A hotel manager has put his hands up and apologised after receiving poor reviews and an unsatisfactory food hygiene rating.

The Carlton Hotel on Kimberley Terrace in Great Yarmouth received a rating of one following a food safety and hygiene inspection carried out by Great Yarmouth Borough Council on September 22.

Areas of concern included evidence of smoking inside, cracked floors, poor cooling down of food, no soap in the hand wash basin in the kitchen and a general lack of regular cleaning throughout the kitchen.

The report stated: "I am disappointed to say that during the visit several areas were identified where you are failing to comply with food hygiene legislation.

"This could directly affect the safety of the food that you prepare at the premises and should therefore be a priority for action."

The hotel had also seen negative reviews on TripAdvisor.

Darren Hunter, area operations manager for the Carlton Hotel, said: "We’d like to apologise to anyone who has had an unsatisfactory experience at the Carlton Hotel in recent weeks.

"Since reopening earlier in the year, we’ve faced an extremely challenging operating environment, alongside the other stresses and strains associated with the pandemic.

"But whilst this has been a difficult period to navigate, our guests rightly expect a minimum level of service, and, on occasion, this has slipped below an acceptable standard.

"We’re taking active steps to address the issues and have recently brought in a new general manager for the hotel, who is tasked with overseeing improvement in the key areas impacting the guest experience.

"There is still work to be done, but progress is being made and we're confident that standards will soon be back at the consistent level our guests have come to expect at the Carlton.

"We have invested heavily in the hotel during the summer, undertaking remedial works to many areas, including bedrooms, and installing a new fire detection system.

"This investment continues with a significant scope of work planned this winter with the installation of new windows and roof improvements being completed.

"We'd like to apologise to those affected and we will be reaching out to them in due course to discuss their concerns.”

The Carlton Hotel re-opened with new owners in April.

What a TripAdvisor reviewer said

A recent reviewer on TripAdvisor said their experience at the hotel was an "absolute disgrace".

The review continues: "Food was terrible, I couldn't stomach it.

"Restaurant was dirty.

"I wasn't at all happy with my room.

"[I] would never return again due to the bad food and the way the manager treated us."

Between September 1 and November 1, the Carlton Hotel had received 23 reviews on TripAdvisor, with one person rating them a five, two people rating the experience as a three, seven people rated the hotel a two and 13 people said their stay was worthy of a rating of one.