Hotels chain ‘worst in UK’ for seventh year
THE hotel chain that runs Pontins, the Prince of Wales Hotel and The Scarisbrick Hotel in Southport has been named worst in the UK for the seventh year running.
Britannia Hotels scored 39% in the annual customer satisfaction poll by consumer group Which?
Also at the bottom was EasyHotel, the secondworst chain, with a 58% customer score and Ibis Budget, third from the bottom with 60%.
In the survey, 8,000 guests of 40 hotel chains were asked to rate criteria such as bed comfort, value for money, quality of food and overall cleanliness in the survey.
Britannia, which has 61 hotels in the UK, received one star out of five in almost every category except customer service, for which it scored two.
The survey found guests are 10 times more likely to award it a poor rating for cleanliness than any other hotel chain.
TripAdvisor ratings are also poor, with Pontins, the Scarisbrick and the Prince of Wales being the three worst-rated hotels in Southport.
Last year a horrified mum woke to find her baby daughter covered in painful red sores after she was bitten by bedbugs on their first night’s stay in Pontins in Ainsdale.
TV star Jenny Eclair once tweeted her despair at having to stay at the Prince of Wales Hotel and one guest described a stay in the Scarisbrick Hotel as being like “something like a horror film”.
Conservative
Dukes
Ward councillor Sir Ron Watson CBE said: “Since Britannia has taken over the Prince of Wales Hotel, the standard has gone right down.
“It’s not well cleaned, the service is poor and it’s absolutely reduced the standard.
“The Scarisbrick Hotel is struggling too with a growing number of complaints.”
He urged Britannia to make the Prince of Wales
Hotel a special priority for the sake of its former status in Southport.
He said: “The Prince of Wales Hotel was once the most well regarded and important hotel.
“There was a little bit of a celebrity element too. If there was a prestigious event it would be held there. It had wonderful bedding, it was an iconic building that is now deteriorating and it is distressing to see.
“It is a huge benefit to the town and the Victoriana theme is still very popular in Southport so it would just take a bit of commitment from Britannia to go some way to restoring it to its former glory.”
Liberal Democrat Dukes Ward councillor Tony Dawson shared similar sentiments.
He said: “The Which? survey results are hardly surprising. Britannia took over what used to be two premier hotels in Southport and now they are seriously dingy.
“Pontins is in a different situation with factors like global warming and it’s in a difficult area to redevelop.
“I attended meetings with former Conservative councillor Brenda Porter, who wanted to turn the site into an Italian style village but that sadly never happened.
“Now it’s unlikely it will be redeveloped for a while. I think while Britannia continues to make money like this it is not going to change its business model any time soon.
“To be fair to them their hotels haven’t closed and I am sure they are not wedded to their business model and if they were told they can still make money for their shareholders another way then they may do, who knows?
“I do think we have to be proactive about this matter though.
“It may take the Sefton Local Plan changing with the climate emergency to do something co-ordinated and interventionist. We can do something about these hotels too and Southport town centre in general.”
Britannia Hotels did not respond when contacted for comment.
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