General Chat

I have booked several hotels on line and so far have been lucky.

One thing I always do, since it was available, is look at the place on Google Earth. You can see the surrounding buildings and I have avoided quite a few smart sounding places that don't look like their description!!

it didnt just sound smart,it looked lovely.

but they had forgot to say that it had not been painted for several yrs,and didnt mention that opposite the hotel was a car wash full of young polish lads that stopped working and shouted at every female that passed,nd the adult shop just down the road :-D

my daughter always goes to premier inns

they are all the same but you know what yor getting

and always a good breakfast with a choice of cooked fresh fruit yogarts toast etc and as much as you can eat

sorry you had such a bad time

sally w <3

Out of interest what rating did it have?

Sue

Oh Suzanne it sounded grim! Sometimes you just want to leave and get away ASAP and then complain later. We stayed overnight at a hotel in Chester about 5 years ago. We drove around for ages trying to find it and then were told we couldn't unload and to go to their carpark which was 2 streets away. No joke carrying all your stuff in the rain!! What a shame when it was your anniversary as well.

4 star

and because it was freshers wk,lots of things were going on in chester over the wkend,so we couldnt get any where else,but to be fair,the hotel looked lovely online.
we had no problems booking,it looked great and we were happy with the 4star rating(we are not posh(if the sheets are clean its ok)but when the sheets are clean,usually everything else is,not the case here.

it just brings it home to me that ratings really dont matter,its the luck of the draw.

I think it is the luck of the drawer, Suzanne. Have just been reading through thread and almost cannot believe that you have had such a bad time.

Where do foreign tourists go? I would have thought that Chester was very high up on their list of priorities. Almost unbelievable what you have written, when you think that foreigners might book there. Can you imagine Japanese or Kuwaitis putting up with any of that? Don't know abouit reducing it to 3*. I would suggest ETB close it down altogether and stop manager from ever running any hotel ever again in Britain.

In March I tried to book a room (in Melbourne).

The website wasn't working very well at all, so I looked up the 'phone number & called the hotel.

I got the room for about $40 less than the website asked for.

:-0

the bad thing was John,that the staff were friendly,they were prob working for below the min wage,it was not there fault they couldnt understant my flapping(prob looked more like a demented chicken than a fruit fly.

i love polish people,we have very close polish friends,and me and hubby and my mum and dad have been to poland as guests and its been fantastic(my son was engaged to a polish girl for 3yrs and we have all kept intouch after the break up.they are lovely hardworking and the most friendly people.)
my problem was the 4star rating,when it was a hostel and no more.

how can they charge the prices they do,and lie about parking,people were co/off bedbugs,but i must admit that i checked the sheets and thy were clean on the first day. it was horrible.

OK have had a quick look, the stars are ONLY allocated via the booking.com web site......these stars are an absolute con!

Hotels should be graded by proper institutions and that is what you make your judgement on.

Having run an AA 3 star (79%) 1 rosette (food) hotel I know how the system works. Don't the English Tourist board use roses?

Make another complaint via whichever website led you to the Hotel link.

Sue

thank you i will.

im not bothered really bout coming home early,but others are going to be conned and its not fair.
just clean the place up.and tell familys that they have a sex shop 100yrds away
thats all i ask.x

Thanks Suzanne, just had a look and it does look clean neat, but I would of still complained. I agree with the premier you get what you pay for, we stay in the same one when we go up to Scotland to visit the inlaws I normally have to ask for 2 pillows and they only ever leave 1 hand and bath towel out and I will asked for more and there is no problem, the one we stay in South Wales was ok as well, Sue stayed in that one too. :-D However travel lodge the only decent one I have stayed in was the one in Ireland which was newish about 18 mths old. The one in Edinburgh was bogging.

The thing is that worries me is, ok the standard of hygiene was crap but also what about fire escapes and such, didnt Suzanne say she couldnt open the window? Surely the hotel must get checked for such things.

They must have a current Fire Safety Certificate Hayley. You can ask to see their check book and actually see when they last a) ran a drill and b) had their certificate issued.

Never be afraid to ask, if they have nothing to hide they won't refuse.

no we could open the window,but didnt want to because it was just below the fire escape,and didnt want to leave it open while we were out or in bed,because the stairs went from our window to the ground below,the window did open,but we chose not to open it because of the problems stated above.

It also sounds to me that this was not a Hotel but a B & B. And the star ratings are different for both, same thing but different standards.

I would definately complain to the people who issued the 'star' ratings for this establishment.

And as for Trip Adviser. This is not foolproof and has been proved so in the past. With owners and their family/friends 'bigging up' places when they are just like the place you stayed in A DUMP.

Another additional tool would also be Google Street View, then at least you can see the outside. Not always helpful, but at least you would have had an idea of the locality.

Such a shame that your weekend away was spoilt by this experience.

I do note that hotels we are writing about (and certainly this one that Suzanne enjoyed to a degree) are being advertised on Genes pop-ups.

Shame hotel advert cannot be linked to this and other hotel threads :-) ;-)

Could someone please send me the link to the hotel mentioned? I do go up to Chester ( may be up there next month) and so far have only stayed at the Premier Inn, which I couldn't fault for cleanliness and good comfortable beds :-)

I would get on to Trading Standards and if you paid by "Credit Card" have a word with your credit card company.