Ramada Birmingham Oldbury M5 J2

The reception looks good when you walk in, but the room was a letdown. There was broken furniture and a badly fitted bathroom, and the bed was so uncomfortable I had one of the worst nights’ sleep I’ve had in a hotel. The food wasn’t great either. I won’t use it again.

The reception looked fine and the staff were friendly, but the room and corridors were in poor shape. The carpets on the way to my room were threadbare, stained and full of holes. In the room, the place looked tired, the plug sockets were damaged and unrepaired, and parts were missing from the toilet flush. I kept something on my feet. The shower head looked as though it hadn’t been cleaned in years. My room faced a busy dual carriageway. The old windows didn’t keep the sound out, so I had a very uncomfortable night. It was my first time at a Ramada, and I won’t be back.

The hotel itself is okay, but booking through Wyndham.com has been a headache for me. Their site and app have problems, payments can go wrong, and the advertised rewards points often don’t show up. Then you have to contact customer service by phone or email and prove you stayed. Their service is based in the US, they ignore emails, and they don’t respond. It feels completely unprofessional. They once booked two rooms for me over the phone, and I had complaints after every night. I’ve been a long-haul driver, staying in hotels three or four nights a week for about five years. I’ve emailed them many times to get missing points added, and still haven’t had a reply. If you’re booking a Days Inn or Ramada, I’d use Hotels.com, Expedia, or Booking.com instead. They’ve never let me down. I won’t use Wyndham again.

The room was spacious, clean and lovely, and the staff were great. I had no trouble parking, with plenty of spaces onsite. The en suite could have been a little smaller to give more room to the bedroom. There were major overnight roadworks on the main road the day I stayed. The noise didn’t disturb me, but the closures made it take a while to find my way back that evening. That was a one-off and nothing to do with the hotel.