Old City Design Apartments

The room was clean and well equipped, and the location is great. But checking in was very difficult. Nobody was there when I arrived, and I got no instructions until I called the travel agency I booked through and they reached out to the owners.

My wife and I have a lot of empathy for the difficulties unhoused people face, and none of this is the landlords’ fault. Still, charging unsuspecting tourists £80 a night for this location feels completely unethical. We stayed in the downstairs apartment, right opposite a gathering place for homeless people. The extra security means very little daylight gets in. With the blinds or doors open, it feels as if you’re living inside the shelter: people were using drugs, drinking, fighting through the night, and going to the toilet right by our window. I can’t understand how this place has a 4+ rating on Google and 8.8 on Expedia.

The historic sights are conveniently close, and the room was clean. Fresh towels were brought halfway through our stay. That said, I wouldn’t book the wine room. It’s downstairs, and the windows are partly boarded up from the outside. We couldn’t open the curtains because they looked straight out onto a busy gathering spot for homeless people. There were large groups outside the hotel, although they kept to themselves.

Stay away from every apartment in this block. People using substances and homeless people are all around, and the views are of people using drugs at every hour. The positive reviews are all fake.