Avonmore Hotel

We booked one night through airbnb for Valentines Day and told the host we’d arrive late, after check-in time. When we got to the hotel, the place was messy and smelled strongly of cigarettes. Worse, people were already in the room we’d booked. They told us the owner had overbooked their room and sent them to ours instead. We tried repeatedly to reach the owner by phone and through the airbnb app. After many calls, they turned off their phone; they read our messages but wouldn’t reply or help with the problem they had created. We still haven’t even received an apology. One of the worst hotel or airbnb experiences I’ve ever had. Don’t waste your time or money, go somewhere else.

Our birthday weekend was completely ruined. Nobody was there when we arrived, and the owners wouldn’t answer their phones, so we had to figure out how to get into the room ourselves. It was disgraceful: dirty towels, blood-stained bedding, a missing window blind that let in sunlight, a dirty bathroom, and a sofa covered in stains. The radiators weren’t even on the wall and were half hanging off. I’m very disappointed.

We booked through booking.com and couldn’t get into the property. The owner wouldn’t answer the phone to give us the access code. After we complained, booking.com refused to refund us, leaving us stranded in London without any accommodation. I’ll be taking legal action over this. Avoid.

I was left outside until 10:30 pm because nobody could provide the key to my room. I arrived at 5:30 pm and the main entrance code worked, but my room was the only one of about 10 without an electronic keypad. It needed a physical key, and I’d been given a code instead. I contacted the property through Booking messages and got replies at first, but they never answered the phone, even when Booking tried calling. They sent me on a “treasure hunt” to look in a desk drawer near the shared kitchen and on the fridges in two shared kitchens. The key wasn’t anywhere. Leaving a key in a drawer or shared kitchen that anyone can access would be unsafe anyway. I tried to be flexible and offered to stay temporarily in a smaller room for three people rather than the five we’d booked, since the rest of my group was arriving the next day. That suggestion was ignored. After hours and several follow-up messages, they said they “understand the urgency” and were “checking with their team,” then stopped communicating. Booking eventually resolved it after three calls, each with a 20-minute wait. They refunded me and helped arrange another hotel late that evening. Poor organisation, unsafe key handling, and no customer support. Avoid if you can.