The top 10 dirtiest hotels in the UK were revealed this week by traveller reviews on Tripadvisor.com. Eight were in London, one in York, but the dirtiest and worst reviews went to the Grosvenor Hotel in Blackpool.
Some of the best reviews about the Grosvenor said things like 'sticky carpets', 'smelly', 'ceiling fell in on me when I was in the bath', 'filthy'. The reviews were from guests who were charged £55 for 2 nights and for 2 people. That equates to £13.75 per night per guest. If there's a hint of 'you get what you pay for' from the management of this hotel, then shame on them. Blackpool has always prided itself on its cheap and cheerful boarding houses and B&B's which are run with pride and high degree of cleanliness. They have to be. It's a long hard season made even worse for the hoteliers with a recession and competition from foreign holiday resorts. Anyone who lives in the Blackpool area gets disheartened about the town's much maligned image. Parts of the town are quite frankly a bit grim and plans for redevelopment are well underway. Bad publicity about dirty hotels like the Grosvenor hurts the town and hurts the people who live here and make their living in Blackpool.
And so to another hotel sharing the same name but very, very different in so many ways. I was lucky enough to stay at the wonderful 5 star Chester Grosvenor Hotel for a girlie nurses weekend spa treat. From the minute you walk through the door, you realise that you never want to leave. It was glorious, decadent, supreme and excellent in every way. It's so good, I'm thinking of having 'I've stayed at the Chester Grosvenor' tattooed on my forearm. I'm joking of course, but if you've never been, give yourself a treat and go and stay there.
The moral of this story? Staying in a cheap hotel doesn't mean it has to be filthy and smelling like a sewer. Providing clean, good value for money accommodation and good service will pay dividends. More visitors will stay and return back as the reputation increases.
Staying in a 5 star luxury hotel doesn't automatically mean it will be excellent. It doesn't always guarantee that as a paying guest you will receive special and courteous service. It doesn't mean that everything will work in your room nor that your room will be too hot or too cold or too noisy.
It shouldn't mean you get what you pay for. Sometimes, hotels just get it right despite the tariff....
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