With her youngest now 20, Katie Moss planned on having a quiet two-day break away from her kids with her partner over the Christmas weekend.
The couple decided to stay at Britannia Hotels’ three-star beach hotel, which advertises itself online as “grand and vibrant” with “tasteful décor”.
Of course, the pair were excited for their £168 (R3 221) stay to bask in the comfort of a hotel boasting the marble laden furniture Moss said she saw on the booking.com website. Instead, they were appalled to find that the hallway was dirty, the room in a “state” and that the bed was like something from Coronation Street in the 70s with wooden legs on little black wheels.
She told The Mirror that the condition of the room was so awful, she didn't feel comfortable taking her shoes off during her stay. “The carpet was full of this white chunky powder stuff and all over the cabinets and when I touched it with my hairbrush it crumbled off. It was wipeable so obviously, it hadn't been cleaned. There was hot chocolate all over the stairwell down the wall in the hallway,” she added.
To The Star, Moss commented on the stench pervading the room. “You could smell the damp, it was like a musty, dirty mop when you mop your floors. It was just downhill from there. On top of that, the shower was not in working order.”
Although they had intended to leave the hotel on Christmas Eve to see a show it was cancelled due to Covid. As for meals, Moss also shared that they refused to dine at the hotel and sought to spend as much time away from the venue as possible. So, instead of enjoying the usual spread of a roast with gravy, vegetables and crispy potatoes, the pair spent the holiday eating pot noodles, digestive biscuits and doughnuts on a chilly beach.
The couple aren’t the only ones who haven’t enjoyed their stay at the hotel, which has a 2-star rating on TripAdvisor and consideRed “poor”. @willsmj007 on Instagram shared pictures of his stay at the hotel in 2019, sharing “Appalling letting out a room like this. Customer services will give us an upgrade when we return... would you return?”
"It's traumatised me. I don’t think I’ll go away again. I know you get those fussy guests but this was bad. It just ruined the whole Christmas. It was just horrendous. The way they’ve tried to resolve the matter was even worse."
As for the nights, Moss said she was so distraught that, she “had to take sleeping pills because all I did was cry”. Upon checking out, the hotel was only willing to refund the couple 20% of the money spent on their accommodation. Then on the train ride home to Erdington, she discovered her lower back was covered in bed bugs, cementing that "the whole of Christmas had been ruined".
Even after months of waiting, Moss said that the £33 (R632) that was owed to them had not been paid. As a result, her only choice was to turn to the media to expose the hotel for its disaster rooms. The pair have since been issued a full refund.
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