The Coral Guest House Fratton

After a five-hour drive, we couldn’t get the lockbox code because the owner wouldn’t answer. We tried calling for about half an hour, then spent roughly the same amount of time on the phone and in chat with Expedia, but they couldn’t reach the owner either. We ended up driving another hour to a Travelodge, costing us several hundred pounds more and putting us farther from Chichester, where we needed to be tomorrow. I’m furious. The owner’s negligence is obvious, and it seems they’re deliberately avoiding my calls. I strongly advise against booking this guesthouse. It feels like a scam.

I barely slept during the six nights I was there and felt more vulnerable than I ever have. The room itself was fine, and the location was good, but other tenants were climbing in through the window at night, leaving blood trails on the walls, taking food from the fridge, and urinating in the bathtub. Management and cleaning were also a problem. The landlord never showed up to check me in and didn’t answer calls. It’s a shame, because the owners seem to want the place to have a good reputation. Later, I discovered that a foreign credit card I’d kept in the room had been used to buy over £300 worth of ready meals.

Really good service.