Barking Hotel

"I would never recommend this place to anyone after the way my family and I were treated. After a stressful time sorting out things with the council and housing, we stayed at this property temporarily. Shockingly, one of the staff members behaved incredibly rudely towards us.\n\nThe man with glasses and a beard was extremely rude and disrespectful. While we were sitting in the reception area eating, he repeatedly sprayed air freshener directly toward us which felt not only disrespectful but completely unnecessary. He even went as far as to insult our faith, telling us that God was not good to us and had not answered our prayers. This was extremely hurtful and completely uncalled for.\n\nAdditionally, I had spoken with the owner about leaving a few items in the fridge to avoid them leaking while I stepped out to handle urgent housing matters. Despite this arrangement, the same staff member instructed the cleaners to throw my things away while I was still there! He could have simply spoken to me directly instead of treating us with such disrespect.\n\nIt’s a shame because most of the team were lovely, but this one individual treated us with so much disrespect during a difficult time. I hope management addresses this, because no one deserves to be treated the way we were."

"Placed here by the council for emergency accomdation due to homelessness, service here is -0 . The staff have no manners and are very unprofessional and disrespectful. Rooms are dirty and stains on sheets . Was sleeping to be woken up by bed bugs. Spoke to staff didn’t really care . Place needs to be shut down and staff need to learn manners and some customer service skills"

"It has taken me a one year and some months plus to finally review this hotel.\n\nI was in my very late stage of pregnancy when i stayed here. It has taken me some time to write this, been very busy with housing and raising my little one. I didn't have a home as this is why I was placed here before being put in a place of my own after my hospital stay (temporary council stay). During my 1 week or under stay here, there was a couple unpleasantries I experienced. At the beginning, the very very small single room they gave wasn't ideal for a mega 9 month pregnant woman, hard to move around and open the door that met close to the end of the single bed to exit and return. This was an issue as pregnant women need space at the late stage and I had to leave often. The loo was small as well and a shared one in the hallway, which I also could not move around in without grazing the door and other surfaces. yuck. It was tedious to lock and unlock your door too many times a night going back and forth and hardwork to put pants on to go to the loo each time, return, undress whilst being that big. In that stage you need the loo often! Hence my much leaving and returning. And before you think why put myself through taking my pants off and on if it is difficult why don't I just keep it on? I didn't have much, the pants I wore were joggers and sleeping with them was a no as it would tighten under the big bump and I was uncomfortable, carrying a heavy load, ready to pop already. You couldn't sleep in them in that condition as a woman. They moved me to a bigger more comfortable room with its own shower and toilet after a few days which was considerate of them understanding my situation. The main reason for this review was to make it known that my first night of stay there in that small room I incurred giant red, mega, itchy and irritating hives on my arm, and a couple more around my belly. I was very upset about this, it caused much discomfort due to the irritation and I felt a way about these large weird shaped hives on my bump. The minor itches just grew and grew into multiple spread out itches across my abdomen and arm. Can't have sprung out on my skin so quickly all of a sudden.. I checked out the bedding to see if it was perhaps used and caused a reaction on my skin due to that. After a minute of searching.. there were BEDBUGS! There they were, chewing on my wonderful bump.. I discovered three on the white sheets. Nasty little things. I couldn't believe they were on my body or how they could have gotten there, there were none in the bigger room they moved me to later on. The difference between the bedding of this room and the next they provided me were that there were only bedbugs in one. Which led me to wonder, were the sheets being changed after the leave of each customer? What else could it be? My theory after doing some research as to how they come about was that someone brought it in through carrying it with their invested belongings or garments they wore and left some behind, naturally. After they left the sheets were just neatened out for the next guest's stay as they looked clean, fresh and unused to them maybe. Some hotels lack in these regards. Even big named hotels lack changing sheets. A UV forensic inspection torch unveils unclean sheets that prove have not been changed. What also added to my suspicions was after I immediately rang the desk people about the issue, one of the owners came as quickly as he could, awkwardly smiled through the whole gentle and friendly apology as he speedily grabbed the pillows and sheets, curled it up against himself to remove it from the room and then have someone bring newer ones up for me. He muttered something I cannot remember accurately anymore but was something like, very sorry about this, this isn't normal, or usual, you know it is very bad for the stayers or business, he spoke to me in a very "sorry this happened, I am horrified you discovered this and please do not let anyone know about this. Horrific experience. Wasn't the cleanest hotel either. This hotel should be shutdown."