Castle Lodge — Hotel in East Cambridgeshire

Please don’t make the mistake I made in booking here as a holiday guest on a long weekend in the otherwise lovely city of Ely. Although it doesn’t bill itself as a hotel, its website does say “Castle Lodge is your perfect choice to stay when visiting Ely for business or pleasure”. Having organised trade fair stands and accommodation in the engineering sector, if I had booked this place for business, my boss would have gone up the wall. Before arriving, it was made clear to me that this establishment caters mainly for ‘Contractors’, i.e. builders. They do have a four-poster bed, though! The website further asks, “what more could you want!” Well, an atmosphere would be nice.

We didn’t get off to a good start as I fell foul of the lady on the phone whilst booking. (The man, on the other hand, is as charming and friendly as the other people I met in Ely.) Availability was low in the city and my booking was, admittedly, relatively last-minute. However, reading the reviews, I am not the first to encounter her quickness at getting stroppy. Even after providing an alternative (successful) e-mail address for the booking confirmation, I felt like I was being told off by the headmistress. When I arrived I made the mistake of phoning up to confirm arrival as there is no reception, access to the building and the room is by code pads. I was met with complete indifference.

On the plus side, as I was staying 4 nights, I was offered a family room at a discount. The bed was very good. However, the room (No. 1) is at the end of an uninviting corridor (turn right at the ironing board hung on the wall) and has an uninviting view of a small backyard where some dilapidated wooden furniture, a hosepipe and a dirty fridge have been dumped. The bathroom is large, but gave evidence that the room hadn’t been allocated for a long while as the toilet nearly overflowed on the first flush and the hot and cold basin taps appeared to be the wrong way round until they settled down. There is thick mould in the shower and the gel dispenser is balanced precariously on a bracket that seems to have been cobbled up as an afterthought. In fact, there are a number of holes and brackets in the wall in the bathroom from when shelves or rails have been removed.

Breakfast is organised by two delightful ladies. The full English breakfast is good and is the highlight of the stay. However, nothing was set out on the Saturday morning and I had to ask for what was even supposed to be on the buffet. There were numbers on the tables, but no number 1. Sunday morning was busy. On the Monday morning I was evidently the only guest in the whole building and Tuesday was quiet in the dining room as all the ‘Contactors’ filed out in quick succession, none of them apparently partaking of breakfast.

The worst for me was to return to the room to find the bed had not been made and, therefore presumably, no cleaning had been undertaken on any of the days I was there. You may ask why I didn’t complain about the bed never being made. Well, if they couldn’t be bothered, neither could I! I was a paying guest, not a paid trainer or supervisor in basic hotel management and cleanliness.

I am happy to chalk this establishment up to experience and join the reviews since 2015 in...

Please don’t make the mistake I made in booking here as a holiday guest on a long weekend in the otherwise lovely city of Ely. Although it doesn’t bill itself as a hotel, its website does say “Castle Lodge is your perfect choice to stay when visiting Ely for business or pleasure”. Having organised trade fair stands and accommodation in the engineering sector, if I had booked this place for business, my boss would have gone up the wall. Before arriving, it was made clear to me that this establishment caters mainly for ‘Contractors’, i.e. builders. They do have a four-poster bed, though! The website further asks, “what more could you want!” Well, an atmosphere would be nice.||We didn’t get off to a good start as I fell foul of the lady on the phone whilst booking. (The man, on the other hand, is as charming and friendly as the other people I met in Ely.) Availability was low in the city and my booking was, admittedly, relatively last-minute. However, reading the reviews, I am not the first to encounter her quickness at getting stroppy. Even after providing an alternative (successful) e-mail address for the booking confirmation, I felt like I was being told off by the headmistress. When I arrived I made the mistake of phoning up to confirm arrival as there is no reception, access to the building and the room is by code pads. I was met with complete indifference.||On the plus side, as I was staying 4 nights, I was offered a family room at a discount. The bed was very good. However, the room (No. 1) is at the end of an uninviting corridor (turn right at the ironing board hung on the wall) and has an uninviting view of a small backyard where some dilapidated wooden furniture, a hosepipe and a dirty fridge have been dumped. The bathroom is large, but gave evidence that the room hadn’t been allocated for a long while as the toilet nearly overflowed on the first flush and the hot and cold basin taps appeared to be the wrong way round until they settled down. There is thick mould in the shower and the gel dispenser is balanced precariously on a bracket that seems to have been cobbled up as an afterthought. In fact, there are a number of holes and brackets in the wall in the bathroom from when shelves or rails have been removed.||Breakfast is organised by two delightful ladies. The full English breakfast is good and is the highlight of the stay. However, nothing was set out on the Saturday morning and I had to ask for what was even supposed to be on the buffet. There were numbers on the tables, but no number 1. Sunday morning was busy. On the Monday morning I was evidently the only guest in the whole building and Tuesday was quiet in the dining room as all the ‘Contactors’ filed out in quick succession, none of them apparently partaking of breakfast.||The worst for me was to return to the room to find the bed had not been made and, therefore presumably, no cleaning had been undertaken on any of the days I was there. You may ask why I didn’t complain about the bed never being made. Well, if they couldn’t be bothered, neither could I! I was a paying guest, not a paid trainer or supervisor in basic hotel management and cleanliness.||I am happy to chalk this establishment down to experience and join reviews since 2015 in...

This hotel needs to be avoided at all costs. Myself and my family stayed here last weekend. We should of gone home after we spent half an hour trying to gain entry through the key code. We rang up only to be told that the key code had been changed( would of been nice if they had told us) but mistakes happen so we just accepted it. Finally arrived into our room, and by god was it freezing. Husband checked radiators all freezing, it was minus 3 outside and NO HEATING ON ANYWHERE IN THE HOTEL. I did text asking for them to turn the heating on only to be told that it was on and that maybe a guest had turned the radiators off, ( I think not) as no radiators were on in any part of the hotel. Was also told to check thermostat downstairs, but upon doing so,it was a thermostat to stop pipes from freezing. So, nowhere to turn up the never existing heating. It was that cold that we all slept in our clothes. At the time of booking, for some reason my 6 yr old grandson was missed off the booking. I did contact the hotel to rectify this. If it wasn’t for a very excited 6 year old we wouldn’t have stayed here as it was just so cold. This hotel would be best staying at in the summer as a hotel in this day and age without heating on is terrible and it totally spoilt our break to ELY. Will not be staying again. We all sat and ate breakfast in our coats and hats.. ( breakfast was very good) even the cook was in a big thick jumper as there was no heating on in the dining...