COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Critics have slammed this hotel on TripAdvisor - as chain ranked worst in UK



We've all had bad hotel experiences, but punters booking into one of Coventry's three Britannia hotels will have the worst according to Which?.

The consumer watchdog conducted a study of where the best place to stay overnight is in the UK.

The Britiannia hotel group came last with just two start in five out of the six categories.

Consumer magazine Which? asked members to rate the UK’s largest hotel chains for cleanliness, state of the bedrooms and bathroom including:

• bed comfort
  
• mattress quality
  
• pillows, towels
  
• toiletries
  
• And how closely the official description matched the reality.

The group runs three hotels in Coventry - the Britannia Coventry, Coventry Hill and the Royal Court.

Each has been slated on TripAdvisor by disgruntled guests who have branded the hotels dirty and dated.

The worst out of the three is the Britannia Coventry in Fairfax Street, which is ranked 35th out of 39 hotels in Coventry and has just a 2.5 rating.

The hotel has received 235 poor ratings and 430 terrible ratings.

The Britannia's own website says: "Right in the heart of the city, the Britannia Coventry Hotel adjoins the famous Coventry Cathedral, a tourist favourite.

"Formerly a DeVere Hotel, located right in the heart of Coventry city centre with department stores and designer shops close by making this a fantastic choice out of all the hotels in Coventry to base your short stay break from.

"Bentley's Restaurant Coventry opens out onto Cathedral Square, with delicious aroma that just tantalizes the taste buds and prove popular with Coventry locals and residents alike. The Bar-Rogue Café Bar is great for a lighter bar snack or meal.

"All 211 en-suite bedrooms are furnished and decorated to provide light and a homely feel. Facilities include TV, telephone, hairdryer and tea/coffee facilities."

Earlier this year, the Telegraph reported that the hotel was getting a much needed exterior makeover, but only an exterior stairwell seemed to get a lick of paint.

The Telegraph spent the night at the 'monstrous' Britannia Hotel - here's what we found



Truthfully, I didn’t book my room at the Britannia Hotel in Coventry city centre.

My dad did it for me.

Only later did I discover I would be spending five nights in, according to Which?, Britain’s worst hotel chain.

I was excited to see what all the fuss was about.

Let’s address the elephant in the room right away. The Britannia is the architectural zit on the face of Coventry. If this design was intended to represent the grandeur of Britain when it was constructed in 1973, it makes me glad I wasn’t born until the 1990s.

My double room cost me £63 a night, for five nights. Although I’ve heard whisperings that I might have got a better price if I’d come on a coach trip.

I can only assume the hole in the wall outside the room was caused by somebody frustrated at having gone back down to reception for the sixth time in ten minutes to get a new key, only to find out this one doesn’t open the door either. I managed to show more restraint.

If you do manage to gain access to your room, you’ll find they are quite spacious and reasonably clean. Almost all the draws have handles, almost all the lights have bulbs and you only need one hand to hold up the toilet seat.

The bed is comfortable, if a little small and the cushions are nice, if you don’t mind the smell of stale cigarettes. There’s also two chairs and a table located next to the large window, which offers quite a nice view once the sun sets. If it wasn't for the dust and grime on it.

The small Samsung TV (the only indication that it’s not 1970) is far too small to be seen by anyone that isn’t sat twelve inches away from it and wearing their specs.

The shower has two temperature settings, hot and really hot. Which is fine. Nobody has cold showers anyway.

My girlfriend had hoped to get some work done during our stay. However, after spending most of the first two days trying to get the wi-fi to connect and the rest waiting for Google to load, I think she gave up and watched Countdown instead.

Put it this way, it didn’t surprise me one bit that Britannia Hotels considered Pontins a good investment when they paid £18.5million for it back in 2011.

For just £27, my girlfriend and I enjoyed three very average courses of food at Bentley’s restaurant located on the ground floor. The mushroom soup starter was a tad cold and more than a tad swamp-coloured.

The buffet style food is more ‘all we’ll let you eat’ than ‘all you can eat’ and £13.50 seems a little pricey to serve my own soup.

Credit where credit is due, the roast pork was succulent and actually very nice.

The roast potatoes that accompanied it were also excellent. We’re still trying to figure out all the components of the vegetables we were given, but I think it was carrots, sugar snaps and turnips.

For dessert, there was an attempt at a banana-flavoured cake. I’ve opted not to include the picture because it still makes me wretch a little bit.

The bar, which closes at 11, is cheap and appears to be rather quiet. That is, until the evenings entertainment gets underway, which I would describe as very Phoenix Nights.

Throughout my stay, the staff have been very polite and helpful. They have answered several queries of mine regarding the local area and told me about a cheap car park to leave my car in for the week.

Overall, I would describe my stay at the Britannia as not that bad. Perhaps this is because I’m from the North and we’re easily pleased.

For five nights, I haven’t felt the need to run to the local Premier Inn like some of the Tripadvisor comments I read, I haven't seen any bed bugs and I’ve slept just fine.

But I won't be staying there again - though that's not the real issue here. This brutally ugly hotel is a blight on Coventry and the sooner it is brought into the 21st century, the better. For the whole city.

Britannia Hotels was approached for comment.