Stopped in a hotel in London last week, absolutely the worst stopover in twenty years and hundreds of hotel rooms. First room was ground level and didn’t have any glass in the window??!!??

Moved rooms twice after that for various reasons, it was an absolute disgrace. Have complained and asked for my money back but haven’t heard a thing, am I missing a trick by not contacting some sort of Ombudsman or am I just going to have to lump it and put crap reviews on Laterooms and Trip advisor etc?

I’d probably have walked out after the first room and demanded a refund really but I’m guessing you paid in advance. Tried travel inns good night guarantee when they kept putting me in smoking rooms to be told it stinking like an ashtray was not a good reason.

You can rant on trip advisor but I normally screen out the 0-1* reviews unless it’s a huge number, in fact these days the trip advisor stuff isn’t much use as it seems clogged with people paying 50 quid and expecting 5* hotel standards. So many bad reviews for things that are just normal to waste time sifting through.

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Erm, you paid on leaving?

Hmmm, if I complain it’s normally right there at the desk when the bill has been issued.

IMO it’s too late, or it’ll take about 19 years to get anything.

One memorable occasion.

Nice hotel in Mayfair. Had work stuff at 8am, but had dinner + lots of drinks with mate until about 2am. Went to room, air con was off and the room was sitting at 36 degrees.

Had a word with reception who said that they were unable to fix it and couldn’t move me rooms since the hotel was full (Wimbledon was on). They offered to move me to another hotel, but to be honest, knowing that I was up in a few hours I decided against it and just went to bed.

At checkout, the manager asked for a quick word (probably worried about losing future business, it was on a corporate account).

She offered to remove the room charge, which I said I expected anyway. She must have mistaken this for me being dissatisfied and then offered to wipe my meals and booze (another £200+) and a free stay for me if I ever wanted to stay for pleasure.

Still wasn’t worth waking up in 36 degrees with a hangover and having to put a suit on and go to a meeting though!

yeah once. when checking out they asked if I slept ok, I replied saying contractors (outside not connected to the hotel) were a bit noisy at 6am and woke me up but otherwise ok. She disappeared round the back and came back with the manager and gave us a full refund. I hadn’t even considered asking for money back

My little boy got his wrist trapped in a broken fire door in a Premier Inn.

The manager ran through their first aid procedures brilliantly, he refunded rooms and breakfasts for the whole party (not just our room) and offered to pay for taxis to hospital or station.

Definitely how to deal with a problem properly.

Twice. Once when staying at a Premier Inn. Room was right next to the macine room for the lift. Woken up throughout the night every time someone got in the lift. Money refunded without a blink. Suspect that it was a common complaint.

Second time was a “Country House” hotel in the countryside outside Glasgow. Was last night of honeymoon in Scotland. Turned out hotel had two weddings taking place on the same night. Carnage, incl fights and screaming women. Flat refused to pay the next day. They put up an initial fight but it was halfhearted at best.

In my experience you need to press your case then and there to have the best chance of getting satisfaction. Either that or challenge them to a duel.. 😉

Yup. Stayed overnight in Newcastle in one of the Premier Inns and had a terrible night’s sleep thanks to the elephants in the room above and the gazelles running around the corridors. It never occurred to me to phone up reception and moan, but when my wife mentioned it the next morning the receptionist apologised lots and refunded us. I was surprised and very happy with them. Hats off.

Alas, my terrible night in a Florida hotel (mid-summer, A/C broken) was booked through work, so me losing what felt like half my bodyweight in sweat was never going to get a refund.

Premier inn twice. Once because of no hot water, 2nd time piss heads.

We managed to get our money back for a two night stay in Coombe Grove Manor in Bath, stayed there for a wedding a few years ago and the place was shocking, they also charged £170 a night which was a major pisstake, it only really came about when the other half sent an email to complain to the customer relations team and recieved an abusive phone call back, pissed me off and we then decided to go for the full refund, which happened after a few well versed emails and calls to the relations group manager.

Premier inn’s have a wide ranging good night guarantee
One colleague got a refund because the TV picture was a bit poor

Premier Inn also. 3 rooms for 2 nights, so about £300. Rooms were too hot, mentioned it in passing to the receptionist when we left and she just did the refund on the spot. She said they had been pestering head office for months about it without anything being done, so the more complaints/refunds the better as far as she was concerned.

Had a bad night about a month ago in the Holiday Inn Express in Newport.

Got woken up by some gobby cockneys who must have thought the whole corridor wanted to listen to their conversation at 1am.

It went on for ages, had to get up in the end and have a go at them as they were doing my head in.

Complained but got nowhere.

Travel lodge.
Leeds, Leicester & Edinburgh shit holes all of them but these 3 were terrible.

G/f is always raving about (impressed with) Premier inn’s “good night guarantee”

Holiday Inn in London – refunded and free drinks vouchers due to fire alarm malfunction, went off several times during the night and early morning.

Holiday Inn express – was assured that all the breakfast items were gluten free except the toast and pastries. Sausages weren’t, and I got sick. Part refund on the room given.

Travelodge – kept awake half the night thanks to screaming baby/toddler in next room, they couldn’t move us as it was full (Download festival). 1 night taken off our bill.

