When looking at hotels to stay in, people look for somewhere that's clean, relaxing and a nice break away from home.

It's very easy to find a decent hotel nowadays with websites like Trip Advisor showing the top-rated establishments based on guest reviews.

But as well as this, it's also really simple to find out which places you should avoid.

We looked at some of Essex's worst hotels, and came across The Oasis Hotel in Harlow.

The Oasis Hotel had an average rating of just one and half stars out of five from 91 separate reviews.

Prime complaints were that guests felt unsafe, the rooms were dirty and the general experience was unpleasant.

To find out whether these were fair reviews, we sent reporter Brad Gray to spend the night there and document what he saw.

Booking the room

The story of my stay starts not on the evening of my arrival, but actually about a month earlier.

I'd tried to book a room online with no luck, despite reviews mentioning that bookings were available to be made on websites including Booking.com and others like it.

After giving that up, I rang the hotel directly and asked for a single room for the following week, only to be told that all rooms were fully booked until the end of August.

So instead, on August 14, I decided to go down myself to book a room in person.

I parked up outside the hotel, strode in, and asked for a single room at the reception for September 2.

Yet rather than being greeted with a manager happy to take £50 off me, I was dealt with someone who seemed to be trying to stop me from making a booking.

I was warned that only double rooms were available; I said that was fine.

I was told that I'd have to pay up front; I said that was fine.

I was firmly told that there were no refunds whatsoever; I reluctantly said that it was okay.

The man at reception gave me a form to fill out, which I did, and I promptly paid the price for the room, anxiously wondering what price I'd be paying on the night.

The hotel's reviews

The reviews of the hotel did not fill me with confidence that my stay would be a pleasant one.

Some of the worst ranged from staff rudeness to issues with cleanliness and lumpy mattresses.

Some of Trip Advisor users' thoughts on The Oasis Hotel User: NonStopTraveller (1 star out of five) May 18, 2018 "The bed's mattress was lumpy,with springs pushing through, the sheets were of the lowest quality and felt awful. "I didn't sleep at all and had a massive headache the next day as a result. "Surely the English tourist board has minimum standards that hotels must operate to." User: Londonlad2019 (1 star out of five) March 24, 2018 "Absolutely disgusting, was there 20 minutes and left and booked into the Premier Inn nearby, staff were rude the place is dirty. "When I got to my room the bed was not made, the mattress stained, blood on the pillows and the bed base collapsed." User: Impsmithy (1 star out of five) July 25, 2018 "The whole place is disgusting and full of dirty, disgusting people totally off their heads on drugs and alcohol. "I don’t think this “hotel” has ever been fully cleaned or re-decorated since it was first built! "This place needs to be closed down!" User: Hertfordtalks (1 star out of five) March 2, 2017 "This is a slum barely dressed up as a hotel. "Bed bugs. Vermin. Dirty. My family felt unsafe because of the building and many of the occupants. "Dickens would be horrified."

What's more, a 2013 report found that Basildon Council stopped using the hotel to house homeless people because the rooms weren't up to scratch.

The problem was rectified and it was six years ago, but it still left me feeling slightly anxious.

What was perhaps more worrying was that in August 2018, a man was arrested for barging a door down at the hotel and hitting the man staying in the room in the head with a mug.

Aaron Bissmire was jailed in January this year for 12 months after the assault.

To be on the safe side, I decided to take a friend along to spend the night.

And for what I can only assume was due to an intense morbid curiosity, my friend Jen from university came along for the ride.

Arrival

We arrived at The Oasis Hotel at around 9.15pm, having previously been assured that the hotel's reception ran 24 hours a day.

The Oasis sits on top of an Indian restaurant, with the reception at the front acting as a base for both restaurant and hotel.

No one was visible at the desk, but I heard a man clearly speaking on the phone in another room.

After a minute or so of me standing like a lemon at the desk, he came out and asked what he could do for us.

"Hi, I've got a room booked in the name of Bradley Gray."

He stared back at me as though I'd asked him the most ridiculous question.

"You booked a room? What on that Booking.com?" he asked.

I explained my ordeal of not being able to book online and eventually having to travel in to pay in person, anxious that my room had been lost.

However, he didn't seem bothered about losing the booking, and simply asked whether I wanted a twin or double room.

They clearly weren't as booked up as previously claimed.

After making me fill out another form, and almost making me pay for it again - thank goodness I kept the receipt - we were being shown to our room.

The room was through a twisting passageway of hallways and staircases, past thick doors with reinforced glass which reminded me of going back to school.

After what seemed like five minutes of wandering through a mirror maze at a funfair, we arrived at the room.

