Is this ‘hell hole’ the most horrid hotel in Britain?
Mrs J.T. writes: I used booking. com to make a reservation at the Carlton Hotel in Folkestone, trusting the description on the website. What a nightmare. The room was awful, with a horribly stained carpet, a cracked basin held together with tape, and spores visible in the shower. We asked for a different room, but this reeked of marijuana. The manager took almost an hour to appear, and told us he was not allowed to refund the £126 we had paid as the reservation was made through booking.com. We returned home to Lowestoft.
I RARELY get involved in problems about holidays and hotels. One person’s nightmare might be another’s dream vacation. But when I looked to see what others had said about the Carlton Hotel, I could not resist stepping in.
True, there are some complimentary reviews. But they seem to focus on the sea view, car park and local walks. When it comes to the hotel itself and its rooms, TripAdvisor’s customer rating says 138 guests rated it ‘poor’, while 455 rated it ‘terrible’.
One guest went out and bought a new shower curtain, a fresh toilet brush and a lot of bleach. Another reported: ‘ Room was damp, bed was damp… toilet not bolted to floor properly, bathtub had unexplainable stains’.
Mould, smells and stains gain frequent mentions. One guest detected ‘curry, mould and cannabis in both our rooms’. Another wrote: ‘The carpet was so horrible that I didn’t walk barefoot even for a minute.’ And a third tops this with: ‘The most disgusting room we have ever seen. Vomit and blood on walls.’
One review condemns the Carlton as an ‘absolute hell hole’, saying: ‘I’ve just walked out of this hotel after being given a room that had not been serviced after the last guest departed... filthy, bed unmade, used towels on the floor, even the toilet was unflushed.’
More than one guest slept fully dressed on top of the bed rather than get into it. And one reviewer recommended the hotel for fans of the horror film The Shining, adding: ‘We decided not to bother showering as we felt we would have come out dirtier.’ In that vein, another guest said: ‘Maybe I will book again for Halloween.’
Some reviewers resorted to dark humour: ‘As we live in a damp, cold cave in Mongolia, this hotel was just like being at home. We were worried it would be too homey and clean, but thank goodness we have a room as clean as a Kenyan mud hut.’
Another says: ‘Would definitely recommend to all people who want to stop in a hotel in Folkestone with the atmosphere and amenities of a shed in Beirut.’
If anything, these comments seem unfair to Kenyan mud huts and Beirut sheds. So, is this Britain’s most horrid hotel? The Carlton failed to comment. But for me, the puzzle was why using booking. com meant the hotel could not refund you.
Well, booking.com said it was incorrect to say it had any control over refunds.
‘This is entirely a matter for the hotel,’ the agency told me.
However, in view of your experience, a full refund is on its way, courtesy of booking.com.