Britannia Hotel Birmingham — Hotel in Birmingham

DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL!!!!

We have had experience of staying at this chain of hotels in Manchetser City which was beautiful and a great experience, so we thought the same when booking it for Birmingham New Street, Birmingham Shopping District, B2 4RX Birmingham, United Kingdom. Even going by the pictures it looked lovely.

So we booked it for the weekend just gone Friday the 16th - Sunday the 18th. NEVER AGAIN!!! Although it is very central and we are both young ourselves noise was not the issue.

We arrived on Friday evening into our room with a very strong horrible smell, which was there everytime we entered the room even with the window being left open fully all day and night to try get rid of this horrible smell. There was nothing but a rug in the wardrobe and one pillow each on the two single beds.

Also, one bath/shower towel between the two us knowing this room had been booked for two people. There was one main light in the room which was out by the door, the rest was small bedside lights which 2 out of the 3 of them didn't work.

The two single beds were extremely creaky even when either of us moved the slightest on either of them, which we were afraid to move in throughout the night so did not get much sleep.

The bath was dirty and there was bits of dirt on the carpet. Also, there was mould on the wall beside the curtains, and there had clearly been a leak from above into the room we were in as there was stains on the ceiling too.

Our keys for the bedroom and to get in to use the lift constantly stopped working and we had many issues with them constantly not working or having to tell reception that they weren't working. From past experience from staying in places we know NOT to have the keys and phones near each other as this can stop the keys from working.

On the Friday night, my sister went down to complain about the lights not working and was told somebody would come up shortly to look at them and sort it out. We stayed up until 11:30pm having been up since the early hours since the morning for our flight and still no sign of anybody coming up. She went back down to ask for extra pillows and mentioned the lights again and they said they would be up in about 5 minutes. We received the extra pillows but still nothing with the lights.

When asked at reception to speak to the manager several times throughout our stay about these issues, one member of staff mentioned how the manager doesn't work weekends, then later that same day another member of staff mentioned how the manager wouldn't be back until later that day. So we were constantly being told different stories.

My sister had booked this and we payed cash in full on arrival but they had her card details which were required when booking, therefore, neither of us brought bank cards with us. However, on Saturday the 17th money was taking from her account which showed taken in Birmingham. As the hotel was the only place in Birmingham which have her card details, we queried this urgent matter at reception where they denied any knowledge of this. Again we asked to speak to the manager and were again informed the manager was not availble.

We are very unhappy, unsatisfied people that got no response from management re condition of our room, trouble we had with keys and money been taking from the account. My sister has had to since cancel her bank card, and wait for a new one to be issued. We were not offered any refund or partial refund upon checking out or any apologies or any explanation as to the problems we had and still no sign of management.

This is a very long review but I'm extremely upset and angry about our stay I felt I had to write it and don't want other people to have high expectations. We will NEVER AGAIN stay here and would hope nobody else would have a bad experience...

It’s in the centre, so very close to everything which is great! Staff were nice but the photos are deceiving, it’s not all what it seems!!! Floor 2 is the only floor that has nice rooms; the other floors seem dirty & have outdated decor. Some floors even allow smoking in the room.

Me and my mum were going away for a couple of days and we’re really looking forward to it.

We arrived to check in at about 11pm. The hotel receptionist asked for photo ID, we didn’t have any but he said that they usually turn you away if you don’t have it. I’ve never been asked for photo ID in any other hotel I’ve stayed in before?? So this seemed strange.

We made our way up to the room (806) and I got this weird vibe of the hotel, the decor is VERY dated; black painted doors & the carpet was like that weird patterned carpet you get in pubs. It was a little eerie to be honest. I thought maybe the room would be a lot better so didn’t think to much of it.

When we got to the room, me and my mum were pretty much SPEECHLESS. The room again seemed eerie and it just felt unclean when I walked in. It’s Very basic! When I stay away I don’t expect to have everything but this was piss poor. THE ROOM STANK OF SMOKE!!! We soon realised that they allow people to SMOKE in the rooms!!! There was a sign hidden underneath the coffee tray and also they provided an ashtray. We were never asked if we would like a smoking room, The smell was sickening. we slept with the window open all night to try and get some fresh air but of course then we could hear seagulls all night. The room was just grimy. You can just tell that a lot of strange things have probably happened in those rooms.

There were plenty of things wrong with the room. outdated decor and electrical plugs!! If you turn off the main light it also turns off all the electric and bathroom light?? So you kind of have to sleep with the light on ALL night if you need to charge anything Small tv on a table Lamps don’t even plug in because the plugs DONT FIT IN THE SOCKETS!?!? Room smelt of SMOKE. Scalding hot water -dirty mirrors -broken toilet roll holder -dirty bathroom -brown stains on walls and white stains carpets

On the night we arrived we did complain and demanded another room. Staff did sort this for us and said our new room would be available the next day at 12pm. We were so eager to change rooms and get out of this room ASAP! The room we moved to was SO much better. It was actually what the photos were like; seemed like a normal CLEAN hotel. I felt so much more comfortable in that room. If we were in that room for both nights maybe I would’ve rated the hotel higher but unfortunately the first...

Diabolical ! Avoid at all costs , ... with your life ! If you want to retain any sanity you may have left ! ! ! We could not have dreamt it possible in our wildest & worst nightmares , how badly run this place is ! ! ! Cheap for a very good reason & definitely not worth it !!!

They took more than 5 hours to check us in & allocate us our rooms !!! I'd pre~booked 8 days in advance & we drove hours to get there from South Wales & arrived at 12:25am & all we wanted to do was sleep as we all had an early start attending a Convention the following 3 mornings, they had record on computer system of our booking but told us that their day staff had not allocated our 3 rooms for us, as they often don't apparently we were told ! We ended up not being able to get into our rooms until approx.5:25am & then we had to unload our car & there was nowhere nearby to park for 2 of my disabled party, so had to drive away to park & subsequently received at least 2 Parking Penalty Charge Notices @ £60 ! Because of the impossible location of this " hotel " to access with luggage or baggage to drop off &/ disabled persons with walking difficulties & parking costs £24 / £12 a day if they give you a discount! The lifts were out of order & we'd previously requested to be given rooms together but they separated us on the 2nd, 4th & 8th floors with no lift working for our 2 disabled ladies !! After unpacking & my constantlty having to run up & down stairs to deal with their reception to keep reprogramming all our keys because they kept not working to allow access into our rooms each time we came back !!! Finally got our heads down, exhausted & shattered from driving & running about all night, at 7:25am! ! = 7 hours after arrival !!!!! Got 1 hour's sleep before our 1st long full day at our Convention , only for the awful nightmare of an unbelievable saga to continue & start up all over again for the dreadful 4 days we were unfortunately stuck there for !!

1 of our rooms was ransacked & had not been serviced, bed unmade, duvet, used tissues & rubbish strewn everywhere, used teabags in used teacups & full waste bin, another of our rooms had poo in the toilet & the same or mud on the carpet & TVs either had no remote at all or batteries in them were so weak & old they wouldn't work, another 2 rooms had no overhead light fitments even in the ceilings, only dim, dull bedside lamps, the lists go on & on & on & on, for all what was & went wrong !! The housekeeping staff actually took & threw away some of our possessions !!!! ... My kettle wouldn't work without me holding it !! & my door handle was broken to secure room when...