Britannia Hotel International, London review: Reservation, booking, hotel stay

Room reservation 6/11/2023 to 09/11/2023

On October 30th, I reserved two rooms with Britania International Hotel on behalf of my family members (sisters). They were both on a business trip to excel London for world tourism exhibition. They travelled from Africa on a long flight lasting a total nearly 2 days. The reservation was free to cancel until the 5th of November, but I was informed any cancellation made after the date would incur charges. On arrival to the hotel after long flights and travel by buses and trains, they were exhausted and ready to settle in the hotel. Unfortunately, they encountered a series of issues at the hotel which left even more exhausted physically and psychologically traumatised. They were made to feel unwelcomed. The duty manager and staff at the reception on 6/11/2023 were unhelpful and uncaring. They used threatening language, their attitude towards my family and made them feel unsafe and unwanted. This was witnessed by some of the guests to include a Diplomat who intervened at one point in support of my family. Here are the issues I am concerned with:

• Extreme delay in checking in. Checking in started at 5pm and eventually completed at 1130pm. It took 6.5hrs. This was exhausting for my sisters after having travelled long hours from Africa.

• Reception staff were unhelpful and dismissive most of the time and were unwilling to involve the duty manager for assistance.

• The manager was eventually called after multiple attempts to request for his assistance. When he came, he was equally unhelpful.

• My family attempted to complain about unfair treatment, but the duty manager called the police on them. The Duty Manager told my sisters they were no longer welcome at the hotel.

• The unfair and shocking treatment shocked other quests who were present. The quests felt the need to intervene asking the manager and his staff to stop the unfair treatment.

• When the police arrived, they realised there was no case to answer after witnesses relayed events to them. Instead, the police were concerned with the welfare of my sisters as they evidently looked exhausted and needed rest. The police instructed for the manager the allocate my sisters rooms as accommodation had already been paid for.

• Rooms were then allocated but one of them was found to be dirty, not cleaned after previous guests. When a request to clean or change room was put out, it was ignored. My sisters were scared to jeopardise their stay by complaining so they decided to stay in one room and share.

Checking in

First reservation [protected]-booked via Expedia.

My sisters arrived at the hotel 5:00 PM after long travel. Unfortunately, at this time many places that do forex exchange had closed. This meant they were unable to change their money from USD to Pounds. They did not have credit cards, so they were not able to pay for their booking using chip and pin as requested at reception. They contacted me for support as I had made the reservation for them. I asked the hotel manager to collect money from my bank card which was used to secure the reservation. The manager declined this as he explained company policy did not allow card payment in this way. I offered to pay over the phone using my credit card, again this was declined. I was informed I had to be at the hotel in person to pay. I live in Nottingham and the hotel is in London, so it was not feasible for me to drive to make a card payment in person. I asked if there was any other option that I could use to make a payment, but the duty Manager said no. The duty manager then asked my sisters to go and look for forex exchange houses. It was now 7:00 PM at night and I was concerned for my sister’s safety to go out in London looking for places to change money as thy were unfamiliar with the place after travelling from abroad. I expected that the hotel staff would have done more to support and to offer alternatives to resolve the issue. I asked the hotel duty manager if he could offer options that were safe, feasible and that shows support for his guests. Instead, he asked them to go out and look for money exchange otherwise at 10pm, he would be asking them to leave the hotel premises if no payment was made. He also said he would still charge the card with full amount for missed reservation. I did not understand why it was possible for him to charge the card if the reservation was cancelled but not charge the card when the booking for the rooms was needed. I pleaded with the manger to check with his superiors, if the reservation could be cancelled without penalty, so that I could make a fresh booking. He said no. The manager said that the only option was to pay cash in pounds or pin and chip in person. He then gave information of one company a few miles away from the hotel where money could be changed. My sisters went to this place which was closing at 8:00 PM. unfortunately they were told they needed to make an appointment in advance, so they were not served. They went back to the hotel. They asked the manager to cancel the reservation so that they can try other hotels. The manager refused. He also told them that if my sisters cancel their reservation, he was going to charge full amount of hotel booking and would not be refunded. There was flexibility on his part or exception given the circumstances.

