Atlantic Apartments

Cheap, but an awful stay. Three of us came for a Premier League match at Anfield and spent three nights in apartment no.6 in September 2018. The small apartment started off freezing, and its only electric heater took a couple of hours to warm it up. There was no shower water, apparently because it gets turned off at night, but it was still off in the morning. We couldn’t shower at 8 a.m. before heading home. The toilet wouldn’t flush either. The two 1½-beds each had one double duvet, which wasn’t great for three blokes. We called the remote reception, and they brought us a third duvet and some sheets, but the sofa bed was terribly uncomfortable to sleep on. The old windows were covered in mold. All in all, dreadful.

I ended up cancelling and finding somewhere else at greater cost through no fault of our own. It was a horrible few weeks trying to sort out the mess, and I found the company extremely unreasonable. The uncertainty took away all the excitement. A few people dropped out because the replacement stay cost more, and the hen was devastated. I’d booked five apartments for my sister’s hen do in February 2019, for April 2020 and Ladies Day at Aintree. The booking was for 26 people, and I’d paid a substantial deposit in 2019. In January 2020 I was told there was no booking in the system. I sent the manager copies of all the payment receipts for each apartment. They confirmed the money had been received, but said we weren’t on the system and they were now fully booked. I couldn’t believe it. We might have arrived with nowhere to stay. Even with only weeks to go, it already felt like that was what would happen. They offered a refund straight away, but that wasn’t what I wanted. It was Grand National weekend and we needed accommodation for 26 people for two nights. Finding somewhere else for such a large group would be nearly impossible and much more expensive with less than nine weeks to go. I asked why they couldn’t honour our booking, made over a year ahead, before other reservations. They couldn’t have taken it if the other bookings were already on the system. I didn’t want anyone else to be in our situation, but we’d been so organised and I thought it was terrible. They ignored that question. They also ignored many emails or left points unanswered. I had to email several times to get a reply, sometimes with no success. The manager offered a different apartment, apparently linked with Atlantic Apartments, which was being refurbished and due to be ready by April 2020. The rooms were much bigger than we wanted, but I didn’t feel I had a choice, so I agreed. Still, the manager couldn’t guarantee it would be ready. She said it was on track and promised updates every two weeks, but couldn’t give any certainty. This was my sister’s hen do, not an ordinary weekend away. We had races tickets booked, which they knew, and people travelling from overseas. I couldn’t risk the renovated apartment being unfinished with nowhere for us to stay. They could have told me two weeks before that it wouldn’t be ready, leaving us stuck. The manager sounded certain it would be ready, but when I asked about a backup plan, she said they couldn’t arrange one because Grand National weekend would make it extremely difficult to rehouse us. That didn’t reassure me at all. It seemed like a weak excuse, since I’d found accommodation available, though it cost more. To reassure myself and the hen party, who I hadn’t told yet, I booked another similar apartment outside the centre with free cancellation until two weeks before our dates. I asked Atlantic Apartments to cover the £500 difference if their apartments weren’t ready, but they refused.

What a dump! The entry carpets are filthy and it reeks of cigarettes. The shower’s knackered, the cooker doesn’t work, and the glasses had mild in them. The sofa bed was already broken and looked ready to give way again. The fourth bed collapsed because it was broken too and had a dodgy repair. Other than that, it’s okay!

We had the worst night because a group of teenagers took over the place all night, taking drugs and setting off the fire alarms. The apartment needs some TLC and doesn’t look like the pictures. They need to check who they let stay there. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for families, and I won’t be back.