Couple move into Travelodge due to ‘grubby’ luxury apartment

A Norwich couple have hit out at the standard of a £100-a-night serviced apartment which they claim was “so dirty” they had to stay in a hotel.

Craig Smith and his husband booked themselves into an apartment in the city’s Pottergate after moving house from Sprowston.

Their new home was not ready so the pair decided to splash out and check in for more than a week to a pad advertised on the Pottergate Apartments website.

The site claims the 17 apartments are “stylish and contemporary” and offer “luxury accommodation and space”. They are rated six out of 58 ‘speciality lodgings’ in Norwich on the site TripAdvisor.

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But Mr Smith said the apartment was not up to scratch. After staying just one night, they booked themselves into a Travelodge in the city instead where they are still residing.

“We wanted a serviced apartment so we’d have a kitchen,” he said. “Now we can’t cook a meal. My husband doesn’t get home from work until 8.30pm-9pm and pubs and restaurants have to close at 10pm so we’re living on a lot of sandwiches.

“Why should they get away with this when we are in the midst of a pandemic and cleanliness is more important than ever? It was so dirty, I literally broke down and started to cry because I’d cleaned all day. My husband walked around in white socks and they were black from the floor.

“We stayed the night because we couldn’t get hold of anyone. The next day a cleaner was sent round but we just decided to move out and go to a £35 a night Travelodge where we have clean bed linen every day, they couldn’t be nicer.”

After complaining, the couple got a full refund but said their request for compensation was refused. Mr Smith’s complaints included scratched kitchen pans, a stained carpet, stains on an armchair, a grubby microwave and toaster, crumbs and stains on a sofa and a waste bin splattered with grease.

The apartments, available for short-term lets, are cleaned by the St Giles House Hotel in Norwich. A statement from the hotel said: “We take our cleaning extremely seriously and employ only highly skilled full-time cleaning staff who uphold the highest standards. These employees have been a significant part of our team for more than 10 years and we have never had such a complaint concerning the apartments.

“The time spent on changeovers for all our apartments and bedrooms has increased significantly since the coronavirus and we adhere to the latest government advice on our cleaning regime and use of cleaning products. All of our staff have undertaken a Covid-19 prevention course and their work is monitored by the management regularly.”

Norwich Short-Lets, part of the Serviced Lettings Group based in Colegate, manages the apartments but declined to comment.