Worst hotel/B&B experiences?
Discussion
Stayed in a rather nice B&B last weekend in Aberdeen, food great, rooms fine, location good - except for the gravel car park, which I managed to get stuck in! The owner then blamed me!
I was reminded of a place I stayed in last year on the Isle of Wight, some god-forsaken sh1thole of a hotel that the TV company I was working for had booked us all into.
We were greeted by literally characters from Little Britain, and shown to our rooms. My mate had a room with a balcony - only the railings were missing, leading to a fatal drop onto the concrete below. Nice. My room was about 3 feet square, with en-suite bathroom. I say bathroom, the shower head was calcified (I had to fix it with my screwdriver). The repaired shower head would fill a teacup in about a minute. The carpets were stuck down with nails, and where patches had worn through, replacement sections of carpet (with a different pattern) had been used. I counted about 4 electrical fittings that were either cracked (with visible terminals), loose, or dirty beyond belief. The television received about 2 stations, and only when I stood in one corner of the room. To cap it all, every night was ballroom dancing night for the geriatrics that stayed here, and we had to put up with booming ballroom music until 1230am every night.
I got my own back though, on the fireplace in the large reception room (usually filled with octagenarians and mentally disabled people (yeah I know, I know, want that one)) was a large selection of cards (thanks for the lovely stay etc). I walked down the road and bought one, and wrote in it possibly the most foul and disgusting paragraph ever put to paper regarding the quality of the hotel, and popped it between the well-wishing cards
I was reminded of a place I stayed in last year on the Isle of Wight, some god-forsaken sh1thole of a hotel that the TV company I was working for had booked us all into.
We were greeted by literally characters from Little Britain, and shown to our rooms. My mate had a room with a balcony - only the railings were missing, leading to a fatal drop onto the concrete below. Nice. My room was about 3 feet square, with en-suite bathroom. I say bathroom, the shower head was calcified (I had to fix it with my screwdriver). The repaired shower head would fill a teacup in about a minute. The carpets were stuck down with nails, and where patches had worn through, replacement sections of carpet (with a different pattern) had been used. I counted about 4 electrical fittings that were either cracked (with visible terminals), loose, or dirty beyond belief. The television received about 2 stations, and only when I stood in one corner of the room. To cap it all, every night was ballroom dancing night for the geriatrics that stayed here, and we had to put up with booming ballroom music until 1230am every night.
I got my own back though, on the fireplace in the large reception room (usually filled with octagenarians and mentally disabled people (yeah I know, I know, want that one)) was a large selection of cards (thanks for the lovely stay etc). I walked down the road and bought one, and wrote in it possibly the most foul and disgusting paragraph ever put to paper regarding the quality of the hotel, and popped it between the well-wishing cards
It's normally my job (amongst all other things apart from driving) to arrange the accomodation for our rally team when attending events away from home. It's a thankless task since you can never please everybody, normally the car park comes in for some stick because the proprietors of such places seem to have a different definition of the word "large" to what normal folk do. Anyway, I've had my fair share of hotel nightmares, the most recent being what over the past few years has been a very friendly family run place, not 5 star but adequate with a great big car park that is just down the road from rally hq. However, on our last visit it transpired that the place had changed hands and as soon as we got there we realised it was a mistake, but it was too late, everywhere else was full. The chap who had taken the place on had zero experience in the trade and had decided it was a good idea to refurbish, well, the demolition part had obviously gone all right since the contents of the building were all in the car park in a pile. The kitchen had been ripped out and as such breakfast took 3 hours to cook since the guy had one electric ring to do all the cooking on. The place hadn't been heated for some time because it was cold and damp, the whole place had a massive shortage of bog roll and there were only 3 rooms out of the orginal 25 that were in any way habitable. I strongly suspect he'll have gone bust by now, and quite rightly so.
Always end up in a good place - thanks to www.tripadvisor.com ! 
Some years ago, I stayed at a hotel in the New Forest near Brockenhurst. Saw it in one of those weekend break brochures. Looked lovely from the outside, ivy clad building, gravel car park,etc ,etc. Booked it because it had a swimming pool amongst other things.
