Smugglers Hotel

Lovely welcome by staff. Facilities are pretty poor, the door takes a good push for latch to go down, no signal on TV , WiFi password not given and 4G is very poor here. Nearly empty tiny shower and shampoo tubes. Light above mirror in bathroom not working, dirty mirror and vast amounts of mould in grouting in shower. Bed was very clean and comfy. So not all bad. One major thing …the door at bottom of stairs leading to the rooms opens outwards and unwittingly when leaving the rooms we opened door catching a member of staff waiting on. There is no way of seeing if anyone is passing or stood the other side of this door as you open it which is not great.sadly things got worse when the shower was a dribble of water and sink wash was the only option. When bringing up these issues the owners response was “ water pressure is not always great, given 10 minutes it comes out hard and hot” I was just lost for words… perhaps iinformation of this should be passed on to guests?! My friend in a separate room had similar problem however with the bath, and the TV and the WiFi. The owner did not offer any explanation why these facilities were not in working order … there was no fire plan poster on the door.. to which his response was oh it must have fell off… nothing more … breakfast we were informed after asking for a menu that there is no menu it is a cooked breakfast or granola … however no hashbrowns or black pudding are offered. I am amazed at the owners response to the issues we bought to their attention. This establishment has got a lot of improvement needed to warrant the price they are charging

As comfy as the beds were we have never met such an un accommodating host. Making us as guests feel awkward to ask for a room not near the road noise, decaf tea or coffee, gluten free products and accessibility. Any request were just shut down and answered quite abruptly. Shame as a wonderfully quirky Venue. Host was not open to comment s about cleanliness and was really quite rude about it all. Only on the last day at breakfast did he become a bit more human and conversational with us and really quite pleasant . A strange experience to be told the kitchen closed now on delivery of hot breakfast. Breakfast beautifully fresh but would have been nice to have extra of what I could have. Room a good size and had everything you needed at a basic level. Some con webs and marks on bed linen. Mould in shower and shower pressure weak but water hot, fan seemed particularly clogged up. Carpet threshold sharp. Nice picture s all around room and nice thick curtains. Having a room with a bath would have enhanced our stay and decreased the pain and fatigue I was suffering due to no accessibility. Clear to see host ready to leave for a quiet customer free life somewhere we wish him all the best but would have been nice to have a more flexible approach to us. We walked pass the bar and was told that’s shut now and doesn’t open it at anytime. Shame as guests we felt more of an inconvenience rather than welcomed. Quite uncomfortable.

Plus points: very clean Minus - window needs blackout blinds or curtains as light on landing on all night for safety I imagine. - if you want to watch TV you have to sit on a stool and tv signal very patchy. - the worst thing was the noise from above my room probably owners quarters every night for 1.5 hours sounded like moving furniture very noisy. Possibly no carpets. The worst night Friday my last night noise stopped around 1030 got off to sleep woken half an hour later noise back stomping across floor and moving again but mixed with very loud voices this went on till 1.15am then it went quiet finally I was so stressed didn't get to sleep till after 4 woken up again at 7! Found out the business is up for sale which speaks volumes. I only saw male owner and didn't find him particularly friendly.