Britannia Hotels has been rated the worst hotel chain in the UK for the seventh year in a row, with guests repeatedly describing its rooms as “filthy” and complaining about mouldy bathrooms and peeling paintwork.
EasyHotel and Ibis Budget also performed badly in an annual satisfaction survey by the consumer group Which?.
At the other end of the scale, Wetherspoon Hotels was rated best for the first time. It shared the top spot with Premier Inn, Britain’s biggest hotel chain, which has come first for the last four years of the survey.
Which? asked more than 8,000 hotel guests of 40 well-known chains to rate everything from bed comfort to value for money as well as the quality of food, customer service and overall cleanliness.
Britannia, which has 61 hotels across the UK, received one star out of five in almost every category except customer service, for which it scored two stars. The chain received a total score of 39%, worse than the 35% it had last year.
Cleanliness proved to be a particular issue with guests repeatedly describing it as “filthy”, “dreadful” and “scruffy”. On average, guests were 10 times more likely to rate Britannia poorly in this category than across almost all the other hotel chains covered by the survey.
When an investigator from Which? checked in to the Britannia Lodge at Gatwick airport, which charges £39 a night, they found “damp smells” emanating from a clogged ventilation fan and a “grubby” bathtub with mouldy silicone. An ultraviolet light showed up stains that could not be seen with the naked eye, on both the bed sheets and the walls surrounding the toilet.
Britannia could not be reached for comment.
EasyHotel, which tends to be cheaper than Britannia, was rated the second-worst chain with a 58% customer score. It managed to avoid any one-star ratings but was mediocre in most categories.
Ibis Budget came third from the bottom with 60%. While it was awarded three stars for customer service, value for money and cleanliness, it scored badly on the quality of its rooms, bathrooms and its food offering.
Rory Boland, the editor of Which? Travel said: “There really is no excuse for the grubby bathtubs and filthy rooms that we have seen year after year with Britannia so it is best to avoid them completely and go almost anywhere else.”
At the top of the survey, guests lauded Wetherspoon’s “huge stylish rooms” and gave it five stars for the quality of its bedrooms, and a 79% score overall.
Wetherspoon, whose prices start from £39 for a one-night stay and £5 extra for breakfast, also received the top score out all the 40 hotel chains for value for money, but only got a three-star rating for cleanliness.
Premier Inn, which is owned by Whitbread, also received a 79% customer score. Guests continued to praise it for its reliability, cleanliness, comfort and value for money, giving it full marks for its bedrooms.
