This is the story of a parasite infested bed, a disinterested hotel owner, quick fire accusations, the Environmental Health and conclusive proof of the death of customer service. To be honest, you've already read enough, but if you want all the gory details then read on....
I stayed here in October 2011, but it has taken me quite some time to compose this review, without being influenced by too much emotion, in order for me to offer the most objective view possible.
The Hempstead House is sprawling 3 star Hotel, which I imagine is more geared to the wedding business than any other. I was booked in for a 3 night mid-week stay, travelling on business. Upon arrival, I was efficiently checked-in and shown to my room, (which was about as far away from reception as you could get). My room was good, but geared for the disabled guest, which always oozes more care home than hotel room.
I changed and headed straight for the gym, which is very good for a 3 star hotel. Showered and changed again, I headed for the dining room. I was on a dinner, bed & breakfast rate, so was looking forward to a nice meal in the restaurant. I reviewed the menu and wine list, in the seating area beside the restaurant, but soon left due to the lack of atmosphere from the lifeless surroundings. Figuring the DBB rate wasn’t now going to be cost effective, I informed reception I wished to drop to a B&B rate, and adjourned to the Bistro. This was marginally better, but was essentially like eating your dinner in the lobby of the gym, as there was steady flow of gym users constantly passing by. The food was forgettable, so can’t have been really good or really bad.
In the morning, breakfast made me smile, as your room’s table was comically identified with a large laminated room number sign, which is obviously deemed unnecessary in every other hotel I have ever stayed in. Also, take note, if you want anything “special” like porridge or kippers, you have to order those the night before, or prepared for a 20 – 30 minute wait – presumably for the fish to defrost and the oats to be rolled?!
WiFi was free and worked fine throughout my stay, which is creditable. As I retired to my bed for the second night, I happened to notice a small creature in the bed. I removed it, obviously, and although was mildly alarmed by this, hopped in and went to sleep.
In the morning, I then noticed a few more creatures, and within seconds of me waking up, had stripped the bed and was absolutely horrified and disgusted to find many dozens of moving, flightless creatures had been sharing my bed that night. These creatures, (which turned out to be bed bugs), were of a variety of size - due to their age and colour - and whether they had been gorging on my blood that night or not. There were also numerous bloody stains on the sheets, where presumably, I had killed some of the blood-sucking suckers, as I moved in my sleep.
You may now be cringing and itching just reading this, as I am writing it, but just imagine how I felt that morning. It was the most disgusting experience I have had in a hotel, in the hundreds and hundreds of nights I have spent travelling the UK in the last 20+ years. I had the piece of mind to collect a sample of the cimicidae in a glass, to photograph as evidence, and took the glass to present to the Manager of the hotel, as some sort of gift, like a cat may do with a mouse to its owner?
Well, this was when the fun began. Showered and dressed, and bags packed, (supposed to be staying that night too, but clearly not in that room), I enquired at reception if I could see the manager / owner. One of the two people behind reception said “yes”, which caused an uncomfortable pause, while I waited for her to contact the manager for me. It turned out, she was the owner, Mrs Mandy Holdstock.
I presented the glass of live bed bugs to her, and as she peered into the glass she made a variety of verbal and non verbal expressions of disgust. I imagined she would open with an apology, or even something non-committal, like a sympathetic, “How terrible that must have been for you Sir”. Instead she chose to say that in the 21 years she had been running the hotel, she had never seen anything like this before. Immediately, I detected a feeling of reluctance from Mrs Holdstock, to take ownership of the problem, much like you could imagine if someone drove into the back of your car, and failed to even acknowledge the incident had happened.
As Mrs Holdstock was so slow from the blocks, I felt she needed to share my experience, and I invited the incredulous Mandy to my room, where she could witness the numerous other skin-piercing, blood sucking parasitic freeloaders for herself. If you remember, the walk to my room was a long one, during which Mandy failed to offer any kind of apology or words of comfort. Instead she was proud to defend the hotel and relay to me details of the cleaning programme undertaken. She reminded me of a cross between Sybil Fawlty & Margaret Thatcher, but with neither the humour or authority of either.
Examining the bed, it was clear for anyone to see the extent of the problem, but still no apology. I had already identified that there was no infestation underneath the bottom bed sheet, which Mandy clearly took as an opportunity to infer the problem might be of my own making! Eventually, she did manage to utter some words of regret, which by this time was far too little, far too late. I was keen to get out of the room, and quite prepared to leave the hotel, so challenged Mrs Holdstock to persuade me to stay. She asked me what I was expecting, which I declared was a refund of the two nights accommodation charge and to be moved to another room. Clearly from the look on her face, this was not exactly what Mandy had in mind, so took that as a cue and I began to leave the room. Mrs H was frustrated because I was not giving her much opportunity to respond, at which point I gave her the time it would take for me to get into my car, for her to respond. With the ultimatum laid, she decided, as I had done moments earlier, that it was time for me to leave.
We returned to reception, (Mrs H went a different way to me), and at reception, she prepared my food & drinks bill, which was not accurate. Following the deduction of the spurious charges, I offered my American Express card to pay, only to be reminded that there was a 3% surcharge levied for payment by Amex, (the sort of thing only a privately run hotel would have the audacity to do)! My parting gesture was to express my feeling to Mrs Holdstock that, generally speaking, it's not normally the complaint that people remember, but the manner with which it is handled. Needless to say, Mrs Holdstock failed to own the problem from the opening moments and the matter, as I later discovered was only going to get worse.
About half an hour later, I received a telephone call from Mrs Holdstock, who "following a conversation with her pest controllers" was able to inform me that I was the cause of the infestation. Talk about 'judge & jury' Mrs H couldn't have apportioned blame any quicker, and without anyone else examining the evidence! A little later that day, I received an email from her, which was as riddled with spelling mistakes, as the bed in room 32 was with blood sucking parasites.
Mandy reckoned that the infestation was only 1 -2 days old, and that because there was no infestation under the bottom sheet of the bed, I was definitely responsible for the outbreak! This diagnosis is incredibly convenient and is as impossible as is inaccurate. The bugs were a variety of sizes, measuring up to 5 mm, indicating some were adult and must therefore be 5 – 8 weeks old. Bed bugs can live for up to 9 - 10 months. Also, because bed bugs can live in a variety of places, not just in the bedding, the fact that none were beneath the bottom sheet was irrelevant. One feature of the bed in room 32, was the large fabric headboard, and annoying quantity of what I call "throw cushions", because I just throw them on the floor! They can live in such environments dormant for a considerable time, so could easily have come from there.
In order to protect others from being subjected to similar skin crawling experiences, (and having bed bugs in your bed), I telephoned the Environmental Health Officer at Swale Borough Council, to report the problem. The lady there took the complaint very seriously, and following a site inspection, she was comfortable the infestation remained restricted to room 32. I was happy with her conclusions and confident also, that Mrs Holdstock had taken the appropriate steps to prevent further incident.
So, in summary, my experience was not a good one. It was made worse by the amateurish defence of liability by the bumbling Mrs Holdstock, who despite many years running the Hempstead House Hotel clearly has precious little regard for customer service.
I have little doubt Mrs Holdstock will respond with more of the same, half baked, inaccurate and inflammatory accusations, like she has already done. There's no shame in having a bed bug infestation, I guess it's an occupational hazard that any hotel is liable to, but please... at least have the decency not to launch premature accusations, based on inaccurate suppositions, at your guest.
Anyway, if you decide to stay, "Sleep tight, ..... the bed bugs DO bite"!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
