This review was originally posted by myself on my ciao account :

http://travel.ciao.co.uk/Grand_Burstin_Hotel_Folkestone__Review_6097060

Before I begin I would like to say that I have never written a bad review about any hotel before but by the end of the 4 nights we spent at the grand Burstin I was no longer able to look on the bright side.

Arrival
We arrived at the hotel at around 4pm, as we were on a coach holiday the receptionist came out and handed us our keys as we got off of the coach which did not allow you time to ask questions about the hotel which wasn't ideal but forgivable due to the amount of people.

The First thing the receptionist told us was 'the hotel is at full capacity so there will be no room changes possible' which gave the impression of if there is anything wrong with your room don't come and tell us because we wont do anything.

There were three lifts in the foyer two servicing floor 1-5 and 1 for floors 6 and 7, we were on the 5th floor but there were around 50 people waiting for the lifts so we took the stairs, this was not the best first impression of the hotel as the falls were dirty and the carpets were tatty and worn, and dirty in many areas.

The Room
We got to the room and it wasn't as bad as we were now expecting ,there was a decent sized double bed, two side tables a small table with two chairs, a a desk and a wardrobe. There were Tea and coffee making facilities with plenty of UHT Milk cartons which replaced every day so we never ran out which is unusual for me, but there was no de-caff coffee, hot chocolate, brown sugar or sweetener which might annoy some people.
There was a TV in the room which worked fine and a hairdryer which was nice. 
Bad Points about the room :
The carpets were faded so badly they looked a different colour under the desk and behind things and they were very dirty and grimy. We found an empty sanitary towel wrapper in the bed side cabinet drawer showing that the room had not been thoroughly cleaned. The ceiling had what looked like coffee staines on it (god knows how) and there were also coffee stains on the valance sheet (although I only noticed them on the second day so we might have spilled it on there but it was still there on the last day)

The Bathroom 
The Bathroom was very basic but reasonably clean and did have two big bath towels and two smaller ones and some complimentary shower gel and body lotion, although this was not replaced at all during the stay and was no where near enough for a 4 night stay. There was also no bath mat in the bathroom making the floor very slippery, we ended up using one of the smaller towels as a bath mat.

Food - Dinner
After settling in we went for food which was served from half 5 in the evening to 8pm. We went to walk into the restaurant/ canteen and were stopped by a girl who said we needed our key card to get into the restaurant, I fumbled around in my bag until I found the key to be told that the 'key card' was a piece of paper that the receptionist had given us on arrival so I had to go back to the room and get it. 
I didn't mind this as it was my mistake but the girl who was watching the door of the canteen was so uninterested and quite rude she didn't offer us any greeting and didn't even try to smile when we came to the door (even the second time). She just took the piece of paper off of us, gave it back and said 'sit anywhere' ( all of this while leaning against the door frame , I felt like my presence had offended her or something).
The staff inside the canteen were not much better and no body explained where anything was or poke to us at all. There were two girls standing near our table wile we were eating and at one point one of them was checking her lip gloss in the mirror while the other one was playing with her mobile which was very indiscreetly 'hidden' in the drawer. The food was not very good quality at all with beef or white fish as your options on the first and second night, there was also a selection of veg which was good and a salad bar which had a decent variety. There was no vegetarian option unless you wanted a plate of veg and gravy. There was also a selection of deserts which were ok, fruit salad (looked awful) mouse and cheesecake (which was nice) the one night there was apricot meringue which was really nice.
The food was well cooked but lacked any imagination at all and it was like being back in primary school. 
The only drink available in the evening was water. 
By the third night of the food being the same we gave up and went out for food. 
Food - Breakfast 
The breakfast was a bit better in my opinion (although my partner thought it was horrible) there was a selection of bacon, sausages, boiled eggs, fried eggs, scramble egg, fried toast, beans and tomatoes as well as cereals and yogurt. Drinks were tea, coffee and juice, but the juice was watered down massively which was unpleasant to drink.

Bars and Entertainment 
Their were 2 bars at the hotel both were reasonably priced and had a good selection of drinks and the one also served snacks during the day (sandwiches, jacket potatoes etc). The one bar was a quiet bar with no music just lots of chairs and tables and sofas (which were mostly held together by electrical tape) and an arcade section with IT box and slot machines (18+) and a TV usually showing football.
The other bar was were the entertainment was on, each night had early bingo followed by a band then another round of bingo and then a cabaret show. 
We did not go to the bingo so I can't comment on that but it seemed popular and I guess bingo is bingo if that's what you like.
The band was an organ based band and really not my cup of tea so we didn't listen to them for long. 
The cabaret does a set show every evening of the week including a rock and roll show , a variety show and a Motown show. We watched them a few nights we were there and they were always very good, the songs they sang were quite old which obviously suited the clientele.

Maintenance
On the second night I sat on the bed and the leg snapped and it collapsed. I went down to reception to tell them and there was a young girl serving someone and a young boy. I told the young boy what had happened and he asked the girl if there were any rooms available and she just said 'no nothing' he said what can we do and she said ' nothing we can't do anything' he then asked if he should go and have a look and she said yes. I was horrified by her attitude and I guess if I had originally went to her we would have been sleeping on the floor. The boy came up and had a look and then went to get some tools he then came back with another girl and screwed the leg back on 'temporarily' they said the maintenance team would look at it at 8am tomorrow but nobody turned up all week.

Overall I was very disappointed with the hotel in general, the standards of the decor and cleanliness and the food were all very poor and most importantly the service was extremely poor I would be able to forgive a lot if the staff were friendly but most of them (with a few exceptions) treated us like we were a hassle and that they didn't want to be there at all resulting in an overall unpleasantness experience.