Anyway, walked into reception, they'd lost the booking. I had my copy and they got a bit upset when I threatened to sue for breach of contract. It was all downhill from there. The carpet was rolled up and behind a line of chairs in the 'bar' - read cupboard with serving hatch. The swimming pool was the size of two small domestic bathtubs. The room was fine, bit small but four poster bed so looked good. All okay so far then. Went down to dinner. They served our starters 20 minutes apart, the white wine was not just room temp but warm!. Main courses turned up together, but one was raw the other was still frozen in the middle. Complained to restaurant manager, new food came out of kitchen - been in the dining room two hours by now! Went to bar, had a couple of drinks and went to bed. Only to be woken up every 45 minutes by the central heating pipes banging and clattering in the ceiling above the bed. In the morning, went down to breakfast to find that everyone else had the daily paper except me. Complained to reception to be told that they hadn't arrived yet - despite the rest of the dinig room reading today's paper! The final straw was my full English turning up with a fried fly in the white of the egg
Needless to say, exit dining room, pack bags and inform reception we are leaving and if you want paying for last night and this morning, you have my address take me to court. Never heard another thing, and can't for the life of me remember the name of the hotel.
Anyway, walked into reception, they'd lost the booking. I had my copy and they got a bit upset when I threatened to sue for breach of contract. It was all downhill from there. The carpet was rolled up and behind a line of chairs in the 'bar' - read cupboard with serving hatch. The swimming pool was the size of two small domestic bathtubs. The room was fine, bit small but four poster bed so looked good. All okay so far then. Went down to dinner. They served our starters 20 minutes apart, the white wine was not just room temp but warm!. Main courses turned up together, but one was raw the other was still frozen in the middle. Complained to restaurant manager, new food came out of kitchen - been in the dining room two hours by now! Went to bar, had a couple of drinks and went to bed. Only to be woken up every 45 minutes by the central heating pipes banging and clattering in the ceiling above the bed. In the morning, went down to breakfast to find that everyone else had the daily paper except me. Complained to reception to be told that they hadn't arrived yet - despite the rest of the dinig room reading today's paper! The final straw was my full English turning up with a fried fly in the white of the egg
Needless to say, exit dining room, pack bags and inform reception we are leaving and if you want paying for last night and this morning, you have my address take me to court. Never heard another thing, and can't for the life of me remember the name of the hotel.
The Rembrandt in Weymouth was the filthiest place I've ever been to. The carpet in the bog was yellow stained around the bowl, the curtains were hanging off and were covered in mildew, everywhere public was covered in greasy handprints and I just wanted to kip in the car. I think they wanted eighty quid for this per night
Not particularly a bad experience, but anyway......
I was racing at Donington a couple of years ago, and stayed in a lovely little country house hotel a few miles away.
Arrived on Friday afternoon, 4x4 with trailer and car, and parked in the car park.
Was met by the owner, who was using a mini-digger to dig a trench near the gate for some new drains being laid to serve the cottages in the grounds. He welcomed us in and made sure we were comfortable before going back out to continue with his trench.
We had dinner at the hotel that night as we had an early start.
Next morning, after a quick breakfast we take the Disco and trailer back down the drive.....and discovered that the drive was a few feet narrower than when we arrived. Just too narrow in fact to get the trailer over thanks to the trench which had been extended into the drive the previous day, the space was fine for cars, but not for a whacking great Brian James hydraulic lift trailer.
The worst thing was, he'd sent the digger back for the weekend as he had a wedding party staying for the weekend and wasn't going to get time to work on the trench until Monday.
So at 7am on a Saturday morning, there was me, my girlfriend at the time (only recently met, first weekend away together) the owner of the hotel and his wife filling in a trench with shovels so I could get to signing on in time to practice....
I was racing at Donington a couple of years ago, and stayed in a lovely little country house hotel a few miles away.
Arrived on Friday afternoon, 4x4 with trailer and car, and parked in the car park.
Was met by the owner, who was using a mini-digger to dig a trench near the gate for some new drains being laid to serve the cottages in the grounds. He welcomed us in and made sure we were comfortable before going back out to continue with his trench.
We had dinner at the hotel that night as we had an early start.
Next morning, after a quick breakfast we take the Disco and trailer back down the drive.....and discovered that the drive was a few feet narrower than when we arrived. Just too narrow in fact to get the trailer over thanks to the trench which had been extended into the drive the previous day, the space was fine for cars, but not for a whacking great Brian James hydraulic lift trailer.
The worst thing was, he'd sent the digger back for the weekend as he had a wedding party staying for the weekend and wasn't going to get time to work on the trench until Monday.
