When we arrived we parked at the back of the hotel, which looked distinctly average, scruffy and down at heel. There were no signs to point us in the right direction and the alley by the side of the building looked like a back of house area, which made us walk around the entire property on the street to get to the entrance at the front.

We found the reception, which is slightly hidden and rang the bell to check in, a chap came through to see us, he did not tell us who he was and immediately left again to answer the phone away from the desk in the side room, it took longer than necessary to check us in, not dreadful but certainly not high standards of customer service. No one offered to carry our bags, although on the website they mentioned a porter service.

I had asked for a quiet room, it really wasn't, maybe it was, in terms of the rest of the rooms, but you could here everyone walk in the front door, everyone walk up and down the stairs (room 10) The road noise was loud and constant, wearing ear plugs helped. There was a nice spa bath with lights, but no shower (there should always be a shower) and the water was yellow both from the bath taps and the basin taps. Don't get me wrong the room looked modern and was reasonably comfortable (easily 3 star) however on closer inspection it was starting to look slightly worn, black marks on the side of the bed, a lumpy hard bed, the door furniture was loose, marks in the bath, the sink area look tired, the towels were lacking (with just two main towels and two towels that needed to be used for hair, there were none for hand washing or face washing). Also the room was very warm even with the radiator off and the window wouldn't stay open, we had to prop something under it to keep it open. So road noise early in the morning was awful. And as a previous person mentioned there was plumbing noise every 4 minutes or so (a knocking noise) throughout the night.

In the morning we came down for breakfast, and discovered one woman was doing everything, taking orders, bringing out drinks, cooking the food, serving the food, clearing. There really should have been someone else helping her and this would have helped the service. The food was not bad, although one of the smallest cooked breakfasts I've ever had in a hotel, the toast was cold and the door was left open to back of house corridor which was scruffy and unappealing, the linen room was open directly across from the door, with piles of sheets, we really shouldn't have seen this, sloppy sloppy sloppy!

We tried to check out, this took a while, with the women from breakfast stepping in to help out a younger member of staff who clearly should not be anywhere near the front desk without training. No one asked if we had a pleasant stay or anything at all and we asked if we could leave by the back of the hotel so we didn't have to walk right around the building, I was asked to go and check if the door to the bar was open, which it wasn't, the young staff member then said she would go to find a key. We said not to bother and walked down the grimy, dirty back of house passage on the outside of the building, to the carpark.

I know it's easy to complain and harder to compliment, but there were not many compliments to give, other than room space, the decoration and the bath. When I first arrived I thought it would a great location for a wedding or gathering, but with the barely average service, I would run a mile at that thought. It is a great building and obviously works well as a function business, the hotel rooms seem to be a side business, which is a real shame. A real case of, could have tried harder!!