Britannia still the worst hotel chain in land...
THE owner of three Southport businesses has been voted the worst hotel chain in the country – for the fourth year running.
Britannia Hotels, which runs the Prince of Wales Hotel and the Scarisbrick Hotel on Lord Street, come out bottom in a survey carried out by consumer watchdog Which?.
The chain also runs the Pontins holiday park in Ainsdale.
Which? asked more than 4,000 people to review hotels based on everything from cleanliness, bedrooms, bathrooms, bed comfort, value-for-money and whether the description matched reality.
Premier Inn, which has a hotel at Ocean Plaza in Southport, topped the results with a customer score of 83%.
Guests on TripAdvisor, who rate it the second best hotel in Southport behind the Ramada Plaza Hotel, were glowing in their praise.
It gets four-and-a-half stars, with 631 of 1,071 reviewers grading it as Excellent, and 330 saying it is Very Good.
Bladette20 said: “Typical of the brand. Very clean and very friendly staff. Lots of parking close by. Good location for the pier, seafront or town. Breakfast in the next door brewers fayre was good and plentiful.”
Travelodge, which recently opened a new site on Lord Street, finished 18th out of 24 chains after receiving a score of 65%.
Britannia came bottom of the table for the fourth year running with a score of 44%.
Its hotels cost Which? members £10 more, on average, than at the top-rated hotel chain.
Customers said its properties were “ancient”, “very basic” and “in need of updating”.
The average price that people said that they had paid also increased over the year from £68 to £80.
The Scarisbrick and the Prince of Wales hotels, on Lord Street, and Pontins holiday park in Ainsdale, are all in the top four worst-rated hotels on TripAdvisor.
Pontins is rated the worst in the town, with an overall score of just over two out of five from more than 3,630 reviews. Of those reviews, 1,700 rate Pontins as terrible, while a further 400 rated it poor.
The Scarisbrick has a similar overall rating from nearly 1,500 reviews - 579 have described it as terrible and 275 as poor.
The Prince of Wales fares slightly better, with a score of 3 out 5 from 1,346 reviews, which are spread evenly across the five possible ratings (Excellent: 182, Very good: 354, Average: 313, Poor: 217, Terrible 279).
Of the Scarisbrick Hotel, Elaine F said: “Went to this hotel on a National coach holiday. Worst hotel I have ever been to.
And Apfair42 said: “Hell hole!!!” - The first room we were given 319 stunk like raw sewage. We complained at desk and was laughed at and told no more rooms!! Then a manager came and found us a room. Would never stay here again Terrible, dated, dirty, horrible place.”
Of the Prince of Wales Fiona F said: “This has to be among the worst hotels in Britain. Tired, old fashioned, scruffy and not in the least welcoming. Rude, lazy staff for whom any request appeared to be too much trouble, dreadful food and dirty crockery. Avoid this at all costs no matter how desperate you are for a bed.”
And laceyManchester said: “The wallpaper in the room was peeling off. A huge crack visible in the wall. Paint all chipped and the furniture reminded me of hi-de-hi. I actually felt like I was a resident in a badly-run nursing home.”
Talking about Pontins, AlfieThwaites said: “The place is run down, has a bad smell in the entertainment centre, the rooms are filthy, it is rotten and needs closing down!
The place is not fit for purpose. I am not a snob, but I expected a place that was clean. I suggest Pontins take note of complaints and act on them, or it will end up closing for sure.”
And Sarah K said: “Came to stay with friends and our children. The chalet was disgusting, the floor hadn’t been brushed or mopped. We weren’t given enough beds even though they knew how many of us were going to be staying.
My friend complained to reception and was told there was nothing they could do! The place itself is very rundown and neglected. It is dirty and unkept. We didn’t see a cleaner once. We only stayed the one night. That was enough.”