This hotel pulled a nasty trick or two. First, my booking for a ground or first floor double room, with disabled parking, was accepted in February for July. On arrival told only room was on second floor but "just by chance" they had a family room on the ground floor at only £10 a night surcharge. With time a problem I accepted - it was a large and comfortable room and not too pricey for the area. No disabled parking, I asked for a space to be reserved and there were mutterings about a fee of £5.00 a night but when it was obvious I knew the ropes they agreed to do it free as specified in my booking. Then told credit card machine out-of-order, cash only. I said I had not got cash but would pay on leaving. On leaving asked for bill, none forthcoming. I insisted on invoice showing VAT and the surcharge over the agreed price before handing over cash (this is the law in England, by the way). It took a 20 minute wait and in fact I left the hotel to collect other passengers and returned and hour later before I got the bill which, surprise surprise! was for originally agreed amount!
We saw other foreign visitors handing over cash and not getting a receipt because they didn't know to ask for one. On checking later find that this is not the only time their credit card machine won't work. Coincidence or what? and why no standard VAT receipt?
Good points: Room was a decent size, plenty of storage space, table and comfortable chairs. Decent size bathroom with full-size bath. Carpet had ingrained dirt but otherwise spotlessly clean and cleaned each day. And real milk, not that dammed 'long-life' stuff.
Bad points: No fire notice - illegal. Not really a worry as room was on ground floor and windows opened from inside, but notice should be provided. Weird television, an ancient set with TWO digiboxes on top! To get programmes one had to go through quite a sequence of button-pushing in exactly the right order. Behind the chest on which the television a stood a tangle of wires pushing the chest out at least a foot from the wall. To use the hairdryer we had to remove the dressing table mirror behind which was the only other socket, also used for the kettle! There was only one bedside light and cabinet for the one double and one single bed. Only one pillow per person and one large and one small towel for two people. No spare blankets. No extractor fan in bathroom. Only 6 bulbs of 9 in chandelier.
There was a crack in the washbasin overflow and the striplight above the washbasin did not work in spite of the two grubby bits of string tied to it.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC