17 April 2023 , 14:17
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A family claim they endured a holiday in a hotel room covered in mould, sick and toenail clippings.
Andy Pugsley, 40, forked out £156.06 for a three-bed triple room in the Blackpool Promenade Hotel for his wife Becky, 42, and their daughter Erin, 14, over the Easter weekend.
Their break in the famed seaside resort quickly got off to a bad start when they were told the hotel had been hit by flood damage.
As a result it was only offering rooms to parties with an under 18, and turning everyone else away.
When the Pugsleys walked into their room they claim they could immediately smell damp and looked up to find mould on the ceiling, LancsLive reports.
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They were unimpressed with the cleanliness of the hotel (Andy Pugsley / SWNS)
They claim the windows had no blinds (Andy Pugsley / SWNS)Among the other stomach churning features were toenails on the floor and a dirty toilet brush.
The window in the room didn't have any blinds or curtains and the only bin in the room had dried sick on the lid, the family said.
Andy claimed: "There was no curtain and I had lights from the backstreet beaming into the hotel room from the window so the room was lit up all the time.
"My daughter's window didn't have a handle on it so we couldn't open or shut it and you could hear pigeons outside.
"She had no TV remote and our remote didn't have any batteries in. There was no Wi-Fi in the room either, you could only get it in the lobby area for some strange reason.
"We stayed in the hotel as little as possible, we didn't have breakfast there or anything. It was a case of getting up in the morning, going out and then coming back at 11pm at night and that's it really."
Despite wanting to leave the hotel, Andy and his family said they opted to stay because they knew they wouldn't be able to find another hotel, nor would they be able to afford one.
Andy, of Rotherham, added: "It's Bank Holiday weekend and the opening weekend for the season. We didn't budget for another £300 for a hotel and it was 8pm on a Friday night, where am I going to be able to find a hotel?
"But if this hotel had a leak, then they shouldn't have been open in the first place. They also should have contacted the guests that were staying this weekend and said that because of unforeseen circumstances, we aren't able to give you your booking so here's your money back.
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"If we had the money, we would have left and then tried to fight for our money back but at the time, we only budged for what we had for the weekend."
Andy is now struggling to get any compensation on his stay.
They found an old toilet brush in the room (Andy Pugsley / SWNS)
The family decided to stay in the hotel (Andy Pugsley / SWNS)The hotel's management has told him to contact Booking.com, only for staff there to tell him to speak to the hotel.
A spokesperson for Blackpool Promenade Hotel said: “We operate a budget hotel and our hotels facilities do reflect its prices. However the pictures shared online are not a true representation of our hotel.
"The pictures shared are from rooms which are out of order and they were only left open as the builders were in and out working between the rooms.
"These rooms we do not let out as they are under renovation due to a major leak which happened recently.
"This has been repaired and doesn’t affect any other rooms then the one pictured, which is not open to anyone except builders.
"We have only just started the business and understand there is a lot of work needed to get the hotel to the high standard we would like.
"However at the moment the rooms are done to a budget standard, this doesn’t mean we let rooms out like the images shown above.
"Even though we are a budget hotel, we still keep all our rooms to a high standard of cleanliness and still provide a good quality service for our guest which provides good value for money.
"If we receive complaints we follow them up appropriately and always aim to promote a good standard throughout the hotel.
"We are sorry in this circumstance that this had to escalate to such an extent however we completely disagree that these images and the review are a true reflection of our hotel."
A spokesperson from Booking.com said: "We take any complaint seriously and are currently looking into the details raised."