don't have much time, so i'll make it short and sweet.

this place was anything but luxury. dirty sinks dirty carpets, ripped sofas, temperamental hot water, musty smells, the list goes on.

add incompetent check in staff who cant speak english, and you have a circus to boot.

complete and utter rubbish this place, stay away if you can!!!!

I booked this apartment for our Christmas Shopping trip with my better half and a friend. The location is the best thing about these apartments. When we arrived at the specified time we were told that the apartment had been filthy and that it was not ready, so we left our bags in the apartment and went for a drink whilst they finished cleaning. On our return we discovered the place was still dirty - floor all sticky, carpets stained , debris under the bed and hairs in bathroom. The apartment was not as described, it did not have a flat screen tv (as described) 21" supplied, luxury seating for 4 was in reality a small 2 seater sofa and a tub chair. No soft furnishings at all, no pictures as shown in photos. In the kitchen for 4 guests we discovered 4 dinner plates in 2 styles, 3 side plates, one smaller plate and 1 cereal bowl!!! The glasses were all dirty, no tea or coffee pot. In the bathroom - no shower screen or curtain, no loo roll holder and only 1 bath towel supplied for 2 people. There was only enough hot water for one bath at a time. The bedrooms themselves were very basic with very cheap Argos furniture. There were no bedside lamps, no pictures and not one hook in the whole apartment . If this is their idea of luxury I dread to think what basic accommodation would be like!! It looked 4/5 star but I would rate this as 2 star. The parking was good - very secure (£7) a night, but just over by the Holiday Inn its only £3.

If you are looking for a decent, well furnished, fully working apartment with excellent customer service to boot, AVOID this place like the plague.

Their customer service is not only an absolute disgrace, but the manager himself has a chip on his shoulder the size of a studio apartment. You see, these guys have been getting away with dodgy customer service and charging whatever they like for what are in actuality average apartments, with the occasional plumbing problem, furniture malfunction or appliance breakdown thrown in for good measure.

If (or rather when) you find yourself dissatisfied with one of their apartments, you will have the displeasure of dealing with a defensive and extremely annoying manager, who has little time for baffling modern day concepts like “customer satisfaction”. He will be annoyed that you have bothered him with a complaint. He will call you names and speak to you in a patronising tone. He will contradict his own staff and blame you for the problems in his apartments. And he will tell you that he doesn’t need your custom, and that there’s nothing you can do about it.

Well actually there is something we can do about it. We can tell the world just what people can expect from these so-called 'Quality' apartments. I would seriously urge people to think twice before entering into a contractual relationship with such a rude businessman. Hiring one of these apartments will cost more than just an extortionate amount of money, it will cost you your peace of mind.

(One the website for these apartments it says it was closed 30th December 2008 to 1st January, which is totally wrong as me and my boyfriend were there on those exact dates. I have no idea why it still says this since we're at the beginning of March, probably hasn't been updated or something. Not sure if this relevant, just thought I'd say.)

We stayed in a studio apartment for 3 nights over New Year. It was recommended to my boyfriend by a colleague of his who had stayed there a couple of times midweek. She said the apartments were clean, well looked after and the prices weren't bad either so we decided to go there over the holiday season for a couple of nights. When we looked on the website though, it says that you can only stay for a minimum of 3 nights which we thought would probably put it out of our price range. We were presently surprised though when we found out that they were offering a reduced rate over New Year so we booked it.

My boyfriend was working the day we were checking in, so I met him in his lunch hour and he gave me the key, which he had got from a nice man who didn't speak much english but showed him where everything was in the apartment. (It says you can't check in until 4pm on the website but my boyfriend met the man at 12.30 and he was able to go in straight away, probably as no one had been staying there before us.) There was an intercom system for visitors and a code and a swipe card for the people who lived/stayed there, so no one could get in unless they were buzzed in or were with a card holder. (I found this reassuring as I have a friend who lives in similar apartments in a different city and she says that because there isn't a code or lock on the front entrance you sometimes find drunks or the homeless asleep in the lobby.)

My first impression of the building was that it was extremely clean and that no expense had been spared to make the lobby look as modern as possible. The whole place was marble and although it was freezing cold it was really amazing to look at. There was also a really posh looking sofa at one side of the lobby. I was impressed and I hadn't even got in the lift! There were two lifts that came really quickly and I had a choice as to which one I got in. The corridor outside the room was really clean and spacious with pictures on the walls and I was looking forward to seeing if the apartment would be as good. I wasn't disappointed. The apartment was small but really nice. The bathroom was spotless with all the fixtures sparkling and clean. The small kitchen that was along one wall of the main room was obviously brand new and so were all the plates, cups and cutlery. There was a microwave, an oven and grill and an electric hob. There was washing up liquid, scourers and a wash cloth. Next to the nicely made double bed was a small, round wooden table with two chairs and there was a small wardrobe next to the doors that led out to the balcony. The TV was large and although not a flatscreen it had good picture quality, a wide variety of terrestrial and digital channels and a DVD player attached. I was really pleased with the quality of the apartment and it really was worth the money we had paid.

The only thing that I thought would spoil it was that when I got into the main room it was quite cold. There was a radiator but there didn't seem to be any way to adjust the temperature. There was a cupbord next to the bathroom with a thermostat in so I turned that up but the radiator didn't get any warmer. The whole far wall was made of glass as it led onto the balcony that was the length of the apartment and although it was covered by curtains it was quite cold as it was freezing outside. After 10 minutes of searching, swearing and muttering I found that if you lifted up a small piece of plastic on the side of the radiator, you could control it really easily with a switch and a couple of buttons, so I turned it up to maximum and within 20 minutes the place was really nice and warm. A little note or sign on the radiator might have been nice for people who weren't familiar with radiators, as I wasn't, but I'm sure we could have called someone who worked at the apartments to ask how it worked, so there was no danger of us freezing to death!

The location was ideal for the Shires shopping centre, restaurants, bars and the casino. We got some basic food items from a supermarket in the middle of the town but got a few extras from a convenience store five minutes away. I couldn't work out how the microwave worked at first as it had a dial and not buttons as I was used to, but the instructions for it were on top of it and once I read them it all made perfect sense. As you can probably tell, I'm not really technologically minded!

Our stay was really enjoyable and we said that we would like to come back, perhaps for New Year again but we thought we might treat ourselves to a one bedroom apartment. Not that the studio wasn't good but we just thought we might try the next one up.

I'm not sure about how the cleaning/maid service would work if you stayed for more than three days. I think it says about that one the website. We don't drive either so I can't comment on the parking arrangements. The streets where the apartment was situated were quiet both during the day and at night time, even on New Year's Eve so that was good. WiFi was available at a daily rate but we didn't use it.

All in all, we enjoyed our stay immensely and would recommend this place to anyone.