Muthu Ben Doran Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

A shocking experience. We originally booked for 2 nights, left after just 1. I don't normally write reviews but this place is so grim I thought it best to warn others not to waste their money staying here. There was a stale smell in the corridor leading to the room. The room was very small, the decor is trapped in the 80's. Toilet pan hasn't been bleached for some time, the toilet didn't flush properly and if you used the toilet during the night, you could lie in bed afterwards for 10 minutes listening to your personal water feature whilst the out of date system filled. The carpets threadbare, the bedding (quilt) was disgusting and the window frame hadn't been cleaned for some time. The entertainment in the bar area was dreadful, 50's & 60's slow depressing music and the bar area itself reminded me of a 1970's train station waiting room. The evening meal in the restaurant wasn't too bad, my partner being a vegetarian had two choices, macaroni & cheese or go to the cafe across the road. Now breakfast was a whole different story, colder than luke warm coffee, warm fresh orange juice, burnt vegetarian sausages with over cooked scrambled eggs, no choice of bread products. When I spoke to a young foreign lady to tell her the coffee was cold, her response..."That's impossible!" with a sneer. No-one in the restaurant area (except Matthew and Adam) wanted to take responsibility if there was a problem, so a big thank you and hats off to them. When we decided to leave, we noticed that the young people who were the waiters & waitresses in the restaurant were also tasked to clean the rooms after breakfast service finished, it was then I realised that's why none of these young kids smiled, because the were being overworked and no doubt underpaid. I can only assume the positive comments left on trip advisor were probably by company insiders. After complaining at reception when departing, we were informed we would have to contact Groupon (who we made our reservation with) to ask for a refund for our second day. As they only spoke broken English and were very hard to understand, I'll give it a miss and never book with the 'Muthu' brand again. The picture below is the founder of the company whose words of encouragement include, 'TRUTH, INTEGRITY and HOPE', I just 'HOPE' these people will look themselves in the mirror and tell the British people and tourist the 'TRUTH' about the standard of service they provide, but somehow I feel their 'INTEGRITY' may be in doubt!.... Avoid...

AVOID! At any cost - avoid this place! Any review over 2 stars must be a fake.

We had paid for 4 nights in advance (unfortunately) and left after a few hours of checking in as it was the most disgusting place we had ever been in.

The surroundings are beautiful, it is such a shame that this place is so horrid. This is the only positive - lovely woodland and mountains.

We checked in and the decor was very old and shabby and the room smelt musty. There were dirty cups on the side. Then we noticed a blood stain on the bed. We went to reception and asked if they would get us some clean bedding. They apologised and swapped our rooms instead. The next room had the same musty smell , but also a smell of cigarettes and toilet. There were cigarette butts everywhere outside of the window. Dust everywhere. The same dirty cups. Dead insects. Dirt in the bath. Grotty walls and floors. Stains up the walls that looked like dried blood again or a dark coffee. And something in the toilet ...🤮 We then heard loud music being played and tons of shouting ... which (upon investigation) turned out to be the staff walking around with a speaker. The music and shouting was so loud that we couldn't hear the TV in the room (which had about 3 working channels). We discussed staying one night and leaving. Somebody tried our door handle and then ran off - we didn't feel safe to leave our belongings in the room. We were both feeling really itchy from being in the room at this point (we weren't there long and have bites on our skin!). We had another conversation and decided that we could not stay overnight and would rather risk sleeping in the car if we couldn't find elsewhere. We checked out and the receptionist said he understood why (it's obvious they get this often). We emailed the hotel but yet to have a response, they don't care.

Please do not give this hotel a chance, you will regret it!!! If there's one positive out of our bad experience, it's that you might read this review and not go! It's not worth a penny of your hard earn money.

The place needs to...

BED BUGS. A grotty hotel that stinks of moth balls.

Now that I'm sure I haven't brought them home with me, I can elaborate a bit:

Imagine waking up to find that guy on your pillow (see photo). You google bed bugs and confirm your suspicions, then jump out of bed and throw the duvet back to find about 8 of them crawling around under there. The horror!

Now, you stand naked and exposed but need to prioritise and act. Damage limitation. Your clothes are strewn around the room, your bag is open, and you've just had one of the worst nights sleep ever. You also feel like an idiot for staying in a hotel that smells of pesticides. What order are you going with?:

A- run to the shower B- call the hotel manager C- Pack your bag and run D- book another night E- take photos

Well, I went for E, A, C, B. The thought of D never came to me!

When I told the hotel staff at the desk, I could see that they were rehearsed in this: they basically said nothing. No apology or shock, just a stonefaced request for my details. It was quite creepy, actually. They said they would investigate (i told them i had photos), but guess what? They couldn't see anything. Convenient. Luckily, I took photos to prove it!

Some other reviews of the hotel said it's as if the staff work there under duress. I know exactly what they mean. It's like a carpeted prison. The place looks to have changed management, and they seem to be upgrading things one mattress at a time. I probably sped up mine getting changed 👀

Anyway, the itching was terrible and lasted a week. Worse was the fear that I might have brought them home with me... that really kept me up at night. I had to keep my clothes in a bag in the basement and wash everything on high heat and tumble dry what I could.

My very short stay in this disgusting hotel cost me 2 pairs of trousers and a new jumper. They have shrunk to about 10 sizes too small. Maybe I'll keep them in case I ever have kids.

I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy for fear of them spreading bedbugs to other hotels.

Remember the...