It is now over weeks since I wrote to the hotel following our stay with them, and I am yet to hear a response to our stay.

My partner and I made a reservation to stay at Charlotte House Hotel on the nights of the 27th and 28th of June having being impressed with the website. I am writing as we were thoroughly dissatisfied both with the experience and due to lack of any management on the premises at the time of check-out. The experience verged on paying London prices to stay at what only can be described as Lincolns ‘faulty towers’.

On arrival on Friday the 27th we asked at reception about a restaurant in the area for a meal. Enquiring initially about the Westgate. We were told that the Westgate was fully booked and then informed that Thai On One was recommended and that a taxi would be arranged to collect us and pick us up.

Not knowing Lincoln at all we were very impressed with this and happy to be directed. The Thai was located at the side of one of Lincoln’s main roads in part of the cinema complex. Whilst the meal was acceptable, it was not in particularly nice surroundings and was in an almost empty restaurant. Initially we thought that this was probably the best that Lincoln had to offer if we had been directed here by the Hotel. On Saturday, following a walk around Lincoln, we found that in fact the city has a wealth of good restaurants within a five minute walk from the Hotel, and so do not understand why the Hotel staff would be directing its guests to this particular restaurant (we noted that the restaurants cards were also placed in the pages of each hotel guide as a place stop for the page on Charlotte House Hotel).

On Saturday our friends arrived, with whom we were all attending a wedding in Girton. We requested drinks at the bar at about 5 pm (once we had located a barman). We ordered Bloody Marys and Pimms. The Bloody Marys were served in martini glasses. The Pimms tasted flat and bitter and the fruit seemed past its best, when I asked when it was made I was told it had been made in the morning.

The replacement Pimms then raised questions as only one Pimms (three had been previously served) appeared, without fruit, and only just enough Pimms to colour the lemonade. At this stage, as the waiter evidently thought we were more trouble, we gave up and drank what had been served. This was the first of several instance where no apologies were made, or concessions for the fact that the Hotel was not up to standard.

On the Saturday night of our stay, beyond your control, the Fire Alarm went off at around 3.30 am in the morning. Fortunately this was a false alarm (which periodically continued when we got back into the building). Neither at the time of the event or the following morning at check-out was there any acknowledgement or apology for the inconvenience. At least as a courtesy one would have expected at check-out someone to either make enquiries as to ones experience or to apologise for the inconvenience of the previous night.

On Sunday morning coming down to breakfast at 9.20 we waited until 10.00 before anyone even acknowledged we were seated at breakfast and came and offered us tea or coffee. Given that there were only five tables in use and two staff attending to breakfast this seems very poor.

When it came to breakfast itself, due to a shortage of tea pots, tea took another ten minutes to come, although only a teabag in a cup without milk or spoons. I asked if there was any brown bread available, as the loaf that had been put out had already been used up, to which no response ever came. We had a very nice cooked breakfast, although when I asked for a piece of lemon to have with the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs the waitress came back to say that the Hotel did not have any lemons.

Our friends decided not to venture to breakfast as they heard two other guests complaining in the corridor that they had waited an hour to be served.

A note on the shower room is probably worth raising at this point. Our friends had commented on their shower pooling. Upon inspection they had found it was clogged with hair and left it on the sink for your cleaners to see. I would like to indicate that following this discussion we realised that this was the same maintenance/cleaning problem which the drain in our room had.
Final bemusement came when we came to leave on Sunday and found we had been parked in for the day. When we enquired at the reception about moving our car we were informed that the guest had already gone out for the day and so could not move the car at present, leaving us no choice but to spend the morning in Lincoln.

Aside of all the experiences whilst staying at the hotel we were also not particularly amused when it came to the billing of the room. We found that our friends staying in an identical room directly below ours, who had booked by the same method (phone and e-mail) were paying £109 per night excluding breakfast, although told £120 per night inclusive of breakfast). We came to the conclusion that our rate of £145 was because it included breakfast.

At checking out not only were we charged an additional £19 per day for breakfast in addition to surcharges for the newspapers that had been offered.

On the first matter of the additional charge for breakfast at no time had anyone brought this to our attention either at time of booking or at breakfast that there was an additional charge. No pricing is included on the menus in the breakfast room and no requirement to sign anything which would have indicated that an additional charge was being levied for the breakfast.

On the second matter of the charge for newspapers, both my partner and I have stayed in many hotels and are used to been offered a newspaper for the morning. It is usual practice for this to be included in the room rate. If this is not the case I believe that you should do your guests the courtesy of informing them that it will be charged.

I would have refused to pay the bill at the time of checking out had there been anyone of any responsibility in the building that I could have spoken to. As with a number of other guests who requested to speak to the manager, this seems to be a further shortfall given Sunday must be the busiest check-out day of the week and that all the guests had been subjected to a sleepless night due to the false fire alarms.

As a rule I do not like to complain about things, but the experience at your hotel became such that I feel that attention should be given to the service and management of the establishment. I felt further compelled as it was me that had recommended the hotel to our friends who also stayed there so I feel some embarrassment at having got them to stay.

What is a nice hotel, with great potential, it was a real shame that it is letting itself down on such basic things.