Number 37

Room number 37 wasn't actually inside the hotel, and was actually built facing out onto part of the roof.

The room itself was no bigger than four square metres, with a colour pallet that could blind you.

And after given the choice between a double and a twin room, we ended up being greeted with a combo of both.

We were told about the facilities - namely a small TV and a fridge - and how to lock the door "so that no-one can open it from the outside."

I quickly locked the door and began inspecting what would be our home for the next 12 hours.

The bedroom

Of course, the first thing I was going to check was the bed sheets, which after a thorough inspection from the both of us, were deemed bedbug free.

In fact, the wooden floor was also definitely not dirty, and about 200 times less dusty than my old university flat.

The mattress was stain free, and no swear words were scrawled on the walls as pictured in other reviews of the hotel.

The closest the room came to graffiti was a star-of-David scrawled into the bedframe, and the words 'yeh boi' scrawled on the fire safety instructions sign.

I was definitely surprised - I had expected something far, far worse.

Jen was more concerned about getting Celebrity Masterchef on the TV.

The television, as well as the fridge, worked fine.

However, what was interesting is that the remote didn't work - in fact, the batteries has been taped up in what I can only assume was an attempt to stop people from stealing them.

Satisfied with the sleeping and living area, I inspected the bathroom.

The bathroom

Instantly - and despite the valiant effort of the noisiest extractor fan in history - the smell hit you.

It wasn't the expected smell you'd think of when entering a room with a toilet. It instead smelled of damp and sewers.

A closer look found small flies crawling around areas of the bathroom, which to be honest, otherwise wasn't that unclean.

Whilst definitely being the most unpleasant part of the room, it didn't make me afraid to use it.

The strangest addition to the room came beside the toilet.

Without a basin, without a drain below, without even a hose to make a Poundland-esque bidet, stood a tap.

On its own. Sticking out the wall. For no conceivable reason.

And the cherry on the cake was that it worked!

Safety

A clear fear for me was the security of the room.

The door had an electric lock, which after multiple tries from me on the outside, didn't seem to work.

We realised that the lock would only work if the key-card used to get in stayed inside the room's slot on the side of the wall.

It didn't cause us any problems, as were were hunkered down in room as if we were expecting nuclear war to break.

But if you were treat the hotel room as you would normally, leaving the room and entering as you pleased, the looseness of the frame of the door coupled with the unreliability of the electronic lock would leave you feeling as if your possessions could be at risk.

I left the room only briefly to get the Wi-Fi password from reception - because how else was I going to watch Gavin and Stacey? - and remained in the room until checking out the next morning.

The night's sleep

My reaction after a poor night's sleep

I'd love to say I had a great night's sleep, I really would, but the reality is that I slept awfully.

The bedsheets were clearly cheap and so were uncomfortable to lie on.

I only had one pillow, which gave me next-to-no neck support and left me longing for my memory foam one back home.

The bed was firm and creaky, and due to the non-working air conditioner and me not from opening the window because of security fears, the room was unbearably hot.

To add to this, every time a guest walked past the room door, an sensor lit up a light which beamed through the thin curtains.

And if that wasn't enough, several guests decided to have a screaming match a few doors down, which involved loud swearing and door slamming.

It wasn't a brilliant place to rest my head.

I fell asleep at around 3am, and thanks to the room next door blasting a play-list of club bangers Kiss FM would be proud of at about 8am, I really didn't enjoy my night.

My overall view

Would I say this was the worst hotel in Essex?

Not at all.

It clearly had its problems and had gathered up a reputation over the years which I'm sure hadn't helped its Trip Advisor rating.

(Image: Trip Advisor)

I was also aware that I entered the experience with expectations as low as they could possibly be.

Had I arrived without knowing anything about it, I would have definitely complained to reception.

The reality is that this hotel is not targeted for your average guest, which would explain the confusion of me booking a room.

It seems a lot of the guests at The Oasis Hotel were those placed on emergency accommodation and those housed after leaving prison.

But to be honest, my stay wasn't as traumatic as I thought it would be, although it did help that I had a friend for moral support and a steady supply of BBC iPlayer.

Checking out

We left the room at around 9am, handing in our card at the reception and being waved goodbye.

It's worth mentioning that barring the initial confusion over my booking, every single staff member I encountered were brilliantly kind and incredibly helpful.

They also supplied us with fresh, clean towels, as well a cluttered but plentiful tea and coffee collection.

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My car was still there outside the front of the hotel, despite my anxious worrying, and we drove away.

The worst hotel in Essex? Not in my book.