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Four Star Visit Britain Hotels With Horrendous Guest Reviews - on Visit Britain's Very Own Site
After the last blog regarding Visit Britain and how I think it should set up a Trip Advisor model, I received a message from Tnooz saying that this was pretty much already on the cards, with Visit Britain planning to run reviews alongside their listings.
I then received another message with a link on, to a review site that Visit Britain already run alongside their accommodation listings.
At first I felt silly that I didn't know that they were already doing something. Then I read the reviews and quickly found a fundamental flaw in their system, which immediately made me feel superior again! (that was a joke, ha ha.)
Visit Britain can't give a hotel four star status and then let the guests review it too. The two cannot run side by side, as they will contradict each other. All the properties below have been given four star status and then on the same site attacked by guests.
There isn't enough reviews on the site to counterbalance these negative ones, so if these are just one-offs or fake reviews then the hotel suffers.
A fair, monitored, guest review system is what we all want isn't it? If you made this possible VB then I believe every hotel in Britain would pay you at least £10 a month.
Rudstone Walk
Visit Britain Four Stars
Sleep in your car rather than stay here. Why this has any stars, let alone 4 Visit Britain, is beyond me. There is carpet in the bathroom and it is so filthy you can't walk on it. In fact everything in the room and bathroom seems coated with 20 years worth of filth. You don't want to touch the light switch even. The sheets and towels were being sorted by throwing them into piles on the dirty concrete. The chairs in the room were so filthy you could not sit on them. The breakfast bar fruit was the old fashioned canned grapefruit and stewed prunes!
Dirty, dirty place
The people are pleasant and that's about it.
http://www.visitorreview.com/visitbritain/England/AccommodationRudstoneWalk
Geometric House, Old Market
Visit Britain Four Stars
Myself and my family stayed at this place and it was horrendous,the area is so run down with drunks hanging around outside. The rooms are dirty yes it looks clean on the web site but when you get in there and take a look around its awfull. I wanted to warn people not to go here there are much better places to stay in bristol. And much cheaper. I couldnt wait to get out of there.
http://www.visitorreview.com/visitbritain/geometrichouseoldmarket
La Suite - Executive Hotel, London
Visit Britain Four Stars
La Suite Executive Hotel (at 37, Nottingham Place, London) is a shame in the name of hotels. We had harrowing experience with them. When we arrived at the hotel on 3rd May with a confirmed booking, I was shocked to see when without my permission or approval, the check-in manager made photocopies of my passport and credit card! This is not a usual practice in any hotel. On being questioned this manager misbehaved with me and my wife and threatened us. He mentioned that they don’t care for any law and they also do not need permission of the guest to make photocopies of passport and credit card. He gave no explanation about why he made photocopies of passport and my credit card. He further mentioned that if we will not give these photocopies to him we can leave from the hotel and he will still charge us for one night stay. This manager was abusive and had no courtesy. Conflict reached a level where we contemplated calling police. The entire hotel had only one manager and there was no other staff or manager. On our insistence a senior manager talked to us on mobile and he mentioned that we can check-in without those photocopies. He even reprimanded this manager on duty. When we checked-in (as we had no choice in a new country and a new city) there was no help available to even move our luggage. We had to carry our entire luggage one piece at a time in a small lift. The room was small (what they call as suit) and had non-functioning air-conditioner, non working internet connection, dirty tea cattle, and water purifier with thick layers of scaling. This manager told us that air-conditioner will not be repaired today and we will have to stay in cold room. He had no replacements for other items which were dirty or worn out. I had to immediately call a few hotels and make alternative arrangements for our stay. Within few minutes we came down with our entire luggage and left this hotel after going through one of the worst experience of our life.
A detailed letter was written to the general manager of this hotel on my return and in spite of several reminders, I never heard back from them. Visitors to London, if you want personal safety and want to avoid abusive language and threatening managers then please avoid this hotel.
http://www.visitorreview.com/visitbritain/England/LaSuiteExecutiveHotelLondon
School Farm Barn, Suffolk
Visit Britain Four Stars
This was a desperately needed recuperation trip. My first weekend away from family in 10 years.We booked The School Farm Barn on Last Minute.com as it sounded luxurious and restful. 4 stars from my experience is meant to mean in simple words high quality.
The 2 nights accomodation cost us £390 for a twin room and 2 spa treatments to be booked on our arrival.
4 or 5 days prior to arriving I received a phone call about the treatments saying we had to take these on the first day (arrival day) and they had to be one after the other. This, I stated was not as per our booking and did not suit us. I explained that this was to be a "healing" weekend and our first away a friends. If the treatments were to be together on arrival this would not suit and we would find alternative accomodation. I was then told they would get back to me, which they did. And... the result was that everything was sorted and that they would keep all available slots over the weekend for us.
On arrival we were told our treatments were at 4.30 that day and they had to be together, I was told that I had agreed to this to my shock as I had been very specific... This was not as we booked. We were shocked. When we asked for a refund for the second treatment we were told that this was not possible.
Everything about the booking was a scam.
The accomodation consisted of 2 single beds which were, in fact, cheap bunk beds split. "Relaxing aromatherapy toiletries made locally and using the best natural products and blends" - this consisted of a tiny piece of soap one inch long that had been cut with a knife for ecomony. There were absolutely no other toiletries and this tiny bit of soap was for 2 people. On our booking confirmation we were told everything was supplied so we didn't bring shampoos, shower gels, soaps etc.
To add to this there was no hot water so showering was difficult to say the least.
The room was cold when we arrived.
The lady made minimum contact with us during our visit. She was cold and brittle.
The gentleman I will say was warm and very much included us. He made us welcome and if it wasn't for him I would have packed my bags and gone home. We made the decision to make the best of a bad situation and laughed our way through this place calling it our "hostle", which as a good word to describe the place. We just do not want anyone to experience this place like we had to.
The money we paid was definitely 4 star £390 for 2 nights for 2 people.
The accomodation was definitely 1 star and should be classed as so.
On departure the lady said to me "I'm glad everything worked out in the end". Well at no point did she try to assist us, she was only interested in our money and if we hadn't paid in advance we would not have paid for this and "no, it was not sorted at any point.". At no point throughout the weekend did she try to make things better even though she know we were very unhappy.
http://www.visitorreview.com/visitbritain/England/SchoolFarmBarnPentlowSuffol...
