Central Studios Gloucester Place

We were turned away when we arrived late at night, even though the receptionist had first said they could help sort things out. I’d accidentally booked this property after choosing the wrong address. Booking.com representatives tried to mediate and find a compromise, but the hotel was dismissive, rude and looking out for itself. When problems come up, they seem ready to put all the blame on you and treat you unfairly, leaving you feeling like a culprit instead of a guest. If you want respect and proper service, this isn’t the place.

The room was cheap, so I can’t complain about that, but the booking website never said the bathroom was shared and that was disappointing. Check-in was a faff because I had to collect the key card from another hotel. The staff who greeted me were pretty unfriendly and casual.

At 4am a really rude guy from the hotel called my room to tell me to turn the music down. I said there must be a mistake, since my partner and I had been asleep for hours and hadn’t played music at all during our stay. He got hostile with me. If there’s a noise complaint, surely someone should check the room in person first, instead of making a call at 4am and going on about something that isn’t happening. After that I couldn’t get back to sleep. Someone kept running up and down the stairs to the toilet, which was probably the real source of the disturbance, but hey ho.

The room was quite small, which wasn’t a big deal, but the hotel boiler was in there too. That made it much too warm, and it got noisy whenever other people used hot water. The room was behind the bathroom, so you could hear all the bathroom sounds. There was a big gap around the door, and the hall light was so sensitive that lots of light came into the room. The hotel is spread across several properties in a small area of Cheltenham, so finding the room was tricky at first, even after I’d found reception. The receptionist and the help number were useful in directing me.