We found this hotel over the internet and on first impressions it looked very nice and had a good gallery of photographs.

The hotel itself is quite large and I made the booking over the phone as I wanted some specific information. I haggled with the guy over the price and managed to book 3 rooms for the 6 of us divers. I did mention to him that we might be checking out early and asked what time breakfast was, 7am was the reply.

The hotel was ok to find on the sat nav but there is no parking and you end up on the street taking your chances. It is in a rowdy area of the town on a row of old style terraced houses where the majority of them on one side are shabby B & B's and chuff knows what on the other. There are many bars/restaurants/pubs/clubs/kebab houses etc all within easy walking distance.

As soon as we walked through the door, I felt like I had stepped back in time to the 1970's and expected to see Gene Hunt leap out from a wardrobe and wack me one.

This hotel wants a deposit up front. We were met by a guy who was looking after the place while his sister went to bingo (she owns the place). He decided we would be in room 27, which looked nothing like any of the photos, in fact sadly, none of the rooms looked anything like the photos, or maybe they did about 40 years ago.

Our room was right in the eaves of the 3 storey house. It was shabby, dirty and had tatty furniture. The TV was a small portable like my kids had years ago. The DVD part was ripped out. The en suite shower room had cracked tiles on the floor and the toilet cistern had a big crack in it that had been taped over. The shower head was broken and hanging loosely at the side. The room smelt of drains/sewerage.

The bed was clean but white bed linen does not stay white and this was old and faded and ripped in places.

We were also told that because we had not asked for breakfast early, her weekend kitchen girl would not be in to cook it and so we would not get any before we left as they do breakfast later at weekend (8am).

The staff were friendly enough and she offered us all a packed lunch to take away with us instead, saying it would be made up and left at reception for us.

By way of entertainment, the place had it's own bar, pool table and a seating area with a large TV on the wall, but nobody actually uses this.

They also were not offering the coffee facilities or cooking any meals as it was a Saturday and all guests want to do on a Saturday is get banjoed according to the landlord, he did recommend a very nice Italian restaurant for us though...

This hotel is run down, basic and dated as well as in need of a dam good scrubbing. They cater mainly for stag/hen parties and contractors given the area they are in. There was all sorts going on outside until all hours and Rob actually spotted 3 spotty youths bouncing up and down on the bonnet of another pickup parked near to ours as well as ripping the wipers up and decorating it with the contents of a first aid kit.

I would only recommend this place for a group of lads or lasses who want to go out and get so drunk they don’t notice the facilities around them, and I think this is the market this hotel aims at. The pictures on the web site give a false impression of what it is really like. I would not return there myself.