So at 7am on a Saturday morning, there was me, my girlfriend at the time (only recently met, first weekend away together) the owner of the hotel and his wife filling in a trench with shovels so I could get to signing on in time to practice....
Well, I've stayed in a number of hotels, good and bad. Here's a quick run down (in no particular order):
- Cheltenham Townhouse, Cheltenham. Great place - cosy, friendly owners, amazing cooked breakfast, great price, free wireless net access.
- The Colonnade, London. This place has so much character, friendly staff and even a resident cat that they allowed us to let it sleep in our room one night.
- Radisson Edwardian Vanderbilt, London. Not so great - took 40 mins to check-in, room was extremely tiny, shower wasn't working properly (water temperature would rotate between boiling and freezing ever 30 seconds). Spoke to staff, they claimed they would get someone to look at it but they couldn't fix the problem. For the money, it was definitely not a good stay.
- Manotel Royal, Geneva. Elevators have a habit of getting stuck between floors but it is a clean hotel, free WiFi net access, included breakfast and very friendly staff. Also located very close to the centre of Geneva and overall great value for money.
- Manotel Auteil, Geneva. Smaller than the Royal and right next door. Staff are friendly and helpful. Rooms a bit tiny and some aspects of decor questionable. No restaurant and room service is limited.
- Crowne Plaza, Geneva. Can be pricey unless booked in advance. Some staff friendly and know me on a first-name basis, those that don't are extremely snobbish and arrogant. Clean hotel, very nice breakfast (mhmmm bircher muesli.. yummy).
- Crowne Plaza, Marlow. Nice hotel (although why the exterior is a combination of pink and grey I don't understand - looks like a hairdresser puked over it!). However, reception staff are snobbish here too :-(.
- Holiday Inn, Gloucester. Not a bad place, my opinion on it is quite indifferent actually.
... Ok, I think that's enough for now
- Cheltenham Townhouse, Cheltenham. Great place - cosy, friendly owners, amazing cooked breakfast, great price, free wireless net access.
- The Colonnade, London. This place has so much character, friendly staff and even a resident cat that they allowed us to let it sleep in our room one night.
- Radisson Edwardian Vanderbilt, London. Not so great - took 40 mins to check-in, room was extremely tiny, shower wasn't working properly (water temperature would rotate between boiling and freezing ever 30 seconds). Spoke to staff, they claimed they would get someone to look at it but they couldn't fix the problem. For the money, it was definitely not a good stay.
- Manotel Royal, Geneva. Elevators have a habit of getting stuck between floors but it is a clean hotel, free WiFi net access, included breakfast and very friendly staff. Also located very close to the centre of Geneva and overall great value for money.
- Manotel Auteil, Geneva. Smaller than the Royal and right next door. Staff are friendly and helpful. Rooms a bit tiny and some aspects of decor questionable. No restaurant and room service is limited.
- Crowne Plaza, Geneva. Can be pricey unless booked in advance. Some staff friendly and know me on a first-name basis, those that don't are extremely snobbish and arrogant. Clean hotel, very nice breakfast (mhmmm bircher muesli.. yummy).
- Crowne Plaza, Marlow. Nice hotel (although why the exterior is a combination of pink and grey I don't understand - looks like a hairdresser puked over it!). However, reception staff are snobbish here too :-(.
- Holiday Inn, Gloucester. Not a bad place, my opinion on it is quite indifferent actually.
... Ok, I think that's enough for now
Reminds me of a holiday I had about 6 years ago with 8 friends. It was some two star hell hole in Cyprus which really didn't deserve it's second star.
When we go there they told us we couldn't go in the three rooms of 2 and one room of 3 we'd paid for but rather they'd stick us all in two rooms and in retun we'd get 1/2 price air-con. In effect they were giving us about £10 back for the £400+ we'd given them in room rates. Gee thanks. Had to argue with the manager for about an hour and they finally gave us what we paid for - two days later.
The room I stayed in had a large family of cockroaches. I got woken up one morning by one crawling across my face. None of the electricity worked until we made a complaint. The tiles in the bathroom were literally stuck to the wall with snot - as soon as you leant againt them they fell off into the bath below smashing up all round your feet. There was dried food on the plates and in the pans in the kitchen. The maids came in without knocking - I don't know who was more embarassed her or my mate who treats holidays as an excuse to explore naturism.
We got our own back in the end though by thoroughly rock-and-roll style trashing the already crappy rooms just before check-out.
