The Walkabout Hotel has a few things going for it...

1) It's connected to the Walkabout Bar/Club which offers one of the best nights out in Newport, if you stay at the Hotel you get in free and you get to jump the queue - great!

2) It's one of two 'major' hotels in the town centre of Newport...the rest of the offerings being significantly smaller more 'B&B affairs'.

3) It offers all the basics in fairly decent surroundings

However, none of that makes up for the absolute shambles we encountered in staying here.

A number of my friends and I stayed back in April of '06. Our friends had booked separately to myself, but we stayed during the same week in April. When they arrived they were told there was no record of ANY booking and ended up in SEPARATE rooms for 4 out of 5 nights of their stay. They were told the hotel was then full and for the 5th night were left uncertain for the rest of the week as to where they would be sleeping.

When I arrived I was told that my room had only been reserved for 3 out of 4 nights, despite having been confirmed otherwise over the phone. I also noticed my name and address were spelt wrong on the reservation, despite have spelt these words out over the phone - OK it's not a big deal but I just had to wonder when the receptionist couldn't take down this basic information correctly then it's no wonder the duration of our stay was wrong as well. However, I was given the opportunity to pay over and above my agreed rate in order to secure the room for another night. I agreed in an effort to avoid hassle. The rest of our stay went smoothly until the morning before our last night. A maid knocked on our door around noon telling us we should have been out of the room by now. My friend then informed her of what had happened and she apologised. We went on a day out to Cardiff that day and when we returned to the hotel our room was empty and all our belongings missing.

Having spoken with reception I was told we had been moved. Obviously very angry that my personal belongings had all been touched and moved - and there was no way I could account for anything that might have been taken. I had been moved to a double room which was not what I had paid for, and was an inconvenience. After a lengthy conversation with the manager I was refunded only the extra amount I had paid, and offered a complimentary breakfast the next morning - which incidentally we never got as we sat in the dining hall and were ignored until we eventually gave up. This was hardly sufficient compensation for the complete upheaval and major inconvenience.

My friends that I mentioned earlier ended up with two of them in a single room, one of them on a mattress on the floor on the last night.

The manager was very pleasant and somewhat softened the blow of what had otherwise been a shambolic stay. But why the receptionist couldn't tell me on arrival (or at any point that week) that the last night would be spent in a different room I do not know - this would have given me the opportunity to move my own belongings and not have it done for me - or to make alternative arrangements.

My friends and I left the hotel agreeing never to stay with such a poorly run hotel again. They had made a huge error with two completely separate bookings.

We again made a trip to Newport the following Christmas and with the King's Hotel on High Street completely closed we were left with precious few choices in the city centre. So I called the hotel to enquire about whether or not they would be open "over the Christmas and New Year period". The receptionist didn't know, and nobody she could reach knew. Surely someone taking bookings would know when the hotel was open and closed - or at least have access to that information? The receptionist offered to call me back with the information, I said I would call back the following day. She told me the manager would be in around noon so to call back then. I did that and spoke to a receptionist who told me a note had been left to say the hotel was closed 23rd, 24th and 25th of December. I asked her "so all other dates are OK?" (referring obviously to New Year as originally asked) and she told me "I've just been left this note so i assume all other dates are OK". With this assumption she would then be taking my booking?? Suffice to say we chose not to stay at the Walkabout that time, and went for the Holiday Inn on the outskirts - not ideal, but what choice did we have?