The Station Hotel Norwich

For £35 a night, this was a warm, clean and cheap place to stay while I was working in Norwich. The Station Hotel is a bit rough around the edges, and the room only came with one milk, one coffee and one sugar, with no daily top-up. After seeing the reviews I checked for bugs and didn't find any. It seems cleaner now. Fine as an inexpensive base for work, nothing beyond that.

We chose it for being near where we needed to go, not for anything fancy. But stay away from Room 17. It's at the top of the building and freezing because there's no heating. The door wouldn't lock from either side, and there was mold in the bathroom and in the ceiling corner by the bed. The place was a maze to find your way around.

The cigarette smell throughout the hotel and room was so strong that my partner and I felt sick within minutes. We checked out and asked for a refund, but the staff on the phone kept offering another room even after we said we didn't want to stay. They didn't want to refund us. We booked through Expedia, which is trying to reach the hotel for us, but we've been told the hotel isn't answering. There was no one at reception when we arrived, and the phone lines were busy, so we stood in the lobby for a while. Once in the room, we could see the bed looked unpleasant and uncomfortable. Although the sheets were neatly tucked in, they didn't seem to have been washed since the last guest. The curtain was barely attached and looked neglected. A mirror was propped on the radiator instead of mounted on the wall, which seemed like a safety hazard if it slipped. There was also a chair in front of what we assumed was the bathroom, but after seeing the rest of the room, we didn't dare look inside. This is the worst hotel I've ever been to.

On the night of October 13, before my exam the next day, this was incredibly stressful. I tried calling and messaging them on WhatsApp about 30 times from midday to arrange check-in, with no reply. There was no receptionist or anyone at the hotel to open the door, even during check-in hours. We knocked for 30 minutes before another guest let us in. We weren't told which room to use, so we picked one that seemed empty. The worst stay we've had in the UK. Very frustrating.