Stayed in this hovel last night as we were in Nottingham for the National Karate championships at the University. Looks quite swish in the lobby at night until you scratch the surface and delve deeper…
The hotel in daylight is run down and dirty. We went down for breakfast on Sunday morning and none of the carpets in the bar, lounge or reception had been vacuumed. Photo below to back that up as I’m sure they’ll deny that.
The room itself is very tired and run down in general. The bathroom is ancient, the ceiling cracked and peeling and the toilet seat won’t go all the way up, or stay up, because of the sink. I could probably live with all that for the price were it not just plain dirty.
The worst is yet to come.
I got into bed late, very tired, and discovered what I can only describe as a huge crater in the middle of the mattress from left to right at about where my hips lay. Incredibly uncomfortable! It was so deep I could lay a bottle of water in it and the bottle was level with the rest of the mattress. This made sleep an impossibility for me so I removed the sheets to see if I could stuff the hole with a blanket I found in the wardrobe. Big mistake.
What I uncovered was the most utterly sickening and disgusting mattress I have ever seen in my life (see pictures). I’m not naive enough to think that all hotel mattresses are pristine but, there is a line and this crossed it by a country mile. The wafer thin, ancient mattress cover also looked rotten.
When we checked in the receptionist said the hotel was fully booked so complaining at 2am would have been futile. This makes you wonder what goes on in other ‘unseen’ areas such as the kitchen if the staff deem this acceptable.
I complained at the desk in the morning to receive the usual platitudes of ‘I’m sorry Sir, I will report this to the manager’.
The staff were generally fine and friendly enough and this place was quite cheap. Cheap or not, that mattress is beyond human use to me and is absolutely disgusting and unacceptable on any level.
If you’re on a stag/hen do and intend to collapse into bed so drunk you can’t even remember your own name, then this place will probably suit you, if you’re willing to sleep on a mattress like this. I’m not and I won’t be back. less
Julian Saunders, General Manager at St James Hotel, responded to this review
Dear Jim B
Thank you very much for your most valued feedback.
We are just picking up our bed replacement program having been closed for such a long time due to Covid closures of our hotels bars and restaurants across the wider country, which I'm sure you will be aware of.
That said we have replaced prior to lock down two thirds of the beds and mattresses and it does upset me that we don't have a bottomless financial pit to replace the said beds and mattresses in one operation but we are on schedule for the whole hotel to have new beds/mattresses very shortly.
I do hope you were successful at the National Karate Championships and I would really like to welcome you back to the hotel in the future and would probably suggest calling me directly and I will deal with your booking personally.
Kind regards
Julian Saunders
General Manager