sheepeatingtaz

This weekend was the IDTA Nationwide Latin & Ballroom competition, in which I was competing. (See http://www.sheepeatingtaz.co.uk/boothferry for a more dance-orientated write-up). Lisa & I planned to go over to Blackpool (where the competition is held) on Friday night, so Lisa booked a hotel room online. The hotel she went for in the end was ‘The New Sunset Hotel’, and was booked from http://www.activehotels.com/

As you can see from the webpage (if you bothered to click the link), it has an average guest rating of 3.8 out of 5. This meant I wasn’t expecting much, but at least to be confortable.

The other thing to take note of on the website is the fact that you can ‘Reserve Online, Pay on Departure’. We arrived on Friday night, at about 9pm. The guy who opened the door didn’t speak a word of English, but gestured two fingers at us (the nice way). We took this to mean he’d back back with someone who could communicate to us without hand gestures. 15 minutes later another guy came out to check us in. This is where stuff started to get fishy. He asked us to pay there and then. This seemed odd, after what the website said, but Lisa dug out the credit card whe had booked online with, and greeted with, “No, Cash Please”. Cue us handing over £100 cash before getting our room key. I also asked if he could change a tenner so I could go put some more money in the car park. He didn’t have any (despite the bar being open).

So, up to the room we go. It suddenly becomes clear why they wanted the cash up front. For this, I needed evidence, so out came the camera. All of these photos are on flickr, so click on them to go to flickr and zoom in (if you dare). The first photo is of our double bed (the first thing we saw on entry). I have placed both my jumper, and Lisa on the bed for size comparison.

Now, I’m not a large gentleman, nor is Lisa a large lady. That jumper is a medium at biggest, and it takes up a quarter of the bed. That cannot possibly be a double, or my bed at home (which I believe to be a queen-size) must be a super-prime-minister-of-the-king-of-the-world size.

Next, we had a look at the thing everyone always checks on arrival at any hotel. The Bathroom.

As you can see, it’s not large, but you don’t expect ensuites at B&B’s in Blackpool to be massive. I do, however, expect them to be clean. This was the plug hole in our sink:

I almost lost my stomach. I daren’t look in the bath.
This photo shows the lengths they went to in order to save space in our room.

Half a light switch. Marvellous.
By my side of the bed, I took this photo, which I have named ‘Two Unidentified Stains On Wall’

It looks a bit like someone has picked their nose after a nose bleed and wiped the bogies on the wall. Classy.
But, by far and away the worst thing about the hotel has the worst evidence, and you will have to take my word for it, I’m afraid:

That is a photo of the vinegar bottle on our table at breakfast on Saturday morning. You see that dark mark near the bottom of the bottle? That is Arnold. Arnold is one of the TWO flies that were pickling in our vinegar bottle. God knows how long they had been in there. Suffice to say, I did not enjoy thinking about what other hygienic delights would greet me if I were to venture over to the food preparation area.

The icing on the cake is, that although the original website has ‘Guest Reviews’, I don’t seem to be able to post mine anywhere…. seems a little suss IMHO.

Oh, and the hotel is ‘recently refurbished’. I dread to think what it was like before!