So my partner went to a huge effort to take me away for the evening for my birthday. He booked us a room at this hotel as it appeared lovely, quaint and stated it was a romantic venue. He was charged £175 for one night.
When we arrived the outside of the property was lovely but unfortunately thats where the excitement ended!
When entering the building it was quite and appeared empty. We rang the bell and waited... it took quite a while for a member of staff to appear. We were taken up to our room number 11, down a hot, stuffy, and tired corridor.
We entered the room and on first glance, all though not very good standard of decor, appeared ok. However after a few moments we saw the damp patches, the curtains around the four poster bed were all hanging off the tracks. I opened the wardrobe and the hinges were hanging off, so we closed it up in fear the doors would fall off.
In the bathroom the towel rail was constantly on so was very hot! We tried to find a way of turning it off but the socket had no switch and was hanging off the wall slightly so did not want to touch it. The ceiling was coming down in the shower and lots of cobwebs.
The room had cobwebs everywhere with spiders in every corner. The brass light fittings had seen better days and were rusty.
We looked at the welome pack and it stated they provided room service and could select items from the bar menu for food and drink. However there was no bar menu present. So we decided to go to the bar and get a cold drink. We followed the signs to the bar but there didnt appear to be one. The same member of staff who showed us to our room appeared. So we asked where the bar was and she just asked what we wanted. I explained we were hoping to have a drink. She gave us a rinks menu which did not detail any prices and she took our orders and disappeared, so we sat outside to admire the gardens. She appeared with our drinks but then disappeared again. We finished our drinks and wanted another one but could not find any staff so gave up.
We then went back to the room to shower before heading into canterbury. The shower was ok but very noisey. The towel I went to use had a suspicious brown mark on so we decided to use our own towels. The windowsill behind the toilet was loose and not fixed as we found out when trying to open the tiny window in the bathroom.
We went into to town for dinner then returned. As there was no bar or shop we just went back to our room to watch TV. The Tv is placed in a very awkward postion meaning only one person could lay in bed and see it. There was a small fan in the room so we put this on as room was so hot. However we quickly turned it back off as was broken and sounded like it would explode as blades hit the saftey cage.
We had to have all the windows open as so stuffy and hot but was kept awake by the noise from the main road outside, trucks going into the industrial estate where it is situated throughout the night. Also rooms are not at all sound proof so could hear the neighbours enjoying themselves most of the night also.
In the morning we woke up and went down for breakfast. We ordered the full english breakfast which came out very fast, too fast. The food mainly was dry and appeared to have been cooked a while ago. Bacon was dry and old, scrambled egg was solid, cold and old. Was not pleasant. The chairs in the dining area were faux leather and this was peeling off.
I was even more infuriated when I found out how much my partner for charged for the stay. I have paid less for 5 star hotels in central london! He also stated when booking it had asked if it was a special occassion and he had added it was my birthday. He was then surprised that nothing was done by the hotel to make it more of an occassion. The staff did not wish me happy birthday or anything of that nature. When we checked out there appeared to actually be staff at the desk so that was something at least.
All in all very disappointing especially at that cost. Would not recommend to anyone I have stayed in cleaner, nicer travel lodges! It does seem a shame as it would not of taken much to improve this hotel at all. I have added pictures and videos of our room.
