The Menzies Waterside Hotel - Bath, United Kingdom 

We only stayed here because it had the only empty rooms in Bath on this particular weekend. We soon found out why. My main gripe with this place was the cost. We paid £140 for a double room, with no breakfast. When we came to check in, we were told that we couldn't use the room as "there is a problem with the water." What this problem was, the receptionist couldn't say. We were allowed to check in a few hours later. The room was clean, and tiny - hence the gripe. I don't mind paying £140 a night for a room in a good hotel, but frankly I would have resented paying half as much for this place. Nothing justifies charging so much for so little. This hotel has since become our benchmark for poor value. When we go abroad, we consider whether our choice of hotel charges more or less per night than the Menzies Waterside. It's yet to be beaten.

This was quite the most dissapointing hotel I've been in for a very long time. I had booked what I thought was a 4* hotel for a 50th birthday surprise on a first-time visit to Bath. For a 2* it would have been OK, but to hold to being a 4* is a joke. The front desk staff were unhelpful and some of them could be quite rude in their response to simple questions. The rooms were shabby and tired in their early '90s decor. It was very small for what was supposed to be 4* and quite tired. The window slid open by only about 4inches to allow ventilation. The clothes iron was kept in a very cramped space behind the room door and it was extremely awkward to iron anything. The bathroom floor tiles were damaged in places and water seals were mildewed next the joins to the walls. The breakfast dining arrangement is a bit of a farce and staff found it difficult to find you a table as most were littered with the debris and crockery left by previous guests. Over several hours observation it was plain that the establishment was very poorly managed and it seemed that table staff had been given minimal training and afforded only limited guidance in their waiting duties. Stopping in the bar before going out one evening I thought would be quite safe, however this just compounded the disappointment. The bar was very poorly stocked, lacking common items like dry sherry, angostura bitters, ginger ale and tomato juice. There were empty bottles in the optics and the barman hadn't a clue how to even pour a beer properly let alone make a simple cocktail like a bloody mary. Quite frankly, I don't know how this hotel keeps its doors open other than because it is financially supported by the rest of the Menzies chain and by unsuspecting guests.