Avalon Hotel

We booked the Avalon on the day after wanting to extend a short visit. We've stayed in the area fairly often and know it well, funnily enough I used to live in a flat across the road. The hotel is well situated for the city centre the beach or the pier but even more so for the vibrant St James Street area, which it is a very short walk/stumble back. It's a great area for those visiting Brighton and wanting to do both the touristy and non touristy parts. There's always something going on in that street, we even had a quick karaoke version of Purple Rain while popping out for snacks. Our room was on the ground floor and had a large bay window which overlooked the street. There's a bus stop right outside and naturally you can hear people wandering by. The bottom of the window had been obscured to stop people peering in but I imagine people on the top deck of the bus could probably see into the room if you didn't pull over the big black out curtains. In fact I know they could because we were waving at people on the bus for fun whilst snuggling up in bed watching Come Dine With Me on the tv in the morning. The room was a decent size, it had cute decor and even had a bath. The bathroom had this mad honeycomb effect on the wall that spun me out a little bit but I'd taken psychedelics a day or so before so was probably more due to that. I can't imagine how it would be in there if you had been heavily drinking or under the influence. I definitely could have got lost in the pattern a bit if I were there under different circumstances. Very cool though, I commented on it as soon as I saw it. The room walls were decorated nicely and it was comfortable enough. Mixed reviews on the bed. It was comfy and cosy with an extra pillow and some throw cushions but my partner flips around a lot in her sleep and by the morning we must have been about 1ft away from the wall. Not sure if this was the bed or the slippy floor, wasn't a problem just a funny quirk. I see in the other reviews there are some complaints around the check in and door codes but in all honesty it seemed fairly standard to me for a small hotel that's not staffed. The process was seamless and there was no issue. Communication was really simple and when there was a small issue we were responded to straight away. I understand the point about the lack of safety from the codes but this is no different to every other place that has a similar set up and in general there was a safe vibe within the Avalon as far as I could tell. The hotel noise wasn't an issue for us at all, I quite like there being signs of life around and it certainly wasn't ridiculously loud from any other room. There weren't parties going on or people playing loud music or shouting or anything. It was generally calm and like I said just wasn't an issue. As for the outside noise I'm not quite sure what people's expectations are when you're staying in a vibrant urban area. It was absolutely fine and certainly no louder than any flat I've ever lived in in the city. I actually found it pretty comforting to know there were people around but for the convenience of the location I'm not sure you can expect the place to have a silent countryside serenity. All in all we enjoyed the place and in all likelihood will probably, if the price is right, book to stay at the Avalon again the next time my partner is visiting the city.

Clean and large, almost luxury room in a great location for a really great price. Took the deluxe double for only 65 EUR a night. Excellent service, it's done over the phone via a management company rather than in person, totally fine with that. Was allowed a later checkout and they were really gracious about it. Insulation on the windows is quite bad so you might suffer in the winter here. Rooms are not isolated and the building is very old so you hear neighbours from all directions, not too bad though. Still, 5* stay because of the great service, room, and price.