Hylands Hotel

We arrived at rooms 43 and 33 late on a Saturday night after another hotel in the area let us down. I paid £50 for one and £40 for the other. We’d worked an event all day, so we fell asleep straight away. In the morning we saw the awful conditions, which we’d have raised with reception had we noticed them the night before. I spoke to Robyn, who told me I should never have been put in those rooms because they were set aside for council emergency accommodation for homeless people. Robyn said to write in for a full refund. Axa then told me I wasn’t entitled to one because we had stayed in the rooms. I still haven’t received a refund, and I plan to report the poor conditions to the local authority. Revolting!

The car park was dark, damp, full and full of potholes. The paintwork was awful, and the corridors smelled of cigarettes and poverty. If you want a dreadful night’s sleep and possibly damage to your vehicle, stay here. If you want somewhere clean, don’t come.

The room smelled strongly of cigarette smoke, as did the run-down hotel generally. The curtains were coming off the pole, the TV aerial was broken with live wires hanging down, and there were punch marks in the doors and walls. The bathroom door was hanging off its hinges. The bed and pillow were hard as rocks, and the walls were so thin I could hear everything. There was a constant droning noise, presumably from the restaurant below. I’d have been more comfortable sleeping in my car.

The only thing that thankfully worked was the locks. We didn’t get the room we’d booked, and the cleanliness deserved minus five. There were black bits in the kettle and coming out of every tap. The carpet was so disgusting we had to put towels down to walk around, and there weren’t any bins, though the room itself might as well have been one. Noise from a DJ or some kind of party went on until 2 a.m., so I couldn’t sleep before then. It wasn’t worth even £1. I thought about making a scene and asking for a refund, but I couldn’t be bothered to spend the energy.