Harte and Garter Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

I rarely leave negative reviews, but this stay was so unacceptable that I feel compelled to warn others.||This hotel is positioned smack bang next door to the very well known restaurant “The Ivy” and immediately opposite the famous Windsor Castle. With such neighbours you would expect a fairly high calibre hotel and in the right ownership, this place could be a gold mine with the ability to be able to charge top end rates! ||Our stay was quite last minute so we didn’t have a lot of choice but the photos on Booking.com looked pleasant and the outside was beautiful.|There was not a lot of rooms left and we just wanted a place to sleep for the night as we had a busy schedule for our trip so selected a small standard double room.||The room we were given was absolutely disgusting. The bathroom was filthy and clearly hadn’t been cleaned properly and was in a very sorry state, with months and months of limescale build up over the taps, a shower screen seal hanging off, and brown splats up the back of the bathroom door opposite the toilet, I will leave to your imagination what I fear it may have been! The room was not much improvement with curtains hanging off the rails, an overwhelming smell of air freshener from an electric plug in (fire risk) and outside the window was water pouring from above and constantly splattering on the rooftop right outside the window which would have kept us awake as the rooms were so warm there was no option to close the window.||We asked to be moved, only to be given a second room that was already occupied. Yes, we walked in on another guest!!!|Completely unacceptable, not to mention a huge invasion of privacy and a massive security risk. I was incredibly embarrassed to say the least. ||Thinking it couldn’t get worse, we were moved to a third room—which was just as dirty and unpleasant as the first. At that point, it was clear that poor cleanliness and mismanagement are a running theme here, not a one-off mistake.|My photos are of our third room and bathroom.|Curtains hanging off again, paint over the upholstered pelmets that were also hanging down. A broken and wonky bedside lamp. Stained bedside furniture. A dried out, but still switched on and very hot, plug in air freshener which is a massive fire concern and I immediately switched it off.|My 8 year old daughter would do a better job at the paint work in the rooms. There was paint on everything, pelmets, lamp shades and heater! |I know that pillows are a tricky one to get right for everyone but the pillows here are thick and rock solid, it was like trying to sleep on a lightly padded breeze block! I ended up making do by folding a decorative cushion in half which was the quality of somewhere like Poundland.|There were 2 large sash windows in our room, both of which had no security feature which meant they could be fully opened, normally this would be fine but bearing in mind we were on the 3rd floor, there was nothing but a small ledge outside the window and absolutely nothing to stop anyone from falling out the window if they lent out too far, huge safety issue!! ||The bathroom was just shocking!! Cracked paint on the painted over shower tiles, previous guests toothpaste spit over the walls around the mirror and sink, cracked sink and plug caked with limescale as well as the taps, wooden bath panel swollen from so much damp, black mould in the silicone, missing grout between the floor tiles and words cannot even begin to describe behind the toilet, the photos speak for themselves! ||This hotel showed a complete lack of basic hygiene standards, professionalism, and care for its guests. Avoid at...

A hotel that feels more like the set of a 1970s little-England sitcom than a place you'd want to relax and recoup. Mattress feels like it's full of old boots. The hotel gives the impression the last time it had anything close to a refurbishment was when Thatcher was still in power. Frayed carpets, peeling guest books, chipped paintwork, stains on pretty much everything the light touches, from furniture to curtains, this hotel has it all.

I will say the bathroom looked like it had been upgraded this millennium, but our room also had a giant clump of someone else's hair in the plughole - so, that was a nice welcome present. It's not quite a mint on the pillow.

I did pay extra for the room with a castle view and it DOES have the castle view. So the one thing they have no control over they manage to fulfil their promise on. I suppose I should just be thankful they didn't brick the windows up.

Also, the toilet flush only works every 5-10 minutes, so if you're sharing a room, you have to be comfortable telling your significant other that I'd they lift the toilet seat and see the remains of your last meal, they have to be okay to give it a helping hand with an extra flush or two.

In addition to all the above, we turned up late (10pm) and encountered staff who didn't know whether or not the kitchen was open.

I then asked, "well is there anywhere nearby that might be open?" "Oooh, I dunno... I'll have a think..." *stares at computer screen as if he's looking something up... until I realise he's waiting for me to leave "okay I'll just go out have a look around then", I say. "Sorry" is the only response I receive.

