I’m going to start this off on a positive note – the staff who work here are very friendly, knowledgeable, and they appear to be contactable 24/7. So why the low rating?
Firstly, the check-in process. Despite sending an e-mail in advance and (unusually for a journey by road and rail) being on-time – there still wasn’t anyone to meet me upon my arrival. There was a note left and, when I’d made a call, 20 minutes later someone turned up to let us in. After being shown to our room (see 2), we were told that this wasn’t supposed to be our room, and we’d have to swap for the second night of our stay (something about the plumbing). What this meant is that we had to leave our keys inside the room the next day and then repeat the whole “check-in” process again complete with a call, an albeit briefer wait, and then the ritual un-packing process that follows.
The advantage of “room swapping” means that at least I have two rooms to review – the first had a bathroom that was probably 3m x 0.8m, which meant my knees touched the walls when I was on the toilet. There was a balcony, but let’s just say that the view, complete with someone’s laundry drying on the rails, was ‘rustic’ at best. The second room was smaller, but with a ‘normal-sized’ bathroom, however whenever you ran the water (shower, sink, toilet) it sounded like there was an industrial food processor working… it was loud enough that you wouldn’t want to flush the toilet in the night for fear of disturbing the Vatican.