Brooklands Guest House - Cambridge , United Kingdom 

I was in town for for a wedding and needed somewhere to stay Saturday night. The room was pre-booked two weeks in advance. On arrival, you enter a narrow hall that leads to a narrow staircase. The room was on the send floor, up a further flight of narrower stairs -- very hard to carry luggage up, not that you'd have anywhere to put it! The room was overpriced ?65/night. I recall getting it for ?60 -- it's not worth ?20 -- for a room I could hardly stand up in, and I'm only 6'. There was dust in the less reachable (due to low ceiling) areas of the room. The TV, not that it matter, was a 14" CRT that took up precious space. I didn't try the TV. The room was very small indeed, with only about a total area of 2m^2 that you could stand up straight in. I had booked a single, but there were to single beds in the room. Even if they removed a bed there'd only by 3' headroom in it's place. You had to crouch down to about 4' to see in any hanging mirror, except the one behind the 5'8" bathroom door, depending how tall you are. To make matters worse, I was in a hurry the following day only to discover the the small shower cubicle, despite looking deceivingly ok, barely had enough water pressure and kept going hot-cold... and there's no soap tray. I did see another room: tiny; the shower was in a closet, and there was barely any floor space. I've been around the world and stayed in everything from backpackers to motels, to 5* hotels... hundreds of rooms. Brooklands has to be one of my worst experiences ever, save a few backpackers. I didn't try the breakfast... I was livid; went to Starbucks in town instead. Awful... and certainly not suitable for big/tall people.

There were many health and safety issues: 1. 3 extension socket attached to one another with electricals plugged in, 2. Extension socket leads trailing around dangerously 3. Kettle plugged to one of extension sockets by tv and kettle did not turn itself off as it should 4. in attic with no fire escape 5. No fire regulation sign/exit sign on door 6. Taps in bathroom twist round and round as they were lose and could not be turned on 7. bathroom windwo would not close (chlly weather) 8. Mould around shower 9. More importantly it was a cramped attic room with no fire escape! 10. Low ceiling sides meant heads being banged constantly (we were both very short!) Other issues: 1. bedding did not fit bed, leaving us cold 2. Insufficiant heating 3, shower running hot and cold All these issues were raised and we were told that we should stop moaning and just enjoy our holiday. We were also told we would have to wait until our last day before our taps would be fixed and usuable! We were given another heater and more bedding and some fire regulation thing put up on our door, but no details on a fire escape. Making us feel uncomfortable when they were low on bread and told us how they would have to go out and get some as if we were inconveniencing them and the shop was across the road! We waited over half hour for our breakfast! In the end we looked on the internet found a wonderful B&B in Ely very clean, really beauitful and cheaper!!! We did not pay the full price and was warned my card would be used as they had my details. I immediately cancelled my card as we paid what we felt was a fair amount under the circumstances. Have since found out that the attic room is actually illegal, it is against regulation for someone to run a B & B and use the attic. If we were 2 little girls it would have been very exciting, but we were 2 adults aware of our safety and though we were on an adventure we had to think of our safety and it was not safe! Check out our video and see for yourself.