The New George Hotel

The bed was pretty comfortable, and at the price it was just about okay. The room was basic, cold, and not especially clean, though not terrible. When we arrived, there was no owner or hotel staff around, so we had to depend on the pub's bar staff, who work for a separate business. The radiator was broken and the small electric heater didn't warm the room much. The bathroom also had a strong smell.

The room had plenty of storage, a small fridge, and a large TV with Netflix, and the location was good. But it was absolutely filthy, with short dark hairs all over the surfaces, floors, bathroom, and bed. Parking was limited, there was no reception or staff, and we had to put the keys back in the lockbox every day.

The car park had only three spaces, which wasn't mentioned when we booked through booking.com. It was also in a terrible state, with an old toilet and tiles left lying around. I reported this on booking.com, but there hasn't been any action yet. The hotel itself was very worn in many areas and the hygiene was so poor that I went out to buy cleaning products and scrubbed the place on my hands and knees just to feel we weren't living in dirt. The drainage smell was awful, especially in the morning, and needs to be taken further because this isn't right. This was the worst place my fiancé and I have ever stayed. Please avoid it at all costs.

We only lasted one night after booking through Airbnb because the place was unbearable. The room was filthy: dirty dishes sat under the sink, the pillows were orange stained and smelled of body odour, and the mattress was stained and had no cover. The bathroom sink leaked from underneath, and the linoleum floor felt soft and uneven. The building felt dark, damp, and dirty, and the smell outside was so bad we couldn't open the window. The radiator was the main problem. It was sealed at the highest setting, so we couldn't control it, and we spent the winter night awake in awful heat. We raised the issues with the owner and tried to give him a chance to offer a workable fix. He only said the radiator could be switched off completely, which would leave the room freezing, and didn't acknowledge the filth. A handyman did come and stop the leak, and he was appalled by the room's condition. After more complaints, the host offered another room but couldn't promise it would be any better. We decided the owner wasn't going to make the accommodation liveable and asked for a partial refund for the nights we wouldn't use. He became rude, accused us of being fine with things we'd just said we weren't happy about, and said we were contradicting ourselves. Eventually he offered to refund the remaining nights if we checked out. When AirBnB processed it, we were told he would refund only one night instead of two because we left after checkout time, something he hadn't told us. AirBnB got things sorted and covered the night he refused to refund after we showed them what he'd said. We spent the rest of our time in Newcastle at a Premier Inn, which was infinitely nicer.