The thing to understand about this place is that the bar and restaurant on the harbour front terrace are its focal point, and open to all. The menu is focused on quick dining. The food is pretty good and the prices are fair. Locals refer to WBH as ‘the pub’.
The two best rooms in the hotel have a balcony with a view over the terrace and the harbour beyond. You pay extra for these, but ‘the pub’ is pretty noisy, as it is rammed in the evenings, and it was still very early in the season when we were there. There’s no priority for hotel guests. At weekends, there is a big sound system with a DJ facing the hotel, pumping out dance music. When we arrived on a Sunday afternoon, this was in full swing, and with the doors to the balcony open it was like being in a nightclub in our room. At the end of our four night stay, the hotel asked for feedback, and I pointed out that this level of noise wasn’t conducive to relaxing after a long journey. The response was basically that if you don’t like it, get a room without the view. In some peculiar way, it seems the Pub and the Hotel are under separate management. “The noise levels are something we have put forward to the owners….”
It looks to me as though WBH wants to maximise the revenue from a boutique hotel offering a tranquil location - but also a rowdy hotspot for the affluent young of the City. Ultimately, I’m not sure that is going to work.