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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.