Review of James Hotel & Apartments 3*

Disappointed! Unfortunatley not a great experience I will explain the reasons why. The original reason for my stay was due to eye surgery I had booked in the city. My friend and I were going to be staying from 21st Nov till 27th Nov and decided to spend a little more and splash out on really nice comfortable accommodation. Check in was not till 2pm and we had arrived early which was fine as the receptionist was friendly and stored our luggage until we returned for check in. Once we had checked in we were happy with our accommodation as it was just as it had been listed on the website. On the second evening we noticed a foul smell coming through the drains in the bathroom. We notified reception and were advised that there was nothing that could be done that evening as housekeeping would return until morning but it would be addressed then So we accepted this as reasonable. The next morning we went out for the day and on return later that day the smell was worse! I once again contacted reception and was told that they would have it sorted in the morning by house keeping. So we got up, went out and on return the place was really smelling and you could even smell it in the stairs to the apartments! I met the housekeeper on the stairwell on his rounds and asked him to have a look in our bathroom & he agreed that the smell was strong and informed me that he had never been told that there was an issue! He made an attempt at clearing the drain but said an expert was required and he would have this arranged for the morning. We advised him of our discomfort and that we would like to move rooms as we did not want to become ill! We were then told that there were no other rooms available. I asked if I could speak with the boss but was told he was not around. We checked on the website and discovered there were still a few rooms available and brought this to the attention of the house keeping staff I had been speaking to. He then agreed to move us overnight but needed the room back by 10am for another booking but assured me that the expert would be in around 7am to sort the drains in our room. So we moved rooms that night and returned to our original apartment in the morning. I was asked by someone at reception if I was going back to my apartment who turned out to be the owner! We opened the door to find nothing had been done as yet and saw the owner in the stair behind us. I turned and simply asked him at what time would the expert be coming and was abruptly told " today! " "Just relax! " I was perfectly relaxed and calm and simply asking a question but decided to just leave it as I thought he seems very annoyed! We dropped our luggage off in our appartment once again then went out for the day. On our return we were met by the owner telling me that there was a much bigger problem with the drains and therefore they would not be fixed and that we would be moved apartments. So I chatted with him and he agreed that we should be compensated for our inconvenience. He moved us to the apartment below which was the same as we had booked but also had a smell from the drains but not nearly as bad as our original apartment. The owner then appeared with an offer of a 10% refund and when I suggested a 20% rebate he rejected this saying it was not his fault but an issue out in the street. Eventually & reluctantly he gave us a 15% refund but sadly no appology ever came. Whilst we believe and understand that perhaps the drainage issue was "not his fault" it certainly was not ours either! So in short, lovely apartments in a beautiful city, though please be warned as if you are unfortunate enough to have any issues with your stay the the owner is an arrogant, ignorant fool that lets the whole place down! Such a shame Tim.