Bellamar

The few staff members we met were very friendly, but the guesthouse itself was filthy, shabby, and the most expensive place we stayed on the Northern Way. The bottom bunk was a trundle bed mattress resting on two drawer crossbars, with no bed frame. Wallpaper was peeling and patched with tape, and the walls looked like they hadn’t been swept in at least a week. The towels were torn and filthy, as if they’d been dragged around.

The location is good, but that was about the only positive. The place smelled damp and stuffy, and the hall carpets were dark, dirty, and disgusting. We were there four days. Our first room had no windows, and although they moved us the next day as promised, the room with a window wasn’t any cleaner. The price changed between booking and checkout. Breakfast was just packets of white sliced bread, coffee, bottled juice, and butter left on a table for guests to sort out themselves. On the third day, someone banged on the door and shouted, “It’s already 12 o’clock!” We weren’t due to leave until the next day. The shifts were in total chaos. I wouldn’t recommend it.

We booked a room for the entire weekend to go to a festival at the nearby BEC, but on Saturday morning an employee banged on the door and yelled that we had to leave, even though we still had another day booked. The organization was a mess. The place felt like a step back in time, but at tomorrow’s prices. We got bad smells, a dirty bathroom, wallpaper held up with thumbtacks, and radiators that seemed to be there just for decoration. It didn’t feel fair to pay that much for the service. I’d look at other options.

The guesthouse is well located, but there were issues with damp, maintenance, cleanliness, breakfast, and Wi-Fi. The listing says Wi-Fi is available, but it only reaches the central rooms, and even there we couldn’t get a signal. I won’t stay here again.