Motel Farnboro

This place was the worst motel we have ever stayed in. It was the so-called ‘honeymoon suite’ - what a joke! The dingy dirty looking entrance door opened to a dated, dysfunctional ‘suite’. The furniture was old and tatty, with rusting metal legs. The oven didn’t work and management had no idea how to fix it, not di they know it was even malfunctioning. Considering it is a gas oven that is a warming in itself not to go to this place. The bathroom is old, large cracks in the bath, dirt on the floor and generally unpleasant. The swimming pool and grounds were unkept - paint was flaking off the swimming pool and one of the children cut themselves on a sharp flake of peeling paint. Management was abysmal. Never, never again would we stay at this place. Like Faulty Towers, but far worse, and without the comedy!

First of all I will give the positives. The beds were comfortable and clean and the TV worked well. Apart from that: We booked the spa room with the ‘full kitchen’. Well, the kitchen was not full! Neither the oven nor the cooktop worked, and we specifically booked this room as we needed to cook for the children. One of the owners claimed she knew nothing about gas cooking and could not help. I said this is unacceptable and the room should not be advertised as having a full kitchen if it hasn’t. The other owner was apologetic and came to the room to try to fix it, but could not. It turns out no one had bothered to check if these appliances even worked, and seeing as they are gas that is a real worry in itself. The unit is described as a honeymoon suite with a romantic spa bath - -Erich that thought! I didn’t take pictures, though if I had I would need to have taken many. The 40 to 50 year old spa bath has two large ‘lung’ shape brown discoloured patches on the base - presumably caused by the heating element. The bathroom ceiling has a sizeable crack and the plastic toilet cistern is discoloured and crumbly in texture. The old chairs in the kitchen area are chipped and rusted in parts as is the base of the standard lamp in the living area. The floor, step and door at the entry must have been painted many years ago and are chipped and dirty. The children went into the pool, which was dirty and the area unkept. On getting out one of them sustained a cut from a sharp edge and the other got blue paint on her from the pool. The grassed area at the back of our room (viewed from the kitchen) was overgrown and contained old rusted metal items. Had we been able to book in anywhere else we would have left. We stayed one night only. This place is below average at best, and I would definitely NOT stay there again. Nor would I recommend it to anyone else. The room we stayed in should be locked closed until the gas appliances are checked and certified to be in safe working order. Decidedly NOT a pleasant experience for us.

This place says it’s a 3 star motel, it’s not even a one star motel Standing in the shower you can see out the front through the clear window, there are no curtains on the windows either They don’t do meals, there are no plates or cutlery, they won’t clean your room & there is no washing up liquid to do it yourself (even if there was the sink is too small anyway