WINK 1 Calais

There seems to be nobody working on site, and getting help can mean waiting a couple of hours for someone to come open the door. That’s especially worrying if your card is lost or stops working. Service was absent, and the staff I did encounter were rude. The worst hotel apartments on earth. Useless investors.

The balcony and its spectacular view were a highlight, and the room felt roomy thanks to how well they used the space. Everything was neat and clean, and the staff were just amazing. Parking is safe and off-road, though the lot itself isn’t very large. I can’t think of anything bad to say about my stay 👌.

The place has real potential: it’s in a great location with lovely views, and the room was clean, nicely decorated, and had good linen. The check-in team were friendly and helpful, especially Cardre. But I couldn’t enjoy the roof deck on a beautiful day. The small pool was dirty, with bits of gunk in it, and the only umbrella was broken and already occupied. On Sunday the pool was partly drained, so it couldn’t be used despite the nice weather. My room also had a cockroach, and during my five-night stay I had to ask for more toilet paper and body wash when I was running low. The bathroom seemed to still be under renovation, with masking tape left behind and damp showing through the walls. Load shedding caused a lot of disruption. The stairs were usually dark, so I had to use my phone torch. The lift doesn’t work during outages, and a notice says guests may have to pay the technician’s call-out fee if they get stuck, so I felt I needed to check the outage schedule before using it. When power returned, the fire alarm sounded. One night the power cut at 2am and stopped the air conditioning, so I opened the windows; then the alarm woke me at 4am. I grabbed my jacket and phone and ran out, and it stopped. It was frightening. The same thing happened the next afternoon, as shown in my video, and again on my last night. Besides the disturbance, it made me worry the alarm system has no battery backup, which could mean guests aren’t alerted to a fire during an outage. That’s a serious safety concern.

Staff were great, but the parking was a nightmare and the property needs a good manager to oversee cleanliness and housekeeping. I stayed in room 103, which was extremely small despite apparently being an apartment, and it didn’t match how it was represented on booking.com. The bathroom door and frame were rotten, the door wouldn’t close, and its handle was broken. There were fingerprints all over the cupboards and the overlays were stained.