i just got back from a weekend stay at this hotel. I traveled with a group of my friends for my birthday girlie weekend away.

The hotel is about 20 minute walk from the city centre where all the shops are. However, it is situated in the university area, so it is close to lots of bars and restaurants which is excatly what we were looking for.

The hotel was basic but clean and friendly. The breakfast was purely cereal, toast, yohgurt , fruit and tea or coffee. It is served in a very small area adjacent to the reception area.

I would recomend this hotel to people who use it as a base and not looking for luxury.

This hotel looked promising from the outside, but once inside the air of neglect was clear. This was a shame, as it was a gorgeous Victorian (or possibly earlier) building and had dozens of bedrooms - the potential was huge.

Our room was really large and looked clean enough at first glance. However, the carpet looked like it hadn't been hoovered - there was a finger/toenail lying on the carpet by the bed. There were cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and the window was filthy. I felt slightly sick about walking around the room barefoot and especially about using the bath/shower. The towels and bed linen were clean though. There was a dead fly lying on the windowsill (which was filthy) in the bathroom. I made the mistake of running my fingers on the underside of the bath tap - and my fingers emerged covered in thick black gloop. There was thick dirt aroung the taps as well. We had only one toilet roll which was almost finished - we ended up running out.

I was pretty annoyed as it wasn't like the hotel was cheap - at £60 for a double room per night, the least you'd expect is cleanliness. The staff seemed to be part-time student types - and weren't in the least bothered about anything. After going out for something to eat, we arrived back at the hotel at 10.30pm, to find the front door locked. We rang the bell twice and after waiting for about 15mins, we finally had to attract the attention of a member of staff we saw through the window. He answered the door and told us we "should have rang the bell". We said we did, and he just shrugged - no apology or anything.

The continental breakfast in the morning was nice enough, with a choice of cereal, fruit, toast, and yogurt. We had no teacups and we told the guy at the desk (who was busy Internet shopping by the looks of things) and he didn't make a move to get us any. My partner asked if we should take some from another table. He said yes, but didn't bother replacing them. We had no plates either (only bowls and cutlery), and he finally got us some when we asked him.

On the plus side, the hotel bar /nightclub(which can apparently be really noisy) was closed, so we got a peaceful night's sleep. There was a hospitality tray of tea, coffee, biscuits and bottled water., although there were no toiletries. The hotel was in a fairly good location, near the University, but probably too much of a walk into the city centre for a lot of people. I would be concerned if any guests were to have a problem or need help etc. especially during the night, as the staff seemed so uncommitted.

I recently booked into Renshaws & booked out within 10 min!

The hotel was awful, its the worst I've ever seen!

The lift / hallways / bedroom / ensuite all had a really bad damp/musty smell.

The bedroom had a very dirty stained carpet, had a broken blind on one window & very dirty curtains on the other window.
There were a number of dead flies on the windowstill.

The bathroom was very very old & not very clean. It had a very dirty pull cord as the light switch.

The receptionist wasn't very friendly.

The breakfast area was in the reception area & didnt look very clean.

An all round very bad experience........ so glad I got some where else to stay!

The hotel was clean and staff pleasant. Accomodation was as expected given it was low budget and geared towards the student traveller. Noise was not a problem, in fact we were never disturbed by the bar or nightclub. Situation was good as it was only a 10-15 minute walk to The Crown & Robinsons pubs, both we would highly recommend you visit. Overall if you're looking for cheap & cheerful give Renshaws a go.