Villare Hitchin Town Centre

We had booked three single rooms for November 18th, but found them freezing, damp and filthy. We weren’t told how to use the heating, and as far as we could see there weren’t any radiators. The rooms smelled strongly of mold and were dusty. One had cobwebs and a large spider, and another had a badly stained mattress. The entrance to one room was neglected, with glass and aluminum beer bottles left on the ground. All three bathrooms were extremely dirty and unusable, and one shower didn’t work. Mehvish suggested I use a shower in another room after 11 a.m., once its guests had checked out. That’s their idea of hygiene and cleanliness. There was no reception. Check-in happened inside a taco kiosk. We obviously refused to stay overnight. Mehvish signed a form confirming we hadn’t stayed, and we were promised a refund the next day, November 19th, despite our complaints about the dirt. The refund never came, and they kept making promises to update us without doing so unless I chased them. On November 21st, I was told to be patient because the person handling refunds was sick. I heard nothing else. When I followed up again today, they claimed the rooms weren’t dirty, that they never get cleanliness complaints, that I’d been offered another room and refused it, and that I could speak to the manager that day. The offer of another room is absolutely false, and I never got a call from the manager. They use the excuse of an “old building” to justify not cleaning. In Italy, a hotel like this would be shut down right away by the local health authorities. I’m still waiting for my refund. Maybe this review will finally get things moving.

The lady checking us in at the food takeaway was lovely, polite and welcoming, even if checking in there was a bit strange. Things went downhill after that. The place looked like a builders yard mixed with an abandoned hotel, with old beds, furniture and even a piano left in doorways and the car park. The room was just as bad. There were thick black hairs and dead flies on and in the bed, the bath tub had cigarette burns, and there was no toilet roll. The heating and air-con unit only worked in the bathroom, not the bedroom. Massively overpriced, probably because of the location.

The room smelled like fat, human fat, and was dilapidated, dirty and shabby. A board of plywood stuck out from under the mattress and scraped my wife’s ankle. We didn’t sleep well, and the thin walls meant we heard the people next door come in at 2 a.m. Then a roadsweeper woke us at 6:30 a.m. The bathroom door didn’t fit the opening or close properly, let alone lock. There was no shower curtain or screen, so showering meant crouching under the low ceiling and huddling in a corner, yet the whole room still got flooded. The toilet was blocked, the bath drained slowly, and the mirror didn’t work. Tea and coffee supplies amounted to one coffee each. We were given a Wi-Fi password but not the provider, and nothing worked. There was no guest information in the room and no reception to ask for help. Finding the place was a job in itself. There were no signs to the car park or reception, just a faded A4 notice in a plastic sleeve, stuck with Blu Tack to the window of a derelict Burrito shop. There was no reception or lobby. After checking in, we were led through a fire exit in a building opposite, propped open with a brick. If it had shut behind us, we couldn’t have got back to our room, with nowhere at the hotel to go for help. Breakfast was supposed to be arranged with the chef in the Burrito shop, but only between 8 and 9. We chose 8:30. We went through the back of the shop and a storeroom into a long room with a ramshackle bar, a few tables and a mysterious curtain at one end. The continental choices were one kind of juice, a few cornflakes and toast. There were no menus, just cutlery in a tray on a chair. When we asked what else was available, we were told “just english breakfast, you know with bacon and beans and stuff.” We chose it. It was two sausages, one piece of bacon, two fried eggs with no choice, a few mushrooms and a few beans. It wasn’t great, though what there was tasted okay. The tea facilities catered for only one coffee each. At checkout, the derelict Burrito shop was locked and nobody was around, so we called the mobile number. We were told to leave the card in our room, but the fire exit was shut and we couldn’t get back in. We had to post the card through the Burrito shop letterbox. What a load of s%#t. How on earth is this 4 stars? Three at best. This isn’t a hotel, or even a motel, just a badly organised b&b. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Avoid. Avoid. And avoid.

I’ve stayed in quite a few of the rooms and had a nice experience in each one. The hotel is old and quirky, with loads of character, and it’s good value for money. The showers are powerful, the beds are comfy and the AC is spot on. The owner’s a lovely, helpful lady too.