Hotel St Nicholas - Scarborough, United Kingdom 

Actually Scarborough itself is very disappointing and the hotel just made it worse.Now the place for stag and hen parties, Scarborough is now a scruffy town with seedy amusement arcades, pound shops and condoms on the beach. Although looking promising on the outside, the St Nicholas was the usual seaside hotel. I can put up with scruffy shabby chic but not dirt. I was alerted by my colleague who had an unrefurbished bathroom. The tiles had more than 6 months of un-cleaned grime on them.I was pleased that I had a refurbished bathroom with new tiles and a plastic sealant around the bath which probably was just hiding the mold. Imagine my horror when I ran a wet tissue down one tile and realised that they had not been cleaned either. The hotel had agreed to change the room of my colleague the night before, but to be honest we got in late and couldn't be bothered.They didn't offer to move her whilst we were out.We just didn't bathe or shower. We did approach 'C' at the reception desk however who was so rude we just wanted to get out and go home to our 'clean' houses.

This is a copy of a letter I wrote on 12th May 2008. Well over a month later no reply. Stay at Hotel 3 nights – commencing 2nd May 2008 – Loss of Hot Water in Room 127 As you are aware I recently stayed at the St Nicholas Hotel, over the period shown above. Upon arrival in our room, there was a notice stating that there was a temporary interruption to the hot water supply, due to some maintenance work. We assumed that this really was temporary and that the matter would be resolved. On the evening of the 2nd May 2008, I spoke to the Duty Manager Joe, who stated that there had been contractors working on the heating boilers that serviced my part of the hotel and that the water really should have been heating up, but was stuck at 30 degrees. I assumed that this matter would right itself overnight. Joe stated that the hotel was full and this had increased the demand for hot water. Nice idea, but of course that was not really a good indication of the situation. On the morning of Saturday 3rd May 2008, I managed to have a brief, but bearable luke warm shower and my wife managed to draw some similar water off for a shallow bath. But it was obvious that the heaters and boilers were not working. I was aware that Joe, the duty manager was under some pressure from other customers and stated that Head Office had been informed about the situation. It was Bank Holiday week end and obviously there were no plumbers in the area or the company did not want to pay the going rate. The former is probably untrue and the latter is probably true. This situation could have been resolved, by employing an emergency plumber. I have to say that I did not make too much of a fuss at the time. The duty receptionist, who was working with Joe, a blond girl called Ness, was appreciative of my restraint. So much so she stated that it had been decided that I had been selected for a 50% discount off my bill. This was going to be slightly complicated, since I had booked my week end through Superbreaks and had already paid the total. The Saturday night was not really better, than the Friday for water temperature and we were offered a spare room in which to shower and bathe, which we accepted. Although, it meant searching the other side of the hotel for this room. Sunday was no better and the same procedure took place, with another room to use on the other side of the hotel. I mentioned the idea of a discount to the other receptionist on duty on Sunday. She was an Asian girl and of course she had never heard of this arrangement. This is actually quite strange, because she had said she was preparing some letters the night before. She made some phone calls and gave me a note with the following written on it. Ness (receptionist) and Duty Manager (Joe) has promised to refund half of the amount because of the water problem. She also said that she would look into the matter herself and ensure that my query was dealt with. But of course it is now the 12th May and I have heard nothing. I would be grateful if you could arrange some recompense in respect of this water situation. We could not bathe or shower when we wanted to. I had to shave in cold water. If we wanted hot baths/showers we had to walk around the hotel with our sponge bags and towels. It was not really what I expected of your hotel and I thought that the General Management, should have taken more responsibility for the situation and not left it to the Duty Manager, who was put in a very bad position. Beside the above, the staff were helpful and the food was ok. It is obvious that that management are CRAP.