I am reviewing this accommodation fairly- These views are best on my own perception and experience and should not be taken as anything but. This was a 1 night stay with a view to converting it to a weekend stay with this hotel or another for the weekend availability permitting.
First impressions as you get to the door there is a big sign saying no take aways of any kind in this establishment. Not what you want to see after a long six hour journey, we decided to go out for a meal if necessary, this may have been an inconvenience but was easily overlooked when we were welcomed by we were met by one half of the couple who ran the establishment. She was very polite and welcoming, she made small talk about our journey down though not necessary, but nice. She exuded a warm presence and came off as genuinely interested in making your stay was pleasant. she offered us help to take our luggage in and had an approachable manner. I asked her if I could borrow an iron and was pleased to know there was a designated area already set up for me to do this.
Car parking is at the rear of the property is not fit for purpose but if you are good with directions you will find it , it is a small area fit for purpose but the owner did offer that we could block other cars in and that they would move it on our behalf if necessary. There is paid parking at the front of the building though heavily used and free parking to the rear if you can find one;which we managed to do.
The surroundings including the room was clean, tidy; although a little dated rather than contemporary in its finish, but mirrors the price we paid for the night.
The television remote did not have any batteries in and we had to get up out of bed to manoeuvre it; again easily overlooked.
There is an off putting sign in the toilet which says you will be charged £90.00 for anything you put in the toilet other than tissue, and is checked before and after you leave. I do not have a problem with the message per say it goes without saying that toilets require toilet tissues. It just did not feel nice to see all those signs I guess; I felt they inferred that patrons were a certain lower grade clients, simply because they require a budget . I may be wrong.
We had showers in the small but adequate facilities, there were two towels for use. We like lots of towels and we always take our own as well so that if we do not have sufficient we can use our own along with those provided. Some hotels provide more than adequate supply, again this wasn't a problem given the competitive price we paid for one night.
At 10.30pm, my husband got into bed and I followed as I pulled back the sheets I noticed what looked like a wet patch of some sort and red in colour. I figured this was an oversight as the sheets looked to have been made. I wanted to get another sheet and I would have even changed it myself. I knocked on the door of the owners and instead of feeling the warm helpful presence I had earlier I was met with what I perceived to be unhelpfulness; the other half of the owner. He argued that there beds were made freshly every morning and that no way would his staff make errors. I felt that he then raised is voice; at the same time offering us another room but suggested that we must have done it by putting our things down or why else would it be wet? there was no way we did it as the bed was made when we got in and at no time did we put our things down on the bed and had no food or drink. He was very impatient as it was 10.30 and wanted to want to go to bed.I felt uncomfortable with his manner, which came across argumentative, his attitude was take another room but unless the leak came from the ceiling he could not see how. I feel that something of creamy wet like texture may have been on the bed head from the morning before as we pulled the sheet back it got transferred. AT NO TIME DID WE THINK THAT THE SHEETS HAD NOT BEEN WASHED & CHANGED. We were not complaining, as there was no real issue accidents happen we simply wanted a change of sheet, we had settled for bed did not want to move rooms and certainly did not wish to fall out with anyone. To which his response was why didn't we carry on as if it was not there then. We highlighted it, partly because, it wasn't us who did it and the kind thing would be to change the sheet but the other thing was that we certainly did not want a charge to follow in what looked like a blame culture.
In the end, we did not get the clean sheets we asked for and we decided against moving rooms. I am ashamed to say, we felt so uncomfortable, we relented by turning the sheet down the other side of the bed. If we had an option that late at night we would have gone elsewhere.
It took us a time to relax and process what had happened but sleep was good the bed was comfortable and the surroundings were quiet. Despite being in room next to the street we could hardly hear the road. I would ask for a second pillow but what was there would suffice.
I got up to have a shower and noticed the towels that were placed for us to use that had been still perfectly rolled from the night before had the same discolouring that were on the sheets the night before and what looked like finger prints. We came to the conclusion that the previous day someone else came into contact with that liquid as it may have been spilt or something. When cleaning up it may have transferred to the bedding; and the towels as it was being rolled, which explains the finger prints inside and out, rather than smudges. A simple mistake for anyone.
We discussed bringing it up at breakfast but thought we did not wish to spoil anyone else's experience by getting into an argument.
Breakfast was ok as fry ups go, the service received from Mr in front of the other guests was that he was polite and seemed to make amends as he served us by being courteous and productive. It was when we came to leave and handed him his keys, we said thank you he said ok still appearing to hold a grudge. It was not until we left my husband said he will think we did it, I said we should have told him, but we both agreed had we approached the subject it wouldn't have been discussed in a matter looking at all possibilities and to realise that it may have just been an accident.
Hence, our mixed review had none on this happened we would have had a wonderful stay. I think that Mr does not make allowances for errors occurring and had he not been defensive this would have been a rather raving review. On the basis of Mrs we would have visited again she did everything just right, the accommodation was worth what we paid. Whilst we would recommend the hotel to our friends perhaps wouldn't stay ourselves based on our experience and not that of the mistake that occurred. I wish them all the best that they will continue to provide the excellent service as displayed in the other reviews that brought us to choose their bandb, sadly our experience wasn't the same.