We stayed at a hotel in London after seeing the Lion King, fire alarm went off at about 3am so we had to evacuate the hotel (February with snow on the ground). Then it went off against at 5am then at 7am – by this time we gave up trying to get any sleep. Not even a sorry or any money back when we mentioned it. We were told it was kids in a room setting it off. MrPP said that was not really a satisfactory reason and they should have been kicked out. Really disappointed.
We did get money off the hotel we stayed in for our 1st anniversary – mind you twin beds were a little surprise. TV not working, Dogs barked all night as there was a wedding reception in the field next door (past pub hours) and could not drown it out with the tv, light did not work even after we mentioned it and they told us they had fixed it. Then to top it all the dog was sick by our table at breakfast – she was very apologetic although not a full refund.
We have not been back to either hotels since.

On our wedding night (yes, our wedding night) they gave away our bridal suite to someone who ‘was too hot in her room’. Their reasoning – they thought we weren’t going to turn up (the reception was being held elsewhere and we had told them we would be late back). So they went into the room to collect our bags that we had left there earlier and gave it away!

We didn’t get a refund – we got a weekend’s stay in The Bath Spa Hotel including full use of their Spa.

And I should bloody hope so too!

If its BAD- I ALWAYS ask to move rooms right at the start but I always ask/say it and qualify why in a nice way- this always guarantees I’ve moved to an amazing room compared to what I paid for. I guess in part its where you stay though in the first place- if its an independent place they’ll all be minging if one room is minging or take the hump but nowadays all fear bad online reviews.

One recent one- paid £70. Got there and the room was just bigger than the bed. I was given another room that was on two levels and had a large Bang & Olufsen tv 😀

Bellagio, Las Vegas

We were woken up at about half three in the morning by the next door occupants shouting a bit. Turned to full-on fight, people being thrown against the walls by the sound of it and then someone started shouting he was going to start shooting if they didn’t **** off.

We called security who asked what we wanted to do about it 🙄 and that we couldn’t have a different room for another 2 hours, so we suggested we’d call the police instead.

Got a different room immediately, and there were quite a few security guards around when we left our room (had to go back in the morning to collect our stuff but there were no signs of a major shootout 🙁 )

We had our bill and our other room also waived but that was it. I slightly got the feeling that I’d be incorporated into a flyover if I made too much fuss.

scaredypants – could that have been OJSimpson looking for his ‘belongings’ back? 😀

We called security who asked what we wanted to do about it

“I’m English, I’m allergic to bullets.”

On our wedding night (yes, our wedding night) they gave away our bridal suite to someone who ‘was too hot in her room’.

We didn’t get a refund

😯

Actually -we stayed in a B&B in Brighton, on the third floor. There was a fire escape (from our shared room)- that didn’t have a fire escape (or anything) outside the door/drop.

The owner had piles of old newspapers in the front groundfloor room. Kinda made you nervous.

After a heavy nights drinking I drifted off to the sounds of someone shouting and smacking around a girl in the room below us. (no I was paralytic).

What always amazes me about Tripadvisor is that for every guest who rated it “terrible” there are ten who rate it “excellent”. They must have no taste or discrimination at all because as soon as you read the “terrible” reviews you can work out what’s wrong with the place and look for somewhere else, while wondering why so many were satisfied with such a dump. You do have to filter out the miseries for whom nothing is ever good enough though.

Was put up in a hotel every week for 3 nights and at 5am they emptied the glass bin outside below the window, complained about it every single time but got responses from harden up to tough luck. After 4 weeks they decided that maybe they might deign to move me but by then I had decided to stay elsewhere and we shifted all our staff away from their hotels. Amounted to about 3000 nights a year !
Woke up in London hotel, 5* as well, before Xmas covered in bites down one side. No idea what it was but asked if I could move, was manhandled by the head housekeeper (she) who was adamant it must have come from somewhere else, which I said could well be the case. I wasn’t saying it was their bed all i was saying was I would prefer to rule that out. Staying there again next week so that will be interesting !

I’ve spent about 80 weeks in the Sheraton hotel in Lagos on business trips. As a frequent guest they always give me a bottle of South African Merlot or something but once they gave me a plate of chocolates covered in cling film. “Very nice” I thought as I picked it up to inspect it…. and one of the chocolates scuttled around the plate – it was a cockroach! I have no idea to this day how it got under the tight clingfilm cover – maybe the kitchen staff put it there as a joke?

I take Tripadvisor reviews with a pinch of salt. People whine about all sorts of random crap. “Terrible, one star, the restaurant had run out of vol-au-vents!”

I’ll second cougar, the amount of rubbish that’s on the trip advisor site is dreadful!

My main problem is if I get a shit nights sleep, they then refund my company the money!!

Last time it went pear shaped I complained to the MD of Travelodge stating that issuing refunds didn’t give me any benefit at all, he sorted me out a weekends stay for free instead! 😀

I overnight about 3-4 times a week for my company and this is the only time I’ve ever got something back for myself!

Last time we stayed in a Park Hotel (which are usually ace) and were treated pretty contemptuously by their staff over an issue which was their mistake. We later complained and got a letter from head office saying they’d sort us out if we ever went back.

We’re attending the same event this year and they’ve given us an exceptionally preferential price on a top notch room. Given the nature of the problems we had last time (which were several but all minor), I really can’t argue with that. Wasn’t something I’d have expected a refund for; good customer service IMHO.