A woman said a “horror” stay at a Liverpool hotel left her mum “crying at the side of the road” the night before her wedding. Megan Dobson, 21, from Leigh, had booked into the Crowne Plaza Liverpool John Lennon Airport in Speke with her family ahead of her mum Emma’s wedding.
But Megan said what was meant to be a special family celebration quickly turned into a “traumatic” ordeal after they arrived at the hotel. The bridal party had planned to stay for two nights before the ceremony at Liverpool Cricket Club in Aigburth, but Megan claimed they encountered extensive water damage, mould, peeling paint and exposed ceilings on arrival.
Megan, who is 21 weeks pregnant, told the ECHO: “It was traumatic from start to finish. We walked in and the whole hotel smelled of damp and mould. The floors were soaking wet everywhere and there were industrial drying fans throughout the corridors.
“It was like something out of a horror film – it was disgusting.”
The 21-year-old said she and her partner paid more than £300 for two nights at the hotel, while her mum and partner Keith spent almost £600 on a double suite with a vintage aircraft view.
Megan said there were industrial drying fans throughout the hotel(Image: Submitted)
However, Megan claimed the room had been changed without warning before check-in.
She said: “When my mum got to reception, nobody explained the room had been changed. She was left to find out herself.
“The substitute room was nothing like what she’d booked. The paint was peeling from the ceiling, the roof was physically wet and there was visible water damage everywhere. Instead of the aircraft view they had a view of a brick wall and Cineworld.”
Megan claimed there was no working air conditioning, heating or electrics in their room and said the smell inside the hotel was “unbearable”.
She said: “I’m pregnant, I’m in a room that stinks of mould and damp. I’ve got no electric in my room, and the bathroom was absolutely disgusting. The state of the hotel for what we paid was just ridiculous. We’d have rather slept on the streets, it was so bad.
“The staff told us it was a hotel-wide issue and that other guests were complaining too.
Peeling paint on the ceiling of the hotel room(Image: Submitted)
“We were told the carpets were wet because they’d been cleaned, but there’s no way cleaned carpets smell like that. It smelled like somebody had died in there.”
Megan also claimed there were hairs in the bath and claimed the blinds in the room did not work so they “couldn’t even see out of the window.”
The family said they spent around two hours at reception attempting to secure refunds and alternative accommodation. Megan claimed she and her partner eventually received a refund, while her mum’s refund was processed on Monday (May 18).
She said: “The guy on the desk… shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘well, I can give you some points on the app.’ All the points got you was a hire car, which we obviously didn’t need because we were going to a wedding.”
Megan claimed staff ended up offering her mum the original room she had booked “as a gesture of goodwill”, but by this time, the family just wanted a refund.
Megan said: “We spoke to somebody else on the desk who said he would have to raise it with his general manager to decide whether we could have a refund or not because he couldn’t authorise them.
Megan said there were exposed ceilings throughout the hotel(Image: Submitted)
“So he gave us our refunds, but not my mum. He said the general manager had gone on annual leave 10 minutes ago. That was a coincidence because he’d just dealt with us – you cant just deal with one and then ignore the rest.
“My mum was absolutely fuming. I’ve never seen her like it in my life.
“She ended up sat at the side of the road crying because of the stress of battling for two hours with the staff for refunds.
“They’d just spent over £7,000 on the wedding and nearly £600 on the hotel room. They couldn’t afford to throw money away like that.”
She said another family member paid for Emma and her son Josh to stay at a nearby Premier Inn because much of the family’s money had already gone towards the wedding.
Megan Dobson described the experience at Crowne Plaza John Lennon Hotel as ‘traumatic'(Image: Submitted)
Megan said the ordeal overshadowed the wedding day itself. She said: “We were up until 2am steaming dresses, ironing shirts and trying to sort everything out after moving hotels.
“The wedding was supposed to start at 4pm and my mum didn’t get there until 4.15pm. I know that’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things but on your wedding day it’s a big deal.
“We just would have appreciated some sort of warning.”
A spokesperson for Crowne Plaza Liverpool John Lennon Airport said: “We took steps at the time to support the guests impacted, including offering alternative room options and providing full refunds where appropriate.”