Stoneycroft Hotel - Leicester, United Kingdom 

The hotel fairy must have been protecting me – I’ve always had pretty good luck with hotels. Admittedly, no stay is ever perfect, but no hotel has had me rushing home to post a bad review on Tripadvisor – until I stayed at the Stoneycroft. First the good points: It’s handy for the University of Leicester and Demontford Hall, in a quiet, leafy area of Leicester. There is a good bus service into town. (The hotel website says it is a “short walk” from the train station, but I wouldn’t call 40 minutes a “short” walk!) The greasy breakfast would not win any brownie points from Gordon Ramsay but it is plentiful, and if you eat it all up you can save money by not needing to buy lunch! The d?cor is very… er, ‘retro’ - but I quite liked that. Everything in the room worked (lights, TV, kettle, hairdryer, clock radio). I had a single room, which was a good size. The hotel had put its prices up since I’d made my booking, but they charged me the old rate without quibbling. Now the bad: The breakfast room was totally inadequate for number of guests, and its ceiling was leaking (and judging from the brown water marks, had been for some time). I had 5 showers during my stay – only one of them was hot (one was tepid, the others were STONE cold!). The brown stains on the wall in the room were not a good look. There was a noisy extractor fan on the roof outside my window going all night – but nothing that sleeping tablets, earplugs and sleeping at the other end of the bed couldn’t cure. Why the headboard was not attached to the bed will have to remain one of life’s mysteries – bizarre! But the real horror was the staff – there was no way to keep them out! Presumably the concept “do not disturb” does not exist in Poland - or maybe the staff are just exceptionally poorly trained and naturally inconsiderate... Some of them hadn’t even grasped the concept of knocking before barging in. Maybe some of the male guests might like to be surprised by a young Eastern European chambermaid while they are standing there in their underwear, but I didn’t find it amusing. Luckily my suitcase was right in front of the door, so she couldn’t get in, and my modesty was preserved. And they insist on cleaning the room while you are in it. Why can’t they do the vacant rooms first, and come back later once you are out? I was late for a gig at Demontford Hall because they had to clean the room while I was trying to get ready. I tried to explain to them that I was in a hurry and didn’t want to be disturbed, but they just didn’t (want to?) get my drift. I couldn’t even go down to reception to complain because all my valuables were on display in an unlocked suitcase. Essential kit if you want to stay here: a “Do Not Disturb” sign (in Polish) and a hefty door wedge.

I needed somewhere to stay in Leicester and this place was relatively inexpensive. When I got there I found out why. My room was at the top of two flights of steep rickety stairs. The bathroom sink was on a slope so water from the tap ran back and pooled around the sink. The shower did not work and the shower screen was not fixed properly to the bath. There were only a few tables in the breakfast room, many for four people, forcing people to share tables. Although there was a very large restaurant this was kept shut during the breakfast time and the staff refused to open it. The place was relatively clean but very tatty and had seen better days.