Villare Hitchin Town Centre hotel

Shower not working properly- I got soaked getting it to work, and soaked again trying to turn it off.|Room not serviced - towels ringing wet from faulty shower control were not changed, nor coffee/ tea etc replaced, until 3rd day.|TV not …

Stayed in quite a few rooms here, and an say ive had a nice experience in each one.... showers are powerful, bed comfy and the AC is spot on... the hotel is old and quirky, loads of character.... good value for money... the owner is a lovely lady too, always very helpful

We booked three single rooms for November 18th. To begin with, there is no reception at all — check-in is done inside a taco kiosk. The rooms were freezing, and we were not given any information about the heating (and from what we could see, there weren’t even any radiators). The rooms smelled terribly of mold, were extremely damp, and absolutely not clean. They were dusty, and in one of the rooms there were cobwebs and a rather large spider that was impossible to miss. The mattress was completely stained, and the entrance to one of the rooms was in a state of total neglect, with glass and aluminum beer bottles left on the ground. The bathrooms in all three rooms were unusable — extremely dirty — and in one of them the shower wasn’t even working. The staff member, Mehvish, suggested that I take a shower in another room after 11 a.m., meaning after the guests staying there had checked out. So much for hygiene and cleanliness. We obviously refused to spend the night in such a place. Mehvish even signed a form confirming that we did not stay there, and despite our complaints about the dirt and lack of cleanliness, we were promised a refund the following day (November 19th). Now comes the “fun” part: these skilled scammers not only failed to issue any refund (we still haven’t received it), but they kept promising updates that never came unless I followed up myself. On November 21st, I was told to be patient because the person responsible for refunds was sick. No further news. Today I followed up again and was told that the rooms were not dirty at all, that they never receive complaints about cleanliness (which clearly does not match the reviews), that I was offered another room (absolutely false) and refused it, and that I could speak to the manager today — of course, I NEVER received any call. Absolutely unbelievable. They use the excuse of an “old building” to justify the lack of cleaning. In Italy, a hotel like this would be immediately shut down by the local health authorities. I’m still waiting for my refund. Let’s see if maybe this review will finally get things moving.