Conversation with the duty manager

At around 930 pm, I contacted the duty manager. As the person who had done the reservation on behalf of my sisters, I felt responsible for the trouble they were facing. I had to do everything possible to support them in their predicament. I phoned the manager to ask for options to help my sisters so that they can be accommodated at least for the night. It would have been unsafe for two women to be in the streets of London in a foreign country in the cold at night, with their baggage looking for alternative accommodation. I also pleaded with the Duty Manager for a good 20 mins not to throw my sisters in the streets late at night. The Duty Manager then informed me that the only way he could help was if I make a fresh booking online. He instructed that I make a fresh booking online, pay using card and only then he would cancel the initial booking without any penalties. He reassured me that I would not be charged twice. I was quite grateful and relieved when he said this. He also reassured me that I can book from any third-party companies, and it would not be a problem. Around 10pm after making an online booking, I contacted the Duty Manager again to inform him I had booked rooms with the hotel and asked him if he could now cancel the other reservation and allocate rooms to my sisters. To my great surprise, he backtracked on his statements. He told me that I had made a mistake, I should not have booked with third party. For that reason, I was now going to be charged for both reservations. I felt, angry, lied to, conned, frustrated, and I could not believe what he said. There was no compassion when he told me that I would be charged twice for the same rooms. To him it was business as usual. He told me if I was not happy, I should cancel both bookings, but this means I would get charged for the cancelation. I told him he misinformed me, and his treatment was unfair. I also told him I would make a complaint to the hotel authorities about his treatment towards myself and my sisters. He said he was the manager. He continued to delay offering the rooms, even after having paid for the rooms. He kept serving other people and my sisters constantly being left aside and made to wait.

Calling of the police on guest

After realising that I was potentially going to be charged twice for the same booking. My sisters went to the reception to complain about the issue. At this point the manager decided to call the police on them. He told them they were disruptive, and they were no longer welcomed at the hotel. He wanted the police to arrest them and remove them from the premises. The manager was disregarding the fact that there were already two reservations for them, one paid for and one pending and disputed. My Sisters were petrified as they never had any encounter with the law enforcement in their life. This was no fault of their own and are law abiding citizens. There were witnesses in the hotel who were other guests. They were disgusted by the behaviour of the hotel staff including the Duty Manager. There was a lady Diplomat who was one of the guests and she witnessed all the events unfolding. She withheld checking in in solidarity with my sisters as she wanted to make sure they were accommodated for the night and that they were safe first. She also spoke to the police and gave them a true account of events in support of my sisters and shows her displeasure of the hotel stuff. The police had to tell the manager he had no reason to withhold access to the hotel room as they were already paid for. The police instructed the Duty Manager to give guests access to the rooms to let them rest as they were exhausted. Their mouths were dry as they had not eaten for hours.

Dirty Uncleaned dirty room

After the police intervention my sisters were eventually given rooms but one of the rooms was clearly not cleaned after previous guests. The doors were stained with dirt the bed lined not changed. There were red stains on walls looking like blood. I have uploaded some of the pictures for you to review. The room was so unhygienic that my sisters decided to share one room for the night. The following morning 7/11/23, they raised a concern with the reception staff and asked for the room to be either cleaned or to be changed. They were told rooms only get cleaned every 3 days. The staff showed no indication they would clean and showed no willingness to change rooms. When I got informed about this, I was shocked. Whilst this policy is reasonable if it is the same guest using the room, it is unhygienic and totally unacceptable for quests to be expected to use bed linen that have been used by other quests without washing them first. After having no response for a few hours, my sisters decided to not complain any further about the room as they were now scared to talk to the staff about it. They shared one room for 2 nights and as the issue is still not resolved. They have one more night to go and if the issue remains unresolved, they may not be able to use the room for the duration of their stay.

My Request

The above incident and issues I have raised have traumatised my sisters. They did not feel welcome, and Britannia and their stay was miserable. My request for you is to kindly make an investigation in the issues raised in this complaint. I would like you establish whether the behaviour and professionalism demonstrated by your staff met the standards required by your hotel. I would like you to investigate and review the policies and procedures regarding treatment of your guests, particularly on guest safety, dignity, and welfare whilst staying at your hotel. I would also like you to investigate the standards of cleanliness and hygiene demonstrated by your staff as described in this complaint and weather this is acceptable by your hotel standards or whether there was breach of any of the standards. I am kindly asking for you to provide a response to this complaint and provide me with feedback and way forward. I would also like to know what you are going to do regarding the fact that my sisters had to share a room, even though they paid for 2 separate rooms. This was not their choice. Hotel staff ignored my sister’s plea to have the room cleaned or to change rooms. I appreciate your support in this in advance.

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