This hotel promises so much, and yet delivers almost nothing! We booked using Booking.com, and got a spectacularly cheap rate of £40 room only for a double room. We can now see why this hotel is forced to market itself so cheaply!

The hotel is conveniently placed adjacent to the T7 Junction of the M6 toll, so would make an excellent place to break a journey. There is adequete parking outside, and there seemed to be security cameras etc. watching the area. However, the building itself is architecturally flawed in so many ways. First thing is that there are large double doors opening stright into the reception area which means that the desk and associated lounge area were freezing cold when we checked in, and there was a rather pathetic Dimplex style oil radiator posing a trip hazard by the main door as an effort to combat the cold!

The hotel did not have our booking in their system, but luckily there was plenty of availability on this particular Saturday night. Rees, the receptionist, was efficent and checked us in "by the book". I asked where the bar was, needing a beer after the long drive, and was told that the Brasserie bar was out of use due to a wedding, and that the 12th floor Sky Bar was also unavailable due to the same wedding. However, I could have a drink and sit in the freezing reception area to consume it! I think not! How can a hotel of this standard take both its' public bars out of service at 1745 on a Saturday, when most arriving guests would probably like a drink?

We decided to forego the drink and headed to our room.......... Architectural problem number two: A 95 bedroom hotel over 12 floors and just one lift! We waited the best part of 5 minutes to get to the 4th floor. Upon entry to the room it was evident that someone had been smoking in the room, there was ash on the freshly made bed, and the bed had clearly been sat upon! Bad enough, but then we looked in the bathroom and the toilet seat was smashed in half, and the broken piece missing and the lower seat was also badly damaged!

We returned to reception (another long wait for the lift), and were allocated another room, but three floors higher. (Another 3 minute wait for the lift). This seemed satisfactory on entry, and at least it seemed warm, and unbroken. I then decided to attempt to use the wired free internet in the room. There was no bitstream, so I went to reception and was informed that the internet access was broken. At this point i decided enough was enough, and asked to speak with the Duty Manager. She duly arrived, wearing a scruffy scarf over her uniform and looking like she wasn't going to be hanging around long, or perhaps it was just because the reception area was too cold?

She suggested that as we had experienced such poor service she would cut our rate by 50%, so we are now staying for £20.

I attempted to return to the room, only to get stuck behind approx. 20 wedding guests all trying to access the lift to the 12th floor Sky Room. I decided to go by the atairs, and arrived pretty breathless after climbing the 14 flights to the 7th floor!

The room itself is badly designed, there is a door stop adjacent to the clothes hanging area (no wardrobes or drawers), and I must have stubbed my toe on this god forsaken doorstop at least 5 times during our stay. (Architectural problem 3: If the bedroom door was hung the other way round the door stop could be wall mounted and not pose a hazard to your toe)!

Architectural problem 4: The room only has a large shower cubicle, and no bath. In itself, not a problem as we prefer a shower to a bath, but the pressure of the water on the 7th floor is pathetic! It took about twice as long to shower as normal due to the fact that the dribble of water coming out is so slow you can barely wash properly. Surely in a modern building there should be a pumped water supply? Also, the drainage is poor, the basin in the bathroom fills faster than it drains, presumably, no one has cleaned hair etc out from it in years.

The hotel website (Official Ramada site), promises a mini bar in the room. There was a fridge, with two forlorn bottles of water, and 4 of the little uht milk pots for the coffee, but no minibar. Given that both public bars were shut, one couldn't even buy an overpriced drink in the room.

Turning to the TV in the room, this was a nice Samsung LCD model, but the conversion to digital had been done on the cheap, and all that was available channel wise was BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV 1, CH 4, and Five. Clearly they were from a central digital receiver bank and fed ANALOGUE to the room meaning that as well as a lack of choice of free to air channels, the quality of the picture was poor, and with only mono sound and no red button services, despite the red buttomn logo showing. Why not just distribute the Freeview signal to every room? The TV is capable of decoding it! The batteries in the remote were flat. Not wishing to take on the stairs again, I replaced them from a couple of spares I carry for my radio.

My wife noticed that the cleanliness of the room was poor. Dust buildups on the skirting boards, on top of the surfaces, and a surface covering on the tiles in the shower cubicle. Clearly standards are not enforced here.

Finally the bed...... Soft or possibly worn out from kids jumping on it, 4 small, flat pillows offering no support at all. Matress replacement as a minimum, and some investment in better pillows please?

When I discussed the problems with the Duty Manager, she advised me that Ramada do not have a star rating system, and "anyway we are a franchise", as though this excues poor standards.

I am certain that Ramada Hotels must have an inspection system to ensure that the franchise holders are meeting the group standards, and given that I have stayed in many other Ramada Hotels, I would suggest that this one falls well short of that standard and is actually damaging the brand. Assuming they are aiming to compete with Holiday Inn, Hilton etc, the Ramda at Cannock falls well below this standard. In fact, there is a Premier Inn approx 1/3 mileaway at The Orbital Pub which would have been better standard, I'm sure, and at least the bar would have been open and welcoming, unlike the bars here.

We didn't bother with the restaurant for dinner (if in fact it was open - not sure, we were never offered the opportunity to make a dinner reservation at check in), and assuming the worst for breakfast we went elsewhere.

(Top tip: The Taaj Indian Restaurant across the car park from the hotel, and not connected with the hotel, is very good, and reasonably priced for the high end menu).

One assumes that if this hotel goes on at this standard it will soon be in administration......