Never have I been so appalled by a room that I asked for my money back. Until I stayed at this hotel.
When I was growing up, the hotel had a reputation for being a classy place. It was the kind of place we went for a Mothers Day meal, as a treat for a special occasion. A place we could take my Grandma and Great Grandma, and know they would really enjoy themselves. A place the staff would attend to your every need, a place that gave out chocolates in pretty boxes at the end of a meal. A place where the food was good, and the atmosphere, decor and surroundings were enjoyable.
Going home at short notice for a weekend, staying on my parents' couch for a night wasn't really feasible, due to a dog with a propensity for nipping me, and a husband who understandably doesn't particularly enjoy sleeping on a small sofa bed.
At Christmas we stayed at the Premier Inn, but at such short notice it wasn't particularly cheap. Looking elsewhere, I found that the hotel in question was offering a particularly good deal, with dinner, bed and breakfast for around £40. Given its reputation, and my positive memories when I was younger, I booked.
The car park was full, which we took as a good sign. Unfortunately we were mistaken.
The lobby was full of people I never hope to see again. At check in, the receptionist told me they had two coach parties in, on a mystery tour, heading to an unknown destination via an unknown hotel, which turned out to be this place. Resorting to getting business by taking bookings from customers who didn't know where they were going should have been a warning sign.
On check in, I was charged a fee for using a debit card. When I protested that there hadn't been anything on the website about a debit card charge, I was told I could pay in cash. As I don't carry that much cash on me, and didn't have time to go and find a cash machine, I was forced to pay the fee.
Checking my booking confirmation earlier, I discovered that the debit card charge was already included in my room rate.
We were given our room key, and poor directions to the lift. Having asked another member of staff who then pointed us in the right direction, we made our way along the smoke filled, stuffy corridor.
Opening the door, I was relieved to find the room didn't smell as bad as the corridor. The longer I spent in the room however, the stronger the smell, which was mixing with a musty stench, grew.
The walls were cracked and dirty, the wallpaper was peeling in places, and there were cobwebs hanging from the ceiling.
When I went into the bathroom, I found stains on the floor that might have been blood, or might have been a result of someone not quite making it to the toilet in time. Either way, I was disgusted enough to decide that the ten minutes I'd been in the room was already too long.
I made my way back down the corridor, to reception. The receptionist told me that there was another double room we could have. I asked if it was on the same corridor. When she confirmed that it was, I declined. If smoke from the corridor had filled one room, I didn't see any reason why the other rooms on the corridor would be any different.
When she told me there were no more rooms, I had reached my tolerance threshold, and demanded my money back. After they'd taken down a list of my complaints, and added them to what seemed to be an already long list of complaints about other rooms, the receptionist agreed to refund my money, debit card charge and all.
There are several morals to this story, the first of which is that you get what you pay for. We should have paid the extra in the first place for the Premier Inn. In the end, we did end up staying there, for £60, but we had a comfortable king size bed, a clean room, and staff who couldn't do enough to make our stay a pleasant one.
The second, is that you don't need to put up with something that doesn't meet your standards. In the past, I would have just put up with it, but the more hotels I stay in, the more I realise I have the right to a decent room.
The third, is that things change. Memories don't necessarily translate to the present.
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