My girlfriend and I stayed for roughly a month in the Toad Lodge while looking for a flat in Bristol. Although I had booked an ensuite room, we were given one without its own bathroom. We did not know then how long we were going to stay there at first (that depended on how lucky we were on the flat hunting) but, anyway, we were asked to pay in advance (luckily enough, we could pay by groups of five days at a time).
The room was of a reasonable size, with a basin, two beds, some old chairs and some hangers in a wardrobe. The beds were really old, with old mattresses and bed linen. Pillow covers were so old that the colour was faded at their centre due to years of rubbing heads. The towels were changed daily and the bed linen once a week. The toad decorated duvets were not particularly clean. My girlfriend even got bitten by bugs at that room.
The bathroom (shared with only one other room) was not clean enough with stains on the walls, on the bath tube and in the toilet pan that lasted for our whole stay. It was never cleaned properly, and was disgusting to use. Soap, shampoo or shower gel were not provided. One night the toilet got blocked and Madam Toad kept insinuating that my girlfriend was disposing of her toiletries down the loo. I needed to, explicitly, say "Madam, my girlfriend is not in those days at the moment" to stop her from accusing us.
The whole house looks as if it were an old folks house in the past. Everything is quite old, and there is a persistent smell of stale urine (and, sometimes, even faeces) throughout the building. Every corner is decorated with toads: eccentric and funny at first, but even scary after some time.
We dealt mainly with two people from the staff. Madam Toad was eccentric and not nice at all. On the contrary, the person serving the breakfast was very nice and picturesque. He, together with the breakfast itself, are the only things that can be saved from that place. Breakfast was good (full english+ a range of cereals) although for a long term stay it was not varied enough.
I would not recommend it for a stay longer than a few days, and for someone who is not in a tight budget. The lodge needs a complete cleansing and a renovation.
- Toad Hotel Bristol
