Boutique hotel named in reviews as one of the best in country

The Clarence Hotel in Clarence Road has been rated as the best for Guest Service and Guest Rooms in the south east, and it was awarded four stars, from hotel search website trivago.co.uk.

The company has released the results of its annual Trivago Awards, using over 175m aggregated hotel reviews and semantic analysis to determine the best-rated hotels across the UK.

Reservations manager Ellie Hogston, who has worked for the hotel group for seven years, said: ‘We are very pleased. Trivago is a good site and it is nice to be recognised, especially for guest service.

‘For us it is all about the care of guests, that’s what is most important to us.’

The boutique hotel is part of the Mercer Group, which owns six hotels in Portsmouth – Florence House, Somerset House, Stattons, Number Four, Florence Gardens and the Florence Suites and the Florence Arms, a gastropub.

The group is owned by a local businessman, and employs about 50 staff across its eight sites.

The Clarence was bought by the group in 2015 and since then has received certificates of excellence from Tripadvisor, which named it as the fourth most romantic hotel in the UK.

The hotel has eight bedrooms and bathrooms with a cosy lounge and bar plus dining room. It is also for adults only.

Ellie said: ‘It has everything under one roof.

‘There are only eight rooms so the guests have quite a lot of contact with the staff 
so they feel very taken care 
of.

‘There are some quirky rooms, one has a Jacuzzi spa and another has a sunken bath, so they are all unique.’

The awards were compiled from different sources across the web, also using the trivago Rating Index, which aggregates over 175 million hotel reviews globally.

Johannes Thomas, managing director at Trivago, said: ‘Our awards recognise those hoteliers who deliver an exceptional experience to their guests, and we are proud and delighted to award those achievements.’

The Clarence came out with a 92.06 rating.

Blanch House in Brighton, which was 19th in last year’s awards, is the best three-star hotel in the south east this year, with a rating of 91.88.

The best five-star hotel is Coworth Park in Ascot, which did not feature in last year’s awards but this year has a rating of 91.41.

Finally, the best breakfast can be found at The Foley in Esher, where Trivago’s semantic analysis gave the hotel a score of 78.81.