What to do about a bad hotel?

Counting_Pennies_2

I wonder if I could have some advice from you all.

My husband spent a lot of money treating me to a surprise weekend away.
We took our baby with us, so my husband was looking to get a nice room as we would be spending more time in it in the evenings as we would need to put our son to bed. He spent £115 per night on this hotel room, which for us is a huge sum of money, normally we can only afford B&B.

Unfortunately the surprise was on us both as we ended up staying in a Fawlty Towers equivalent.

The room was worse than any £20 per person per night B&B we have stayed in. The pipes clonked throughout the night, so loud it would wake you up. The bed linen was so worn I could feel the holes waiting to appear in it and it was so bobbly that it was awful to sleep in.

We complained to the 'proprietor' about so many things, including the fact my pillow had blood on it, the side lamps weren't working, the tv also didn't work, it just fuzzed. The bathroom was dated with mould at the windows. Basically to cut a long story short (as the list is endless) the hotel didn't provide what I would view as adequate service for such an amount of money.

The proprietor basically wasn't budging, he said he corrected the major issues (i.e. lamp and pillow (no apology though, blamed housekeeping)) although disagreed with the tv said it was fine!! When pressed that it wasn't value for money and wanted him to act on this he then went on that he was due a heart bypass op, whether that is true or a sick way of getting someone to stop having a go at him, I am livid at this poor service.

My husband paid in advance, as you do nowadays booking on line, so couldn't withhold any money as it was already taken.

Is there a website anyone knows about where I can inform people of this Fawlty Towers equivalent, as I would hate anyone to have to go through the experience we did.

Interestingly at breakfast this morning (if you can call it that!) every guest was complaining and getting no where!

bazza1603

Hi,

Inform others at review sites

https://www.ciao.co.uk
https://www.tripadvisor.com

Best regards

Barry
https://www.theairlineguide.co.uk

nickinoo

How awful, £115 per night is very expensive. I would suggest CAB, trading standards, maybe even your credit card company would be good places to contact.

Hope you get a result.

As Nelski says below, add it to the vent board.

Nelski

Post it here as well then none of us fall for it.:mad:

Counting_Pennies_2

Nelski wrote:

Post it here as well then none of us fall for it.:mad:

I'm not sure if I am allowed to name, but the place was called The Blythe Hotel in Southwold, Suffolk. It is in a beautiful coastal village with the famous coloured beach huts that sell for ridiculous sums of money. There are some lovely little shops, nice for an afternoon stroll while touring round the area.

If you are looking to stay in the area, we went into the Crown Inn which is a no smoking bar and restaurant, and the food is out of this world and they couldn't be nicer towards our baby. I gather they do B&B as well and going by the downstairs I can imagine it would be lovely to stay there.

All I would say is if you do pass by make sure you avoid the Blythe Hotel!
Basil Fawlty eat your heart out!

elona

Have you thought about contacting trading standards ?

Nelski

Well they may remove the post but at least some of us have seen it!

Bad luck though and I hope you can get something out of this.

margaret_3

Worse than the inflated price I imagine, would be the terrible disappointment you experienced.
You HAVE to do something about it or it will gnaw away at you.
Before contacting trading standards, I would write to the proprietor and tell him what you propose to do unless he recompenses you. Also tell him that you are going to contact watchdog and the papers!
Good luck.

YorkshireBoy

I've posted a suggestion for you on the Vent board but thought of another now I've read it here as well.

Is this hotel listed with the local Tourist Information Office, local council, ETB, AA, RAC etc, etc? Might be worth digging this info out before contacting the proprietor, not that you're going to "blackmail" him - you're just going to check the membership/listing criteria.

saveapenny

Post a review on holidaytruths too

nickinoo

Southwold is a lovely little place with a reputation for high standards so I am very surprised at this. I am just down the road in Lowestoft so I will make sure I avoid that place if ever we go out for lunch.