General Chat

three months ago hubby booked a lovely hotel in chester for our anniversary wkend,it looked lovely and had 4 stars,the bedrooms looked lovely and the bathroom was a good size,i was really looking farward to our wkend away when we were driving down on fri.

this is what happend :-D

picture the scene :-)

having driven round chester about 20times trying to find this hotel.we landed outside what has to be the most ugly and untidy place ive ever seen,i should have realised this wasnt going to be a good experiance when i saw the lovely plastic flowers above the door :-0
once inside we were welcomed by a small round unshaven but polite man wearing a fleece(he was the recetionist)who welcomed us and asked for payment in the same breath,hubby handed over our card and asked about the free hotel carpark,the little man informed us that the carpark was full and we would have to park in the railway station at the cost of £12(hotel carpark was smaller than my front drive and held 3 cars) :-(

we were taken up to our rm by a young man who could not speak any english,
when he opened the door to our rm i thought they had put us in the broom cupboard by mistake,it was tiny and we couldnt see the bathroom,
hubby started to open doors and low and behold found the bathroom in the cupboard :-0 it was so small you needed to be a anorexic dwarf to fit in it,you could have sat on the loo and had a shower at the same time :-D no good for hubby whos 6ft and 16 stone.
we couldnt open our window because the fire escape went across our window and down into the street, we decided to go out and find some where to eat,so went into chester to have a meal and drinks and stayed out until 12.30am.
when we got back to the rm,hubby decided to make coffee,but because the kettle was on the dressing table the steam steamed up the mirror and someone had written DEATH on the mirror :-0 :-0
we decided to leave the next day and go home after i found 3 fruit fly"s in my breakfast.
it cost us £160 plus parking for this wonderful hotel.with the 4star rating and the 5 star food hygine rating :-(

IF THEY CLAIM 4 STAR COMPLAIN TO
THE TRADING STANDARDS
WONT MAKE UP FOR A LOST WEEKEND
BUT MIGHT MAKE THEM LOOSE THOSE
4 STARS

Bloody hell l hope you have reported them and asked for your money back....or is this a joke???

jude

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Suggest put a review on Tripadvisor.

Andy

no its

not a joke and ive left a bit out,like it being opposite to a hand car was full of young polish men doing a great trade washing cars for £7 pounds a time,and a adult shop a little further up the rd.
only one english speaking member of staff,but the staff were friendly.

ANDREW
i have put a review in trip adviser but its not showing yet,but i so wish i had looked at the reviews first :-(

YOU MUST COMPLAIN

l'm really sorry this has happened, but get onto to everyone that needs to know and report it. CAB as well for advice on getting your money back.

jude

sorry l swore!!!

ive written an e mail to the manager,ive written a review on trip adviser,and will go further if needed,
how you feeling these days dizzi? :-D

I've had nothing but good results from booking hotels on line

I've used Expedia.ca, TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, and Booking.com

I do always read the reviews ....... although many of those can be very wrong

case in point ........................

I wanted to book a hotel in Jasper at short notice in August. I discovered that hotels are very expensive there in the summer (tourists!), but gradually moved up the expense level.

We take the train across Canada frequently, and have always been attracted by a hotel right across from the station.

The reviews on line were NOT very good ........... rooms small, bathroom poor, noisy.

I decided however that that hotel was our best bet (when placed against dirty carpets, very small rooms, etc).

It was LOVELY!!

Granted it was an older hotel, about 60 years old, so it didn't have all the bells and whistles that a new hotel would have ............. but the room we had was large, clean, very quiet, the bathroom a good-size, receptionists friendly and helpful, etc etc

I booked that one through Booking.com .............. which has come up trumps for us twice this year.


It cost about $250 (including tax), and breakfast was not included.

That's about £125

Have you looked on tripadvisor.co.uk to see if it's listed on there? If so, you can report all the problems you experienced.

We used Expedia in 2007 for our trip to USA, brilliant:)

jude

Suzanne name and shame them :-D

Lesley x

hi wend.

i made the mistake of not looking at the reviews before hand,but did it afterwards,the reviews are bad,some people complained of bedbugs,and some got the money back.

SYLVIA
we did book online through booking.com.
the hotel looked lovely and this is not the first time weve booked online,infact weve booked online about a 1o times over the past 2yrs and weve always had lovely places to stay.
but i must say that the bed and bathroom were clean,but the place had a bad smell,but we couldnt decide what the smell was.
it was really awful and long due a visit from the hotel inspector :-)

inform the English Tourist Board

hi everyone

some of you are pm me because you think my OP is a joke,

its real and it happened on fri/SAT 20th and 21st sept. :-(

my and hubby"s 32nd wedding anniversary.x

if you want the hotel name you can pm me

Suzanne I can recommend Ye Old Kings Head..

Have stayed there a couple of years ago and the bedrooms are lovely..

Also I had the Welsh Lamb for the meal with all the trimmings and it was delicious..

http://www.theyeoldekingsheadchester.co.uk/

Thank you Suzanne

Mail Gordon Ramsay maybe he will include it in his TV program Hotel Hell

:-D :-D :-D :-D

complain to the Chester Tourism / Better Business Bureau

write a letter to the Chester paper, naming the hotel.


Suzanne ........... July this year was the first time I had used booking.com ............. it was in fact the first time that the site had come up on any of mysearches over the last 2 or 3 years. I think it might only just have entered the Canadian market.


What has amazed me is how hotel prices can differ through the different sites! The same site is not always the cheapest!


I've also discovered that many hotels over here give BETTER deals than the online booking sites, especially if you are booking well ahead.

I've got well over 50% reduction in the hotel's own offer when booking 3 or 6 months ahead.

It is often worth while checking the hotel site.

Must admit that now adays all our hotels are booked on line, when you got there Suzanne did you not ask if this was the hotel blah bah as advised on the net? Did you not ask to be put in another room as you found the one you had been allocated unsuitable? Did you not complian and demand a refund for your breakfast?

didnt ask for replacement br,eakfast no.we just left

the hotel was fully booked they said.

just left and went home,doing what i need to do now,not looking for my money back,just want to know why these hotels are not checked on a regular basis.
you can not imagine what a terrible place it was,its not the staffs fault,they were polite but just didnt understand what anyone was saying,so couldnt deal with complaints,and as ive said,our bed and bathroom in the cupboard were clean,
have a look on the site(i will pm you the address)it looks lovely.but it had not been painted for at least 5yrs,the exteriour paintwork was crumbling and they had old plastic flowers in hanging baskets above the door,weeds growing everywhere in the front of the hotel and the reception and stairs smelt horrible,we booked in good faith,we were shocked that this sort of place could get a 4star rating and a 5star hygine rating.(they only did breakfast) your feet stuck to the carpet and the paintwork was filthy,
no one was allowed to sit in the lounge later than 9pm(the doors were locked after 9pm)and the front doors were locked at 10pm,but you could get in with your keycard,and no staff on duty after 10pm until 7am(but we didnt know that until after we arrived,and to be honest it didnt bother us)
it was more of a hostel than anything else.