The booking was made 4-5 weeks before arrival and directly with the hotel, for 13-14 July. Our friend Barbara has very recently had a knee replacement, so we requested a ground floor room. The booking was made 4 weeks before arrival.

The problems encountered by Barbara: Room 20 was promised because it was the first room on the corridor so there would not be too far to walk. However room 28 was allocated meaning a long walk had to be undertaken as it was the last room on the corridor. The window faced onto the car park, from where entry into the room could be made as the window open so wide. When it was closed a draft could be felt though it. No fire/evacuation notice was displayed in the room.

Preferring plenty of milk in her tea, she placed half dozen milk portions into the top drawer. Returning to the room on Saturday afternoon, she found the milk has been removed and the suitcase left on the bed had been opened. Reception had no explanation to offer as to why these had occurred.

The problems encountered by Trevor & friend: We were allocated room 47 on the first floor. Returning to the room I inadvertently walked too far along the corridor, put the key in the lock, opened the door, and thought the layout is different. In fact I had entered the wrong room, I had entered the adjacent room 48, fortunately it was unoccupied.

For some reason, the lights in 47 could not be turned off. I told this to receptionist and expressed my concerns that the same key had fitted adjacent rooms. Her response as “ there must be something wrong, that should not happen, do you want to use room 48?” Which we did.

Returning to the room on Saturday afternoon we found all our possessions were missing. Using the same key we entered 47, and found our things there. The receptionist could give no explanation as to why this had happened especially as room 48 was not required that night.

On a brighter note the lights in 47 had now been fixed.

Room 48 being at the far end of the corridor, was next to the emergency exit door that lead to the stairs going down to the emergency exit on the ground floor. I was horrified to see on most of these stairs building debris and cans of paint – sadly the picture taken using the mobile phone is too dark to add to this site.

No lift is available at this hotel. On a positive note: the rooms were very clean, well-presented, standard hotel layout. The staff were extremely pleasant and helpful. I was unable to speak to a manager as “ no manager is on duty at the weekends”.