I had the dire misfortune of staying here on Thursday night with my 9 year old daughter.



We had intended to stay at The Holiday Inn but unfortunately I had forgotten to take ID so were left stranded in Bristol very late at night. We passed the Alpha and thought our luck was in as the lights were on and they had vacancies.



Alarm bells were ringing when I saw the disgusting state of the entrance hall but I was so exhausted and desperate to get my daughter to bed I handed over my cash and found our room. The room was vile, old, broken furniture, washing up in the hand basin, thin curtains, uncomfortable beds, thin covers, kettle on the floor as the plug didn't reach, broken lighters in the bowl with the tea bags, filthy old carpet, used plastic cutlery in the drawers, need I go on?



I realised that I'd left my phone in the car and when I attempted to go and get it I found out that the front doors were secured with a combination padlock with no sign of how to raise the staff so we were locked in, I dread to think what would happen in a fire!



On returning to our room 2 extremely disturbing things happened. First there was, with no exaggeration whatsoever, a blood curdling scream from another room. I tried to settle my daughter by saying that we must have misheard, it was something else, but she insisted that I check the corridors and it took me a good ten minutes to muster the courage to do so. On returning to our room I noticed an empty prescription bottle, taking a closer look I realised it was a methadone bottle that had been doctored to make some kind of pipe. At this stage I was seriously considering sleeping in the car, I honestly felt like there was only a hairs breadth in the decision of where we would be safer. Remembering we were trapped inside the building I let my daughter sleep - although it took her some hours to settle, and I stayed awake to watch her until it was light. We slept in out clothes in case of intrusion or a chance of getting out.



In the morning we avoided the foul bathroom, I felt I'd rather we went dirty than I subjected my child to the vile shared shower. My key deposit was returned with no trouble but no one asked about our stay and I don't think I would have hung around a second longer than necessary to tell them if they had. The one and only positive I'll give them is that the staff we did meet were very polite to my daughter.