The Bessemer Hotel Carvery and Grill

I’ve had Sunday carveries here many times and they’ve always been nice, but today’s was a letdown. The meat was awful, too tough to cut, let alone eat. I wasn’t happy with the meal.

I wouldn’t stay here. On arrival I had to look outside for a staff member, who was vaping. In my first room, the bed had small black and brown stains. When I found the receptionist again and asked for a clean room, he handed me another one without checking either room or asking any questions. That room had the same marks, a strong cigarette smell, and further marks that looked as if someone had slept on the bed with their shoes on. I went back out a third time and asked for a refund because I wasn’t willing to stay in either room. I mentioned several recent bad reviews, including ones about bedbugs, and the receptionist replied, “oh yeah, I heard about that too.” It left me feeling they knew about the problems and weren’t doing anything. I emailed the manager the next day. Again, nobody questioned or checked the rooms; I was just told to go to booking.com for a refund. Be aware, The Bessemer will then deny any wrongdoing to the booking site. It seems nobody at The Bessemer cares about the state of the rooms. They put you in another room, apparently until you give up, then send you to the third-party site you booked through and deny everything to avoid a refund. You’d be better off at a generic budget hotel chain, where they at least care about their reputation.

At 4 in the morning I felt itchy under my arm. Thankfully I turned on the light to see why, and found bed bugs. I called reception right away and was moved to the next room, but we could hear noise from the previous room until about 7:30, apparently while they moved furniture to assess what was going on. My partner and I were already uncomfortable, and I later found multiple bites on us. We couldn’t settle, and no alternative, refund, or anything else was offered. When I handed in my key card, I got a quick “sorry.” I’m writing this because repeated contact with the hotel hasn’t resolved the problem. I’ve stayed calm and polite throughout, and didn’t want to post a review before giving them a chance to sort it out, but they haven’t contacted me at all. If they contact me through booking.com or TripAdvisor within 24 hours with a solution, I’ll be happy to delete this review.

I paid £25 for food that was absolutely dreadful. The meat was fatty, and the gravy was lumpy and tasteless. Awful.