When we go there they told us we couldn't go in the three rooms of 2 and one room of 3 we'd paid for but rather they'd stick us all in two rooms and in retun we'd get 1/2 price air-con. In effect they were giving us about £10 back for the £400+ we'd given them in room rates. Gee thanks. Had to argue with the manager for about an hour and they finally gave us what we paid for - two days later.
The room I stayed in had a large family of cockroaches. I got woken up one morning by one crawling across my face. None of the electricity worked until we made a complaint. The tiles in the bathroom were literally stuck to the wall with snot - as soon as you leant againt them they fell off into the bath below smashing up all round your feet. There was dried food on the plates and in the pans in the kitchen. The maids came in without knocking - I don't know who was more embarassed her or my mate who treats holidays as an excuse to explore naturism.
We got our own back in the end though by thoroughly rock-and-roll style trashing the already crappy rooms just before check-out.
apache said:
The Rembrandt in Weymouth was the filthiest place I've ever been to. The carpet in the bog was yellow stained around the bowl, the curtains were hanging off and were covered in mildew, everywhere public was covered in greasy handprints and I just wanted to kip in the car. I think they wanted eighty quid for this per night
I stayed there last year on a field trip - can safely say that I wouldn't ever go back to that god awful place EVER again...the thing that made me most sore was I was paying for a room (a single and a double bed to be shared between two of us - cue fight for large bed) AND NO LOCK ON THE BATHROOM DOOR. Good job I was on good terms with the girl who was after me in the alphabet (thats how rooms were allocated) The food was appaling and the staff were less than friendly. Seemed a much nicer place after 15 shots of randomly flavoured vodka and skinny dipping in Nov...
Places I'd stay at again:
Pricey but nice:
Marriott Park Lane (nice rooms, good restaurant)
Marriott York (next to the racecourse, decent bar)
Renaissance Times Square NY (nice rooms, fantastic restaurant with views over Times Sq)
Holiday Inn Disneyland Paris (great for the kids and without the sickly-sweetness of having a six-foot rat staring at you all day long)
Hinckley Island Hotel (great carvery, on-site pub, most rooms OK)
Holiday Inn Caversham Bridge (only because I had an free upgrade to an exec room with a view over the river)
Starhotel Metropole Rome (nice staff, easy to get to places)
Good VFM:
Badgers Mount, Elmesthorpe (nearest hotel to the Triumph bike factory, nice rooms, superb food, lovely people, and you serve yourself at the bar - how cool is that?)
Belvedere Hotel, Bournemouth (two bars, half-decent grub, nice people)
Places I wouldn't book again:
Wool Merchant Hotel Halifax
Any Hotel Campanile
Swallow Hotel Stockton
Belstead Brook Ipswich
Pricey but nice:
Marriott Park Lane (nice rooms, good restaurant)
Marriott York (next to the racecourse, decent bar)
Renaissance Times Square NY (nice rooms, fantastic restaurant with views over Times Sq)
Holiday Inn Disneyland Paris (great for the kids and without the sickly-sweetness of having a six-foot rat staring at you all day long)
Hinckley Island Hotel (great carvery, on-site pub, most rooms OK)
Holiday Inn Caversham Bridge (only because I had an free upgrade to an exec room with a view over the river)
Starhotel Metropole Rome (nice staff, easy to get to places)
Good VFM:
Badgers Mount, Elmesthorpe (nearest hotel to the Triumph bike factory, nice rooms, superb food, lovely people, and you serve yourself at the bar - how cool is that?)
Belvedere Hotel, Bournemouth (two bars, half-decent grub, nice people)
Places I wouldn't book again:
Wool Merchant Hotel Halifax
Any Hotel Campanile
Swallow Hotel Stockton
Belstead Brook Ipswich
Mark Benson said:
Not particularly a bad experience, but anyway......
some stuff....
If you had to berate the guy to get the shovels and start backfilling it would not be good.
However it comes across that the guy realised he had buggered up and was more than willing to resolve the situation. I would take that as a recommendation to go there!
As long as you checked first that he would not be playing with Tonka toys that weekend Our delightful B&B experience was in the lake district with extremely surly staff from the offset. Then when a chair collapsed under Judas and he cut his hand falling off it (this was before going out for a drink!) the crushing indifference shown was quite overwhelming.
Ace-T
A website you should all use then: www.tripadvisor.com
put your own reviews on and read other customers reviews of hotels.
put your own reviews on and read other customers reviews of hotels.
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