The Oasis Hotel

The people were friendly and helpful, and it’s close to the train facilities. I like that I can walk everywhere from here. I’ll use them again.

After an hour of quiet, just as I was drifting off, the manager, a big woman with glasses, knocked on my door. She seemed drunk, tried to kiss me and grab my private parts, said I looked like her son, and offered me a free place to stay whenever I needed if I did what she wanted. I showed no interest, but she screamed at me. It took 20 minutes to get her to leave, and after she threatened me, I decided to go. On my way out, I saw her naked in the hallway, trying to stop me and getting very aggressive, trying to headbutt me. Another guest called the police. They arrived and arrested her, and I went to another hotel. I can’t stop laughing when I think back on it, but I can’t get my money back, so I’m fuming. At first, everything seemed to go well and I was taken to my room.

The sink was the strangest part of the room: it sprayed so hard that it soaked you and covered the bathroom floor. The air conditioning was damaged and missing parts, and there was no way to control it, so the room became uncomfortably hot overnight. The mattress was painfully hard and left my back knackered. There were wall damage, stained curtains, and grimy stains on the floor. The room looked like a 70s sitcom and badly needed renovating. The corridors leading there were narrow, smelly, dirty, outdated and like a maze. In the room, we smelled damp, mould and a faint trace of tobacco. The window had been left open without a security latch, so someone could have climbed in after cleaning and before we arrived. Ten minutes after we settled in, front desk staff tried to enter with another group of visitors, which felt dodgy. Reception was unmanned at first, and we had to call the hotel to get someone downstairs. Check-in took over 20 minutes. This was the worst hotel stay I’ve had. It’s nothing like the advertised pictures, stay away.

Paul was lovely and showed us around, but the place really needs work. The rooms smell unpleasant, and my sink was blocked with cornflakes, as if the previous guest had washed a bowl in it. My main concern was the door locks. Nobody explained that using the card to open a door leaves the lock open, unlike a normal hotel room. I went to sleep and went out without realising my door was unlocked. After I figured it out, I made sure both doors, as we had two rooms, were fully locked. One day we went out and came back to find both doors standing open without needing the card, with all our stuff inside. It’s okay if you just want somewhere for a quick head down in the area. There are residents with problems there, and you can hear them talking at night. The council placed me at the Oasis as emergency accommodation.