After complaining about the mattress, which, as I mentioned felt like it had been built entirely out of knock-off lego bricks, I asked if any of the rooms had been refurbished recently or at least had newer mattresses than our room. Unsurprisingly, not one person working at the hotel had any idea. It was almost as if there had been a mutiny and now the guests were now running the hotel.

There is a scene in the 2015 summer blockbuster Mad Max, where the nefarious warlord Immortan Joe stands atop the Citadel in a post-apocalyptic world, and looks down upon his thousands of desperate, starving subjects, pleading for his help, before, in an act of faux-compassion, turning on the city water supply for a fraction of a second, only to watch them savagely fight one another for just a drop of water to quench their neverending thirst.

At the Harte and Garter, I am reminded of this scene as I attempt to check out, wedged shoulder to shoulder with a giant huddle of disgruntled fellow guests, crammed into the cramped corridor lobby, staring hopefully, desperately at our own Citadel: the front desk. Whether it is due to the fact everyone seems to have a question about their bill, the fact there seems to be no speedy check-out alternative available or the fact that every guest seemed to require all three members of staff to help with their check out; this, combined with the lobby's narrow corridor design and equally narrow reception desk, create a perfect storm that results in the dystopian fight for survival I have just described, that seems last the entire hour of 11am. I can only imagine what guests looking to check-in early must think as they stumble upon this scene.

If an alien race was to invade the earth tomorrow and decided the most effective way to do so would be to take over a neglected hotel in Windsor, I would wager the guests staying at the Harte and Garter would be...

This has to be the worst hotel I've ever stayed in to the extent I didn't stay I actually had to leave, staff are absolutely useless sign was there from check in basically your a name on a scrap of paper then we got escorted to our room by what I can only describe as a totally inapt so called member of staff standing in the lift we stood and stood the lift not moving in the end we had to say to her what floor are we on and she went 2 and my husband said shall I push the button for the second floor then? Got to our room however walking down the corridor the deco was in poor shabby dirty state. We had room 214 over looking the castle, my 1st reaction was that bed has already been slept in was half made and the bed was all crumpled she was like no no it's clean and lifted up the pillow and shook it I did say not amount of shaking will sort that out. The catalogue of issues that followed was disgusting dirty bathroom A/c not working no TV remote stale water in the kettle loose carpet and light fitting no where to sit everywhere cover in grim dangerous window leading to a balcony with access to everyone elses rooms and at a low enough heights tumble over and gaps where a small child could get through. Asked to be moved and was told someone will be up in 10 mins 40 mins later nothing went to spoke to the people on reception and his went oh did you not like the room she showed you and I replied what room no one has come to see us with that another member of staff came telling us he had been knocking on our door we told him he couldn't have been because the room was so hot we had the door open waiting. Also safety side of the balcony fire extinguisher were not attached to the walls were just sitting on the carpet for someone to easily knock over also I tripped on the carpet and nothing was done about it when I brought it up at reception wasn't asked was I ok can i have a first aider look you over do you need a cold compress no accident book apparently it was locked away I actually hurt my elbow as I tripped and banged my arm on the wall. Disgusting attitude of the staff the filthy dangerous surroundings and we wasn't the only guests that were having problems after 3 hours of back and forth back and forth I eventually got my refund confirmation of £204 for two night stay I would like to say the hotel staff sorted it all out but the twist in the telly is actually the Mantanice manager stepped in and dealt with the complaint. I have never seen such a disgraceful attitude from staff at a hotel I was also mocked by staff when they thought I couldn't see them by going round the corner of the desk and laughing and pulling faces as I could see them in the reflection of the mirror in the lobby also disrespectful taking in there on language which I feel is very unprofessional in front of me. Then to be told we're actually not really ready to be open so why the hell are you then greed that's why! Staff are apparently going on a training course on Monday really don't you train the staff first then two people on reception had only been there two days and to be honest didn't know there arse from there own elbows smirking and being unprofessional will not get you guest's this hotel has now been forwarded to health and safety as I have made a formal complaint to them and the fire brigade. This is not a safe hotel to be in if something major happened they wouldn't...