Britannia Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool

...but this won't happen while Britannia are in charge. I have stayed at one of their Manchester hotels and have to say, it was every bit as disappointing and dirty as the Adelphi.

*UPDATE*

Just to let you know, The Adelphi has featured in the local press very heavily throughout the last couple of weeks of July. Apparently, over 80% of all hotel thefts in Liverpool take place in The Adelphi! The Tourist Board is threatening ...
...been kicked out years ago in my opinion).

If you want to read more for yourself, visit www.icliverpool.com

Very worrying, yet I can't say I'm surprised. There are interviews with ex staff members who claim skeleton keys are sold to would-be burglars for as little as £5 but that despite this, the locks have not been changed for many years.
  ... more

I really don't know where to start with this hotel. I live in Liverpool and this place has an incredibly bad reputation locally. It is notorious for thefts, bad service, poor hygeine standards and rip-offs.

First I'm going to list the facts about the hotel and then will go onto my personal experience there....

The hotel looks impressive from the outside and is something of a city landmark. It is in Ranelagh Place and is in a great location for a night out in Liverpool, or for a leisure or business break. You can access the Merseyrail network from Central Station or Lime Street Station, both of which are a couple of minutes walk from the hotel. There are also good bus links to Liverpool Airport from the street (Lime Street) in front of the hotel.

The hotel has a restaurant, nightclub and healthclub, none of which I have ever used so cannot comment on. There are plenty of bars, clubs, restaurants and shops in the immediate area. Also, China Town is about a 10 minute walk and there is a good choice of reasonably priced restaurants here. Liverpool City Centre is very compact and it is easy to manage on foot. The Adelphi is only a 10 minute walk at most from Liverpool Museum, and about 15 minutes from The Albert Dock where The Tate Gallery and Beatles Story are located. Now for my experience of The Adelphi...

I stayed there as it was more convenient than my friend and I getting taxis home after a work night out. We had got a cheap deal and were only paying £48 between us for the night. On arrival, we queued for over 30 minutes waiting to check in. After checking in, we braved the incredibly small, shaky smelly and unreliable lift and, after exploring long, dark, badly lit corridors for 15 minutes (the receptionist had told us the wrong directions, including the wrong floor) , finally found our room. We had specifically requested a twin room so were surprised to find a double. The miniscule room had a very unpleasant smell (like drains/bad eggs) and we were horrified to see that the window was covered in a very thick dirty metal gauze meaning the room was pitch black even on a sunny afternoon. We promptly complained to reception who said it was a "continental double", not a double. I have stayed in rooms with a continental double, and believe me, this was a standard double bed! We said the room was not acceptable due to smell, bed and being pitch black, and the receptionist actually said "It's not really my problem to be honest, my shift finishes in 10 minutes" and hung up. We got our bags, went down to reception to complain and finally were allocated a room by a marginally more helpful member of staff.

This room was so different to the first that it is hard to believe they are in the same hotel! We had a huge room which was bright, airy, sunny and filled with period furniture. It was quite "shabby chic", although I suspect this is an accident and not the result of careful planning and interior design! The room wasn't clean by any means (cigarette burns on the carpets, stained curtains, rather mouldy grouting in the bathroom), but we overlooked this as we were only there for one night and weren't planning to spend much time in the room anyway. There was no shower in the bathroom, just a rather stained bath, but again, as we were only there for one night we could live with this. We left the hotel at around 7pm and didn't return until around 3am.

We were surprised to be woken at 7:30am by 2 giggling chamber maids bursting into our room. They saw us, looked horrified and ran out without a word. About half an hour later, the same thing happened, but this time it was 2 different girls. We thought this was strange, and judging by the expressions on their faces, all the girls thought our room would be empty. As we had changed rooms the evening before, we assumed that they had burst into what they had assumed would be an empty room, looking to have a skive from their work.

We checked out relatively quickly, having already paid our £48 bill on my friend's credit card when we checked in.

About a month after our visit, we were surprised to find the Adelphi had charged my friend's credit card £150. When we queried this (not easy as no-one seemed to know what it was for) we were eventually told it was for international and mobile phone calls from our room. We had been out practically all night and HAD NOT TOUCHED THE PHONE! It took several months of threatening letters and complaints to the hotel, head office, regulatory bodies and tourist organisations to get the money back. No apology or explanation was offered and the staff were rude, offensive and extremely hostile through all our dealings with them. We only knew they had in fact refunded the money when my friend's credit card statement came and there was a credit of £150 on there.

The hotel (in particular the General Manage) accused us of lying and told us they had called the numbers on the phone bill and the people who answered knew us! This is such an outrageous lie it still makes my blood boil! Added to this they refused to let us see the phone numbers we were supposed to have dialled! They also refused to call these phone numbers in front of us and verify that the people who answered knew us by having them answer simple questions about us. The General Manager (don't want to mention her name but she has featured in the local press many times due to her bad attitude and lies) was incredibly nasty and we once stood in the reception for 40 minutes waiting for her to accept a letter we wanted to hand deliver.

I was interested to read a full page article in the Liverpool Echo a couple of weeks ago detailing the theft of a large sum of money from a room at the Adelphi while a guest and her young daughter slept in the room. The treatment they received from the staff (particularly the same manager we tried to deal with) shows that this place really has not moved on in the year since I stayed here. Do yourself a favour and avoid this place, at least until it is under new management and new ownership.

It's a shame because it really could be a special hotel if a bit of TLC (and cash) was invested into it but this won't happen while Britannia are in charge. I have stayed at one of their Manchester hotels and have to say, it was every bit as disappointing and dirty as the Adelphi.

*UPDATE*

Just to let you know, The Adelphi has featured in the local press very heavily throughout the last couple of weeks of July. Apparently, over 80% of all hotel thefts in Liverpool take place in The Adelphi! The Tourist Board is threatening to kick them out unless things improve (They should have been kicked out years ago in my opinion).

If you want to read more for yourself, visit www.icliverpool.com

Very worrying, yet I can't say I'm surprised. There are interviews with ex staff members who claim skeleton keys are sold to would-be burglars for as little as £5 but that despite this, the locks have not been changed for many years.
 

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