The Woodlands Lodge Hotel In Ilford Is The Worst In London Claim Customers
Guest’s who have stayed at The Woodlands Lodge In Ilford are claiming it’s the worst hotel in the capital city.
Google reviews is flooded with complaints regards the establishment, with reviews such as:
Poor service. Staff very very rude. Rooms are very dirty. Bed is yellow and bed sheets are not clean. TV does not work. I had cockroaches in my room. No room service to clean the room or take any rubbish out of the room. Staff take a £50 holding deposit and take ages to refund it to you. PLEASE PLEASE AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! Worst experience of my life and I’m very very disappointed by this experience!’
So Global247news sent a reporter in to investigate the hundreds of poor reviews and it appears all the complaints are correct.
Our investigator reported back:
‘ It’s probably the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in; to call it a hotel is a disgrace; it was more like a slum.
On arrival, I went to the main reception at number 60, oddly which is right in front of the main door, blocking everybody trying to enter or leave the building; whilst I had already paid on Hotels.com, the establishment requested a £50 holding deposit, I was only aware of this due to reading the reviews online, with many saying how they struggle to get the deposit back.
After paying the deposit, I was given a set of keys and told to walk further down the road to number 94 and given room number 6.
Opening the door, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: a basic cheap divan base and mattress with 2 flat pillows, a wardrobe just about still standing with a drawer missing, a TV stand, with no TV, may I add, a broken fridge, which if you did plug into the hanging sockets off the wall, you may have easily got a shock! – and a glorious set of dirty hanging curtains, which covered not a window but a previous conservatory door.
There was no TV, no kettle, nothing. The carpet was stinking dirty and the room odour was foul.’
Our investigator went on:
‘ This hotel was advertised with pictures that never at all resembled the room, whilst it was listed as having a swimming pool too! There was no mention of a shared bathroom, unlike other hotel listings, where a shared bathroom was in place.
I investigated the bathroom and toilet; I found it stuck in the corner. The shower was disgustingly dirty, with a broken holder, but I found the advertised swimming pool. It was obviously the leaking pool of water on the floor.
There was a kitchen area, a smashed-up kitchen with no doors, an old stinking sofa and a table standing on the broken flooring.
I went back to my cell, called reception and enquired where my TV was, to be met with the answer no, that room doesn’t have one, so I requested another room, to be rudely told there were none, although plenty was still advertised on Hotels.com showing rooms with pictures of rooms with flat-screen TV’s ‘
He then went on: ‘ It was 3.45 PM; I lay on my bed and tried to connect to the Internet; naturally, whilst it did actually connect, it didn’t work.
Kids were obviously living upstairs, as they ran around constantly banging on the floorboards above.
For the investigation, whilst normally I would have left the slum and gone somewhere else, I was determined to ‘ride it out.
I had nothing to do, no TV or Internet, so I headed to the nearest Wetherspoons to relieve the pain.
I returned at 11 PM – and slept on top of the dirty bed sheets, fully clothed, waking at 6 to take a hand-held shower after bathing my feet in the pool of water whilst I brushed my teeth and made my escape.’
Our Investigator warned:
‘I would say, never dream of paying to stay at this establishment; it’s totally awful, and agree it’s the worst hotel in London.
It’s falsely advertised and unsuitable; many guests feel the £50 holding deposit is a scam. at this stage, I have to agree at present as my deposit has not been refunded, but let’s see what happens!’
Meanwhile, other reviewers have encountered cockroaches and fleas in their rooms, something not surprising, after our investigator’s visit, who finished with the following:
‘ Whilst advertised at just £50 per night, for a budget hotel with a pool, unless you are a cockroach enthusiast who likes to brush their teeth in a pool of dirty water in the shared bathroom, quite frankly, it would be more healthy to sleep on the street.
‘ The photos I took actually make it look good; I should have taken more but couldn’t wait to get out of the building!’
attempted to contact the hotel management, but they declined to comment.
No surprise, although we will be following to see if the ‘hotel’ is actually scamming customers, over the extra £50 holding fee.