Room was dingy. Staff was not very helpful. No free parking.

4/10

Poor

24 Jun 2018

MR KA

Terrible Wi-Fi, unbearably hot rooms

Recently stayed with a group of friends for a couple of days. Not a good experience unfortunately.

The hotel fixings and decor look nice, if dated. The location is convenient. The room was reasonably clean and tidy (at least to my standards).

Unfortunately those are the only positives. There were unfortunately many significant negatives, listed below in order of decreasing perceived severity.

- The hotel Wi-Fi was almost entirely unusable from our room at the top of the hotel - it was inaccessible 90% of the time, and when it did happen to be accessible, it was extremely slow, even for email or looking for information online! This was compounded by the complete lack of mobile phone signal in the hotel. This could easily and inexpensively be fixed using a wireless repeater on each floor (Wi-Fi antennae primarily radiate horizontally).
- Our room (at the top of the hotel) was extremely hot both day and night, unbearably so, with no AC and no fan. It was very difficult to sleep.
- The mattresses were hard and uncomfortable. One of my friends slept on the floor wrapped in a duvet - he found it just as comfortable!
- There was loud music from the pub/bar next door still playing at 1 am at night on the Saturday night. There was just single glazing on the window and the bass kept us awake.
- Breakfast was an additional cost (not made clear on Hotels.com!), and was extremely expensive if you just wanted toast or cereal.
- There was no lock on our bathroom door.

Friends

8/10

Excellent

07 Jun 2018

Serridge

goo hotel

stayed for business good price nice hotel

10/10

Exceptional

03 Jun 2018

Annette

Great location

All round lovely place to stay. Very convenient for the Lundy Island ferry.

Partner

6/10

Pleasant

23 Aug 2017

Sue

Close to the harbour

We booked this hotel because we were catching the boat to Lundy in the morning. It is very old fashioned, above a pub and when we arrived we had to be sorted out by the bar staff initially, who were a bit busy. We waited a long time before being booked in; we needed quick showers and out in the morning, but the shower did not work. The breakfast choices were good - kippers on the menu, but breakfast was rigidly at 8.00 and we had to catch the boat at 9.00 including parking at one of the long stay car parks some way away from the harbour. It was cheap but if this is your scenario, I would suggest that you try somewhere else.

6/10

Pleasant

22 Aug 2017

Stuart

Nice but dated

The hotel is nice anf we booked a family room, unfotthe family room is the highest and furthest room in the hotel, not ideal for large luggage and 2 kids lagging behind. The room itself was ok and the beds were comfortable enough however the excess wood and other DIY materials under the double bed was a bit of an eyesore. The staff are friendly and the service is ok unless it's busy then it's slow. We ordered food on the first night and at £7.95 for a chilli and rice I thought I'd receive a generous portion however this wasn't the case, I asked for a bit more as I hadn't eaten all day and it was 9 at night, but was told that size is enough and I would be full after (I wasn't). But a nice enough stay for one or two nights.

4/10

Poor

30 Jul 2017

Laura

You would only stay here for the location

This hotel is ideally situated on the harbour but other than its location has very little to offer. The staff were not especially helpful, the room was very dusty and several things were broken. Would not stay here again.

8/10

Excellent

11 Jun 2017

Verified traveler

Value for money accommodation

No-frills, value for money accommodation. Excellent location - could not be more central in Ilfracombe! Spacious room.

Partner