Review of Crompton Guest House 4*

I booked a room for two nights, for two adults and two kids. As soon as I pressed sent, I realized the dates were incorrect and called the hotel to confirm it was not for the evenings of 28 and 29 but instead for 29th and 30th, where I was told it was ok (this can be confirmed with telephone records). The credit card used was refused so the reservation was cancelled anyway and a mail was sent to me to tell me this. I phoned the hotel in the morning of the 29th to confirm all was still ok with still turning up that day for me and my family. I was informed it was and there would be no issue for us. When I arrived, myself, my wife and two children turned at the reception. As the four of us stood there, the guy (named Alaska), asked for payment of 160 GBP which was given, although we only had 150 GBP on us at the time (we were prepared to pay 180 euros, the price we booked for, NOT POUNDS). I counted this out, and he took it and placed it in a draw. As soon as I paid, his very next words were, “tell me, where are your kids staying because this room’s only for two! ” To say I was confused is a little of an understatement, and my wife and I look at each other in disbelief! I said, excuse me, we booked for two kids and two adults and showed him the booking. He said we had not mentioned kids. The big issue here is that he could have said when we had arrived, ‘do you realize this room’s only for two and you will need to rebook a larger room, ” and we would have understood and paid extra, but the fact was, he waited until we passed the money before saying we needed another room. Not a larger one, another one! I said to him, “ oh, you waited until we passed that money over before bringing this up, that’s a con! ” We asked for the money back (our actual reservation was already cancelled although originally, we were still hoping to use that reservation). He refused to budge and an argument took place where I said I would take my money back, after which he gave us a larger room. We went out for the day and on returning, an argument started again and with agreement from both sides, the police were called (from his point that I was using threatening behavior, and from my point that they were being unreasonable and I wanted my money returned). The owner refused our funds to be returned even though the police agreed that was the correct result, and even refused a receipt. Although there is no receipt, the policewoman has a video of me counting out the money and handing it over and they say they will agree to show this. The police were totally on our side and said they were being totally unreasonable. I will say that if they had said there was a problem before we made any payment, then we would have paid any extra for the correct room but these people conned us into paying before telling us in the hope to con us into paying for two rooms rather than an upgrade. We are reasonable people who understands the need for businesses to make a profit, but to con your way to that conclusion is an absolute outrage. Also, these people lied in their statement to the police in how they suggested I acted, but I feel that the police understood the real situation and even suggested that the owners were not the best of people to be dealing with. We were offered to stay one night, after the police intervention but we decided it was just not worth the stress and we asked to be escorted out, to ensure the owner opened the gate for us. I will add that the photos used in the advert are no way in relation to this dirty place with cigarette burns on every surface, including around 6 in the sink alone, although that had no real sway in our decisions. A terrible, terrible hotel, with terrible owners, in a filthy location.