Shakespeare Hotel - Bedford, United Kingdom 

Well OK, if you have to stay the night somewhere this will do the job and the desk clerk was pretty friendly when he finally appeared from his room, but the whole place has not moved on since the 1970s. Breakfast was dull and delayed by what seemed to be the late arrival of indifferent staff who seemed to think that it was our fault they weren't ready to serve though the stated time of opening had passed. The room was very hot even though the outside temperature was cool, it was almost acceptably clean, the shower just about worked, the price was inflated, the wedding party thumped music through the wall until midnight, those damneable little kettles with their associated biscuits, instant coffee and sachets of milk (yuk) that infest lesser establishments, were at least free trade and in date, but frankly it makes you yearn to be on the continent where, more often than not, staff are trained (and that is the key to the problems here as they were decent people but with no clue as to how to operate a hotel), paid properly and supervised with pride and care. A great shame, but typical of what we in Great Britain have to put up with.

I booked my stay at the Shakespeare before reading the reviews on this site, and was obviously a little concerned. I only stayed the single night, and yes the room was small, but it was clean, comfortable and I was served a good breakfast. This isn't the best hotel you're ever going to stay in, but for the price it was fine.